If there’s one thing that’s not lacking on the internet, it’s content. Every day millions of new pages are created. Articles, infographics, blog posts, videos – it’s impossible to digest the tiniest fraction of it.
How are sites like Buzzfeed and Tumblr able to command so much attention when even they are a drop in a sea of content? With thousands of Tweets per second, how can a company or publication stand out? Over 24 hours of new YouTube videos are uploaded every hour. The stats go on and on. Social media promotions can only go so far. For many, having the best of the best content on the internet is the key to marketing success.
Putting the Right Bait on the Hook
Getting traffic and links to a website can easily be compared to fishing. Imagine that every piece of content that you create is a fishing line. Every time you create content, you’re putting another line in the pond. When the fish (internet users) bite your line, you have a new visitor. Some websites are able to put hundreds, even thousands of new lines into the pond every month. Others focus on a handful. Having more hooks is nice, but having the right bait on the hooks is the key.
Look at a site like XKCD. They are ranked 605 in Alexa for US traffic. They are able to do this by posting a dozen or so pieces of content per month. What are they doing right? They have the right bait.
The comic style used by XKCD is an example, but it’s hard to duplicate, particularly for businesses. How can a business increase traffic and acquire more links to their site? It’s a process, but it starts by putting the right bait on the hook. High-quality, virally-designed content is the first step. Having content than can (and should) be shared makes everything else in social media marketing much easier.
Types of Viral Content
When businesses start a blog, they often go in with the impression that if they write stories about their business, their brand, and their industry, the people will come. Unfortunately, the internet is not a “Field of Dreams“. Here are some examples of content that went viral for businesses:
- Fun Infographics: When in doubt, be funny. It’s an easy way to bring the people in and get them sharing. This infographic by our partners at Column Five broke the bank with 23k Facebook shares for a business that was accustomed to seeing 1/100th that amount on even their most successful blog posts.
- Useful Infographics: When people can gain knowledge about a topic that interests them, they will share. This graphic nailed it from that perspective by appealing to the Mac vs PC debate. The results were too astounding to print.
- Timely Articles: When Google+ was only a few days old, there was a high demand for assessments and opinions about it. Would it succeed? Should Facebook worry? We used the good old “Top X List” written in a multi-page format to drive strong traffic and generate excellent links to the site with a timely article about Google+.
These are the “low hanging fruit” of social media promotions, but they’re definitely not the only ways. Videos, timeless articles, how-tos – the list of quality, sharable content types is huge. At Hasai, we have the ability to not only create interesting content but promote it as well. Contact us to find out what we can do for you and your content today.