The Secrets to Viral Marketing on Social Media

Since social media allows users to not only connect with each other but also easily share posts with each other, it’s not surprise that social media has been described as “word-of-mouth on steroids”.

And word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective form of marketing because it’s free and people tend to trust content shared by people they know more than advertising content.

This is why so many brands desperately want to put together a viral marketing strategy.

A viral campaign on social media is simply posts that have been shared many, many times from one social media user to another.

And, the results of a viral campaign can be extraordinary in terms of increasing brand awareness, leads and sales.

Although post engagement in terms of comments and likes is still very powerful, nothing on social media is as powerful as shares because it means that your post is potentially seen by the friends or followers of the person who has shared the post.

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Considering the fact that a social media user has on average 140 contacts, each share is an opportunity to be seen by a large group of people for free. In addition, it has been proven that shared content has more impact than paid advertising.

Therefore, focusing on putting together a viral marketing strategy is potentially more important than any other form of paid advertising.

So how can you put all the odds in your favour in order to publish viral posts? In other words, how can you increase the chances of your posts getting shared and enjoying the benefits of having viral Facebook posts and viral Instagram posts?

The first viral marketing strategy is to publish posts that are entertaining, funny or witty. When it comes to humour, you have to be careful your post is not cliché. If the humour in your post has been overused and a lot of people are familiar with it, it won’t do very well.

Plus, you have to be careful of the timing of the joke. If you make a joke as a result of a recent tragic event right after the event has occurred, then it won’t be considered funny, it will be considered distasteful.

A recent viral Facebook post was the recording of a little boy singing Bob Marley’s song Everything’s gonna be alright. Not only was it funny and cute because the boy was so young, it was also very timely as it was published during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The second viral marketing strategy for increasing your chances of going viral on Facebook or creating a viral post on Instagram is to make your content informational. If your post has a good piece of advice that is useful and that many people might not know already, then chances are, the post will be shared many times.

A recent video that went viral was a 2-minute video animation created by Maya Adam about how quickly viruses get transmitted. Within minutes, the post was shared by hundreds of people.

Similar informational viral posts are videos that demonstrate quick and easy hacks, such as cooking hacks, hair styling hacks and housework hacks. Other viral posts include fun facts about a topic.

For example, fun facts about some celebrities tend to do well.

The third viral marketing strategy is to publish posts that allow social media users to find out more about themselves. Therefore personality quizzes tend to become viral Facebook posts and viral Instagram posts.

For example, you might have already come across viral posts that invite people to discover what type of parent they are, or posts inviting people to discover what type of business owner they are or what type of friend they are.

The fourth viral marketing strategy is writing and publishing content that people will wish they had written and published themselves. These posts are usually about other people’s selfless acts of kindness.

So if you hear about a moving story about someone who did something kind for a stranger and you write a post about it, the chances of it becoming a viral Facebook post or Instagram viral post are higher.

The fifth viral marketing strategy for increasing your chances of going viral on Facebook or creating a viral post on Instagram is publishing content about research conducted that challenges conventional wisdom.

If people have been thinking a certain way for a long time, and research proves that the opposite is true, talking about it on social media can attract more shares than other types of posts and it could lead to a viral Facebook post or Instagram viral post.

For example, a recent study proved that making customers wait is not necessarily a bad thing, and it can actually be beneficial to a business.

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The sixth viral marketing strategy is posting content that gives people a warning. If people have been doing something a certain way or have been unaware of some type of danger, then chances are it will be shared by more people than usual because people will want to alert the people they know.

For example, posts that went viral during the Covid-19 pandemic were posts about what to look out for to avoid being contaminated. Social media posts about surfaces and objects we don’t usually disinfect such as mobile devices, keys, light switches and door handles, that could potentially allow the virus to spread, were shared a lot compared to other posts.

The seventh viral campaign strategy is posting content that is surprising or even shocking. For example, recent viral posts included short videos showing two women fighting over food at a local supermarket during the pandemic, and the fight escalating to the point police had to step in.

So if you have surprising or even shocking facts relevant to your industry, you could write a social media post about it which could potentially lead to a viral Facebook post or Instagram viral post. Recently, three posts on surprising facts went viral.

The first one was called “10 surprising facts about rejection”, the other one was called “10 surprising facts about loneliness” and the third one was titled “15 facts about kittens that might surprise even long-time cat lovers.”

Since information being passed on from one user to another is more effective than paid advertising, it is crucial to know the elements that help create viral posts.

However, viral posts are extremely rare. Most social media posts get very few shares so don’t get disheartened if you never experience going viral on Facebook or you can’t seem to create a viral post on Instagram.

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About the Author

Corinna Essa

Corinna Essa is known internationally as the go-to person when it comes to social media marketing.

Corinna owns a social media marketing company helping businesses around the world leverage the power of social media without doing any of the legwork. Her company has been featured in many media outlets including Sky Business news, Working Women magazine, Ymagazine, Tasmanian Times, Channel 7 and 101fm.

Corinna is also the author of 2 bestselling books “Money On Demand – The 16 Fastest Ways to Becoming a Millionaire Online” and “Reach: The SECRETS to converting your social media audience into your network marketing downline fast”