Want your social media to go viral? A viral content strategy is the answer to creating shareable content. In this post you’ll learn how to find your audience, write engaging posts and time your content to get maximum reach and engagement. We’ll also look at how to use visual content, user generated content and influencer collaborations to get your brand seen and heard. By following these tips you can boost your social media and get sustained virality.
What is Viral Content?
Viral content is online content that gets shared on social media. This can lead to increased visibility and audience engagement and is a big boost for a brand. But what makes content go viral? At its core, viral content is original ideas that deliver the unexpected and resonate with the audience.
Viral marketing is about getting people to share a marketing message and get it out to the masses. With the rise of social media the potential for a message to go viral is huge. Emotional connections and simplicity in sharing can make content spread like wildfire across the internet.
A good viral content marketing strategy is a message and the right environment to share. When done well, creating viral content can get you brand awareness, audience growth and ultimately sales.
Components of a Viral Content Strategy
Creating viral content is not just about luck, it's a planned strategy to create viral content.
The key components of a viral content marketing strategy are knowing your audience, writing engaging and shareable content and mastering the timing and frequency of your posts.
Focusing on these components—audience insights, content quality, and optimal timing—will position your content for virality and help you achieve your marketing goals.
Remember, viral content isn't about random success but rather about building a strategy that aligns with your brand and audience needs!
Knowing Your Audience
Knowing your audience is key to creating content that resonates and solves their problems. Age, location and interests all play a part in defining your audience.
Analyzing viral content from competitors will give you insight into what resonates with your audience. Getting feedback from your audience will help you identify recurring complaints and areas to improve and make sure your content is relevant and impactful.
Content formats such as images, videos and text need to match your audience interests. User generated content (UGC) will also give you insight into your audience’s preferences.
Knowing your audience’s values and interests will help you create content that gets brand awareness and builds relationships with potential customers.
To deepen your understanding of audience targeting, explore our related article: How to Reach Your Target Audience on Social Media.
Writing Engaging and Shareable Content
Writing content that resonates with your audience is key to making it shareable. Motivational content such as quotes and videos will inspire people and get them to share your posts. Relatable content will build trust and connection and get your audience to engage and share your content.
Having a unique writing voice is your brand and resonates with your audience. Interactive content such as quizzes and ‘This or That’ polls will engage users and get them to share. High quality posts that speak to your audience’s preferences and emotions will get shared. Adding eye catching visuals and humor to listicles will make them more shareable.
A clear call to action in your social media posts will get more engagement.
Offering different types of content will attract more people with different preferences and increase the chances of your content going viral.
Timing and Frequency
Timing is everything when posting on social media to get maximum reach. Posting at the right time will get your content viral. To keep engagement you should post once or twice a day on Instagram and once on LinkedIn. Regular posting will get you visibility in timelines and content sharing.
Analyzing your audience data will help you optimize your posting times and find the best platforms to reach your audience. Monitoring your analytics will help creators know when to post on social media and get their content timely to trending topics.
Social Media Platforms for Virality
Social media is a powerful way to get viral reach by building strong customer relationships and getting conversations on social media channels. But social media marketing strategies differ on each platform as each has its own features to maximize engagement and reach.
Let’s dive into specific strategies for Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok and YouTube to get your viral content marketing strategy.
Facebook and Instagram Strategies
Real posts that encourage user interaction will perform better on Facebook. Same applies to Instagram.
Memes are very effective as they connect with the audience by engaging with the brand and showing its personality. Characteristics of memes for viral content are funny, relevant, easy to share, creative fonts and striking images.
Using specific and relevant hashtags on Facebook will get more engagement especially on interest based groups. Analytics tools on these platforms will help you understand content performance and audience engagement and guide your future content strategy.
X and LinkedIn Strategies
For X, keep it concise as users scroll through their feeds quickly. Using trending topics and hashtags will get your tweets more visibility and relevance.
On LinkedIn, keep it professional and add value to your audience. A networking and industry insights strategy will get you more engagement on this platform.
TikTok and YouTube Strategies
On TikTok, grabbing attention immediately is key for videos to work. Posts with 3-5 hashtags will get more reach especially when including trending topics.
YouTube favors videos based on likes, comments and shares, longer viewer retention is very important. Creating engaging content that encourages interaction will get your video viral.
Ready to take your social media strategy to the next level? Explore real-world viral marketing strategies and examples by visiting our blog at UpViral's Viral Marketing Examples for more inspiration and proven tactics!
Visual Content is Power
Visual content is processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than text, so it’s a must to capture attention. Content with visuals gets 94% more views than text only content, that’s how powerful visuals are. Posts with images on social media get 150% more engagement, that’s why you should include visuals in your marketing strategy.
Images or short-form videos are very effective in getting views. Infographics can increase website traffic by 12% by presenting complex data in a visually appealing way. Videos can get an 85% increase in purchase likelihood, that’s how powerful it is in driving consumer decisions.
Interactive visuals will get you more engagement as it encourages user interaction and exploration. High quality visuals will boost brand perception and credibility and will greatly affect customer trust. Including compelling visuals in your content will make a big difference on how your brand is perceived.
Visuals such as infographics, videos and eye-catching images can simplify complex information, make it more accessible and engaging to your audience. And visuals can evoke emotions and create a lasting impression which is important for building a strong brand identity.
For example, during the launch of their new product line in 2023, Apple utilized high-quality visuals extensively. Their campaign included sleek product images and short-form videos across social media platforms, leading to a dramatic increase in views and engagement. The visual content not only captured attention but also showcased the products’ features effectively, driving a 150% increase in engagement compared to text-only posts.
User-Generated Content (UGC)
Using UGC will increase authenticity and conversion rates by 4.5%, that’s how valuable relatable visuals are. UGC is effective in marketing because it’s real and connects more with people than brand promotions. Peer reviewed content adds to the credibility of UGC so it’s more believable to consumers.
Authenticity is key to engaging consumers as they want real connections and prefer genuine brands. UGC can engage viewers by inspiring or entertaining them in an authentic way. Brands can maximize the impact of UGC by engaging with creators and running contests or giveaways.
Content created by users like reviews, images and videos resonates more with the audience than traditional branding efforts so it engages better. Brands can incentivize users to create content which encourages participation in their community. Showing imperfections in UGC makes it easier for people to relate to the content and get deeper connection.
To explore how UGC can transform your marketing efforts, read this case study: UpViral’s UGC Case Study. In this case study, you will learn how PM3 boosted its campaign by encouraging participants to refer friends and colleagues, plus a LinkedIn giveaway, where users shared their course completion certificates with a specific hashtag. This generated over 500 user-generated posts, which helped promote PM3 and increase its campaign virality.
Stay Relevant with Trends and Hashtags
Hashtags will connect you to popular topics and expand your reach, so your posts will appear in more search results. Using hashtags will increase content reach and visibility. Tools like RiteTag can help you find trending hashtags so your content will stay relevant.
Stay up to date with industry trends so the hashtags you use are timely and effective. Using hashtags that attract your target audience will boost your social media campaigns. Factors such as relevance, trends, social listening, giveaways and contests help content spread organically.
Engaging with trending topics and participating in viral challenges will also increase your content’s visibility. By aligning your posts with current events or popular culture moments you tap into broader conversations and make your content more discoverable.
Collaborating with influencers or brands that are part of trending discussions will amplify your reach even more. And regularly reviewing and updating your hashtag strategy based on performance analytics will keep you ahead of the curve, stay relevant and maximize engagement. This proactive approach will help you adapt to the ever changing social media landscape and keep your content fresh and appealing to your audience.
Example: A recent campaign by Nike effectively demonstrated this strategy. During the 2023 World Cup, Nike used hashtags related to the tournament, such as #WorldCup and #NikeFootball, to tap into the global conversation surrounding the event. This not only increased their content’s visibility but also engaged football fans worldwide.
Measure and Optimize
To measure and optimize your viral campaigns, track engagement metrics like likes, comments, and conversions to understand how well your audience connects with your content. Ensure that your KPIs align with your campaign goals to accurately measure success. Analyzing metrics and segmenting data provides deeper insights into what drives performance across different audience segments.
Continuous measurement and iteration are crucial for campaign optimization.
Reviewing how people interact with your posts will reveal what works and what doesn’t, helping you refine your approach. Setting SMART goals keeps your campaign focused and aligned with business objectives, while data analytics can further track influencer performance and improve campaign results.
Engaging with your audience is essential for building a loyal community. Promptly responding to comments and messages shows your audience that you value their input. Hosting live sessions, Q&As, and interactive polls can further engage your followers, making them feel involved in your brand’s journey.
Running contests or hashtag campaigns encourages user-generated content, while sharing personal stories and behind-the-scenes content humanizes your brand. Consistent, genuine interaction builds a stronger community, increasing both short-term engagement and long-term brand loyalty.
Collaborating with Influencers
Influencer collaboration will increase engagement and reach if they align with your brand. Increased engagement and reach is a big benefit of working with influencers as they can actively drive interactions with their audience. Influencers can make your brand visible by using their established trust with their followers to promote your products.
Choosing influencers that align with your brand will increase the chances of a successful partnership. Micro-influencers can get higher engagement rates despite having smaller follower count, they are valuable partners.
Content created with influencers feels more authentic and relatable to the audience. Setting clear objectives and expectations from the start will lead to more successful influencer collaborations.
For instance, Lesna's clear communication and strategic use of UpViral tools led to a highly successful campaign, showcasing how well-defined influencer collaborations can achieve substantial results.
Repurpose Content Across Platforms
Repurposing content will give you a wider reach by sharing existing content in different formats. This will generate more content without the stress of coming up with new ideas. Repurposing will also help with search engine optimization by targeting the same keywords in multiple formats.
Make sure the repurposed content is relevant and updated so you won’t be sharing old information. Repackaging content should be integrated in the initial content creation phase for efficiency.
When repurposing content for different platforms make sure it’s more engaging and has potential based on previous performance. Tailor the content to the unique features and audience of each platform.
For example, use visually appealing images and short videos for Instagram, professional and in-depth posts for LinkedIn. Incorporate platform specific trends like TikTok challenges or Twitter hashtags to increase engagement. Also consider the best time to post on each platform to maximize reach. Repurposing content creatively will save you time and resources while maintaining consistency across your brand’s online presence.
Final Advice for Crafting a Winning Viral Content Strategy
To craft a winning viral content strategy, focus on understanding your audience, creating engaging and shareable content, and mastering the timing and frequency of your posts. Incorporate visually compelling elements, leverage user-generated content, and stay relevant by following trends and using targeted hashtags. Collaborating with influencers and repurposing content across different platforms can expand your reach and keep your brand visible.
Remember, the key to sustained virality lies in consistent testing, measuring performance, and refining your approach based on what works best for your audience. With these strategies, you'll be well on your way to achieving viral success!
For more success stories to get you inspired, check out UpViral's Case Studies. You can also start your trial here.
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