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How to Apply Video to Your Viral Content Marketing Strategy

Being “viral” has never felt so good. The hottest trends in social video are changing – are you up for the challenge? With all the tips surrounding video marketing, take your online message one step further by going for viral video sharing.

Positioning

The thing about viral videos is that they are everywhere. YouTube, there are many other video platforms. Vine, Vimeo, Google+ Hangouts and Instagram all are great places to share video, and optimize your social video reach by setting yourself up for viral success.

Though not all content is created equally, most viral content has a lot in common. It’s often well-researched, catchy, professional and above all, positive. Social video definitely has a set of its own rules to consider, but these can be easily laid down over the basics of viral content.

Interest

In digital marketing, video content is only becoming more important. An increasing amount of people are tuning into video content through apps, platforms and devices, and they want to share videos that they enjoy with friends and family. Due to the huge influx of available videos that bombard the average user, individuals know what they want, and they have the option to move on after mere seconds if you don’t capture their attention.

In order to do so, make sure your video content is available on the most popular platforms. How will people see it if they don’t know where it is? You should already have a presence on popular video platforms like Vimeo and YouTube where you can host your own stream of videos, increasing your brand name and making your content easy to find. 

Engagement

Once you’ve captured your audience’s initial interest, it’s important to keep them engaged. Pique interest with content that starts off with a hook and a bang. Follow through by making your content not only a good experience for an individual viewer, but one that they are so excited about that they want to share it with others. 

To give your video the greatest chance of hitting viral status, your content needs to make your audience feel something. Have you ever had to apologize to someone as a child only to be forced to do so again because you didn’t “say it like you meant it”? In order for content to hit home and go viral, you need to spread a positive message.

According to the infographic below, the most popular emotion typical of viral content is awe – 25% of web users tend to share videos and stories that have a human interest element. Indeed, heartwarming stories are the easiest to share, as empathy and compassion are very strong human emotions that translate well on video.

The second most popular way to reach out to people and go viral is to tickle their funny bone. The only thing that’s the same in every language is a smile. If the popularity of cat videos is any indication, it’s a safe bet that making them laugh may make your message go around the world.

 Sharing

Your viewer now has the warm and fuzzies (aww!) or they’re laughing uncontrollably. Perfect. Now all they have to do is want to share that feeling with other people.

When your audience members hit the share button, your reach is automatically multiplied. With a single post on one person’s Facebook page, your video has the potential to reach hundreds of people, some of whom may choose to share as well.

Megan Marie Ritter is a business journalist and online entrepreneur living in beautiful Los Angeles. In addition to sharing her research on social media marketing, her writing also covers business communications and technology, globalization, and B2B. You can find more of her writing by checking out her website.