BUSINESS

Big exposure that doesn’t cost a penny: How to ‘go viral’.

Learn the tricks of the trade for getting your content to go viral on social media.

Going viral is the holy grail of marketing. What we mean by ‘viral’ content is that you create something on social media which gets the attention of the public, people then share it to their network and, in turn, those people do too. Before you know it, and in the same way bacteria multiply in a dish, hundreds of thousands to millions of people have seen your content and it hasn’t cost you anything!

Viral content creates success Many successful businesses and careers have been created off the back of one piece of viral content. Yes, one! If you look at your Facebook or Linkedin feed you may notice the same few people cropping up time and time again. From modern marketing gurus such as Gary Vaynerchuk, Stephen Bartlett and Neil Patel to Internet celebrities like Logan Paul, The Smithy Family and The Bald Builders, they were all catapulted to success by viral content. In today’s connected world, all it takes is for a single, popular piece of content to create notoriety for you or your brand and the rest can be built from there.

What makes content go viral? Any old content does not simply go viral – it takes a perfect storm of factors for this to happen. Of these factors, you can control only one and that is the content itself. The rest is down to influence. You need to pitch it the right way then what happens next is almost entirely out of your hands, down to the public’s response and the platforms’ algorithms (e.g. Facebook).

Just like a fire, in order to achieve an inferno of attention you need fuel, a spark and a catalyst. The spark is your content, the fuel is the platform (e.g. Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, TikTok) and the catalyst is the public response.

The most critical part here, as you can probably gather, is what content you create and then where and how you pitch it to get traction.

How does some (rubbish) content go viral and other (great) content not? If you are even vaguely familiar with content on social media you will have noticed that not everything of brilliance goes viral and not everything viral is brilliant. Far from it, in fact. More often than not, the content that gets the most impressions/reach (people seeing it) and interactions, is pretty dull. You will have seen a basic quiz or personal questions that rack up hundreds of thousands of comments, shares and likes or someone’s random cat video… but why is this? Well, it all comes down to engagement. Whatever the platform, they all work fundamentally the same way. People create and post content, some of the people in their immediate network see that, the more people interact with it, the more other people then see it. This works on two levels; first, if you have say 1,000 followers and post something most of them are not actually going to see it. This varies from platform to platform but 100% of your followers will never be exposed to 100% of your content and this is intentional. If you create good content that people interact with then more of your immediate network will see it, simple as that. And ‘good’ does not mean the content is good, just that people seem to respond well to it, whatever it is, it has their interest. Second, the more your immediate network interacts with your content by liking it, commenting, sharing, tagging their friends or hash-tagging groups, the more people outside of your network, who you do not know, will see it. Then if they do the same, their connections do and you end up with an exponential growth in exposure all the way through the six degrees of separation. Where this really can also take off is, on some platforms like Linkedin, this “trending” content is then shown to selected people that the algorithm believes may also like to see it. These are people you have no connection with whatsoever. You can see the fundamentals of how it works; everyone else is doing the work for you and it works in a similar way to spreading a rumour.

How are you going to create that spark that gets the public behind you? There are actually some fairly simple base mechanics to creating content that is primed to go viral. If we keep in mind that the goal is public interaction then we want to create something which the public wants to interact with, whether they know you or not. We can do that one of two ways: 1) Create content that asks them to interact in some way or 2) Create content that they feel compelled to express an opinion on. Believe it or not, there does not have to be any reward mechanism at all. You do not need to give away something for free (though that can be hugely effective) you simply need to get a response.

The most effective way to do this is by creating something that is both visual and emotive.

By visual, I mean it should be noticed, be clear and draw people to it. Whether this is a giant personal question in text format or a cute kitten, it works the same way.

By emotive, I mean your content should resonate with people in some way emotionally. It can be silly or it can be serious, it can be happy or it can be sad, it can evoke anger or it can bring laughter. Positive content (eg. good news stories) will always outperform negative content (e.g. criticism of bad traits in business) so you are better concentrating on emotions that provide a human serotonin or joyful response. This said, both can work well but be careful with the negative stuff and steer well clear of anything deeply sensitive or political, as you do not want to polarise your audience. You then want to make sure you post it on all your social channels and use appropriate hashtags to push it into groups you think are most likely to respond to it.

Get creative. Think outside the box.

How will I know if my content is going viral? There is a fairly simple rule of thumb that we look for to have a good idea if a piece of content is going to go viral. When you post it, you want to keep a watch of the number of impressions/views primarily, and also the number of likes, reactions and comments. If these numbers are roughly doubling in a 24hr period, two days in a row, then they could well be on track to go viral. You will know it’s ‘gone viral’ once you start getting into the thousands.

If you want to see a current example of a viral piece of content in action, go to the following link. I shared a personal story about our newborn son on Linkedin and, at time of writing on 19th January, it had approaching 400,000 views and 7,300 comments: bit.ly/3rwF4n1. I hasten to add, this was not shared with the intention of self-promotion, it just happens that a 6-week old baby is now more famous on Linkedin than the 44year old man who created him.

Follow TFA’s Linkedin page here to see the exciting viral content campaign we have coming up: bit.ly/3AkSCGf

If you need help with your business marketing, feel free to get in touch with me at TFA: darren.isaac@t-f-a.co.uk 01908 263650 www.t-f-a.co.uk

For the lovers...

It’s time to snuggle up and bring the romance with Valentine’s Day just around the corner. Here’s some of the beauty products that we heart the most this month...

The bigger the bath bomb, the bigger the bath art – and the Big Aubergine is a 9” version of Lush’s cult classic. Nothing more to say...

RRP: £10

The Lush Sweet Temptation gift is a fresh orange hit, pairing a Valentine’s Day 2022 exclusive shower gel with the orange body scrub which is available all year round.

RRP: £15 Show the Lush lover in your life that they are your No1 with a seasonal bath bomb – and Mr Loba Loba bath bomb is the perfect way to do it. The lobster will swim into the bath and release his sodium alginate, which is perfect for hydrating while they soak. Mr Loba Loba also features biodegradable red hearts and is an aromatic treat; scented with sweet benzoin and tonka. You might say it’s boombastic, romantic and fantastic!

RRP: £3.50

Send them Lots of Love with a collection of five products from Lush’s all year round selection, and two products from the Valentine’s Day range. And we love the environmental message too; the present is wrapped in paper made from t-shirt offcuts.

RRP: £45

Roses are red, but so too is the Lush Strawberry Heart Shower Jelly, and it smells divine! Wobble the anatomically correct heart-shaped goodness over you and lather up for a scentsational time under the water!

RRP: £5

Pucker up with Sisley’s first refillable lipstick, Phyto Rouge Shine, which offers a sheer and glossy flush of colour whilst providing nourishing and moisturising benefits to care for your lips just like a balm. Sustainable and sensational, Sisley has delivered again with 12 shades to match any mood.

RRP: £39 Get it: H Beauty at centre:mk or at sisley-paris.com

Looking for a little loving care for hair? Nutriplenish moisture treatment masques from AVEDA deliver an advanced hydration system for all hair types and textures, giving highperformance, nutrient-powered hydration for 72 hours. The range also includes shampoos, conditioners and hair oil.

Get it: All Lush products are available at the stores in centre:mk and at the Grosvenor Centre in Northampton

Mindful Extracts have a CBD bath bomb gift set bringing together a trio of products to help still the mind and calm the body.This ‘holy trinity’ of bath bombs comprises one bergamot and lemon for positivity, one lavender to promote sleep, and one eucalyptus and peppermint to ease aches. Run your bath, step in...and relax. And for every set sold, the company plants a tree in Indonesia. Another thing to love about them.

RRP: £22.49 Get it: mindfulextracts.co.uk

RRP: £45.50 (Deep Moisture Treatment Masque), £35.50 (Light Moisture Treatment Masque) Get it: aveda.co.uk

A new year resolution that you can keep... for yourself

Every January we have lots of new years resolutions and good intentions by the end of the month we often find those resolutions waning for one reason or another!

Loosing weight, toning up , looking/feeling confident, getting rid of all the clothes you never wear...

Are all common themes for many reading this article. Many of you promise yourself that when you have lost weight, toned up, etc then you will “treat yourself” to maybe a spa day, a haircut and colour or perhaps a colour analysis or a style consultation. Some are waiting years! One service that is not weight related is a colour analysis; it doesn’t matter where you are in your weight journey. Getting advice about colours which are going to make you look healthy and wearing them in the right way can make you look taller and slimmer has to be a win win! A colour analysis will also guide you to the correct colours to select when selecting makeup colours too.

When it comes to loosing weight many ladies have a number of wardrobe sizes on the go. Be honest with yourself, if you loose all the weight you are aiming for will you be able to maintain it? Finding a healthy, ”mid weight” which is easier to control and takes the pressure off psychologically helps you to relax and feel happier about your appearance rather than constantly beating yourself up about not being the “perfect” weight on the scales.

Discovering that actually your height and where your shoulders, hips and general proportions of your body doesn’t change while loosing weight is quite a revolutionary for many. Where you lay down inches depends on your body shape. Hour glass shapes tend to put weight on more evenly all over. In contrast rectangles tend to put it on around the middle of their bodies. Unless you have many stones to loose your overall proportions won’t change that much. For example, If you have always been short waisted, or longer in the body than the legs neither will change whatever your size. The fabrics selected might be different BUT it’s really important to find a few pieces you really like wearing and flatter your figure shape at that moment regardless of where you are in your weight journey. Giving you the confidence to continue, and help you feel better about yourself. It is very important in building self esteem which is fundamental to us all, especially as so many ladies and gentlemen have found the past couple of years challenging, with many finding it difficult to reconnect in social environments. We all need a boost to our self confidence.

Once you have the basics of colour and style for you at your figure tips then it is far easier to make sense of your wardrobe and discover why you have so many clothes that no longer work. This will allow you to make sensible wardrobe investment decisions rather than just buying more clothes without working out how they will add value to the wardrobe.

In my 25 years of experience it doesn’t matter what weight, height or shape women are NEVER happy with the way they look. So instead of chasing unrealistic goals ask your self what do you like about yourself? I know most of you will struggle badly with this question, acceptance is the key. It is entirely possible to look good and feel confident regardless of your size or shape, long will you wait to look and feel better about yourself?

Jane Sumner Image Matters 07779 585323 www.imagemattersuk.com

An introduction to colour, style and make-up advice for just £99

At Image Matters Studio in Olney Bucks or online

Quote MK or NN Pulse when booking your appointment Valid until February 28th 2022

Image Matters | Fashion Styling | Colour Analysis | Personal Styling Email Jane on: jane@imagemattersuk.com or call: 07779 585323 www.imagemattersuk.com