This is the digital age. There is so much data to take in that it’s impossible for anybody to see it all. As a bystander sitting on your computer, scrolling through your phone, or simply walking down the street, you’re inundated with anywhere between 3,000 and 5,000 advertisements a day! That’s a stark contrast compared to the 500-2,000 advertisements that the average individual who lived in a city was exposed to in the 70’s. The trend is only expected to rise as time passes and technology grows beyond what we can even comprehend.
Technology is a beautiful thing. Despite the obvious distractions, when used right, it’s one of the greatest tools you will ever have. If you’re the person who has effortlessly, or even with great travail, made the transition into the digital age, you see how much of an asset technology can be. There are very few left who operate without the modern technology that younger generations are accustomed to having. Technology is a way of being present today. To succeed in business, one can’t be found without it.
One tool within the technology bracket that can be used with great success is a blog. But remember how we talked about the average person getting inundated by 3,000-5,000 ads every day? If you’re going to blog, you have to know how to make yourself standout. You see viral videos on the daily…but viral blogs? How do you get a blog to go viral? Set yourself up for success from the beginning.
Before you go viral, you need to be able to handle the outcome; but once you feel like you’re ready for the storm, here are some ways you can give yourself a better chance of going viral:
Curiosity Caught the Cat
If you know cats, you know that they are hard to please and everything in life is very much on their terms. Think of your audience in the same way. When there is so much to take in, you have to create a blog that is going to intrigue your cat-like audience. Curiosity is the stuff that viral dreams are made of and it begins with a headline. The papers have known this for years. Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Your headline has to evoke a sense of urgency for the viewer to want to read. So step number one: If you were browsing the internet, would you click your own headline?
Appeal to Human’s Carnal Nature to Help
It’s true that some people are terrible and have not one bone in their body that wants to help others; but for the majority of the world, they like to feel that they can help somebody in some way. If you want your blog to go viral, you have to appeal to the desire to be a savior. People like to think that they’re a god, so if you write your blog and you make the reader feel like they’re justifying, and therefore helping themselves in what they’re reading, they’ll be apt to repost your blog.
If the reader feels that what you’ve written will be helpful to somebody they know, they’ll also pass along your wise words. The secret is to touch on matters that stir an emotional reaction and make the reader feel like something is being accomplished.
Sometimes the motive is selfish, and other times it’s not. In the end, you have to be a master of manipulation. A viral blog is a blog that subtly pushes a reader to action and makes them think you’re on their side.