You know that feeling when you stumble across a piece of content that’s so insanely good, so fascinating, so share-worthy that you can’t help but send it to all your friends? That, my friends, is the magic of viral content.
The internet has given content a new superpower – the ability to spread like wildfire across networks and timezones. While viral hits were once a phenomenon reserved for events of earth-shattering significance, today even the humble blog post or social media update can reach epic levels of shareability.
So what makes certain content go viral while other pieces get largely ignored? Is there a secret recipe to craft highly contagious media? That’s what I’ll explore in this monster guide. By tapping into the psychology behind why people share online, you’ll learn a repeatable framework for creating viral-worthy content.
But first, let’s look at some staggering numbers that prove just how powerful viral content can be…
The Spoils of Virality: Why Creating Viral Hits is the New Pot of Gold
Going viral is every content creator’s dream scenario. With a single scorching hot piece of content, you can expose your brand to millions of potential customers, drive a tsunami of traffic, and rack up leads galore. All for the cost of creating one piece of content. Talk about ROI!
Just look at what happened when Buzzfeed’s “What City Should You Actually Live In?” quiz caught fire. In a mere 9 days, it drove a whopping 16.5 million pageviews:
That’s the viral impact that every brand lusts after. A massive spike in brand awareness, audience growth, and top-of-funnel leads from a single hit.
The spoils of virality don’t stop at new eyeballs either. By creating viral hits, you build up immense authority and credibility in your niche. That brand equity sticks with you long after the traffic surge subsides.
Finally, going viral earns you a truckload of valuable backlinks from people trying to ride the viral wave. That link juice not only drives more direct traffic, it also helps increase your domain authority for higher search engine rankings down the road. Sweet!
Bestowing the crown of “virality” doesn’t happen randomly though. There are specific psychological forces that compel people to share certain types of content over others. Let’s dive in and unpack them…
The 6 Psychological Forces That Drive Viral Content Sharing
For people to feel compelled to share your content, it needs to trigger certain psychological reactions and emotional states. Content that fails to hit these neurological buttons gets lost in the endless stream of media, and quickly forgotten.
On the flipside, when your content invokes strong thoughts, feelings, and emotions in people related to these 6 psychological forces, it becomes infinitely more shareable and viral-worthy.
1. The Surprise Factor
As humans, we naturally latch onto things that defy our expectations in surprising or shocking ways. Content that makes you say “Wait, what?!” or “I can’t believe that!” is tailor-made for social sharing.
BuzzFeed is the master of surprise content. Just look at these mind-blowing examples that capitalize on the surprise factor:
• 36 Problem-Solving Products That — Shocker — Actually Don’t Cost A Ton
• 21 Things Women Didn’t Realize Their Body Was Capable Of Doing Until It Just… Happened
• Having A Minute Of Silence For Tunisia Is “Bullsh*t”
There it is – content that gets your brain firing by delivering big surprises and unconventional twists. Whether your content invokes surprise through a shocking statistic, counterintuitive finding, or unexpected advice, surprise sells in the virality game.
A little surprise humor goes a long way too. Take a look at this offbeat and quirky tweet that recently went viral:
This random cat pic is so surprising and absurd that it practically compels you to share it for a laugh. Pairing surprise content with humor is a viral content 1-2 punch.
2. The Emotional Trigger
In today’s digital world, we’re constantly bombarded with data, facts, and surface-level information. That’s not a problem with viral content though. Viral hits stand out by tugging at people’s deeper emotional states.
Just look at globally viral content like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. While it started as a fun stunt, participants uploaded heart-wrenching videos about loved ones battling ALS which triggered feelings of sympathy and compassion.
Similarly, this controversial Dear Mom viral ad triggered strong feelings of anger, resentment, and sadness around racial injustice in America. It was so emotionally charged that it amassed over 8 million views in just days.
Even seemingly innocuous viral content packs an emotional punch. Who didn’t feel a sense of nostalgia and reminiscence watching that viral BBC video with the cute kids crashing their dad’s interview?
The bottom line: viral-worthy content needs to make people feel something deep inside. Joy, outrage, inspiration, nostalgia – hitting those core emotional buttons is how viral sensations are created.
3. Social Currency and Identity
Not all viral content spreads because of emotional triggers though. Sometimes, sharing can be a way for people to selfishly boost their own reputation and identity.
Enter the concept of “social currency” – people’s internal drive to appear cooler, smarter, or more in-the-know by sharing fascinating content. It’s like a secret handshake among members of the cultural elite.
BuzzFeed mastered social currency content by tapping into millennial identities with endlessly shareable content like:
• 17 Wholesome Posts That Will Definitely Restore Your Faith In Humanity
• Answer Nine Questions And We’ll Reveal Which Japanese City You Should Move To
• What Is Your Lucky Angel Number? Plan A Blissful Day To Find Out
By sharing BuzzFeed gems like these, readers got to broadcast their niche interests and reaffirm their social identity as an internet-savvy crowd. That’s the epitome of building social currency.
4. Knowledge Self-Seeking
Sometimes people want more than just looking cool though – they want to feel smarter too. That’s where the “knowledge self-seeking” sharing motivation kicks in.
Certain viral content gets widely shared because it imparts a highly specific, niche piece of knowledge or information. By sharing it, people announce: “Hey world, look how clued in I am to this!”
For example, these types of surprising and obscure knowledge nuggets are irresistible click-bait:
• The real reason McDonald’s Coke tastes better
• Why Apple’s iPhone Browser-Choice Option Sucks
• Why airlines plug up emergency exits
While not factually groundbreaking, these pieces of micro-knowledge give people a chance to discover something new – and flex that newfound smarts on others.
As an added bonus, knowledge self-seeking content also confers a sense of utility, as if people are arming others with useful information. Just look at the massive views and shareability of this “27 Hacks Every Girl Should Know” 5-minute crafts video.
There’s just something deeply satisfying about positioning yourself as in the know by dishing out such hyper-specific insights.
5. The Tribe Factor
Consider this: why do sports fans live and die by posting videos of their team’s highlight reels? Or how about new parents endlessly sharing baby content? It’s because we all have a deep psychological need to feel a sense of belonging.
Highly viral content allows people to connect with others over shared interests, experiences, and passion points.
In essence, sharing becomes a way to engage with an entire like-minded tribe.
Just look at how Tough Mudder capitalized on this tribal mentality around extreme fitness to create wildly shareable content. Their gut-busting workout videos and inspirational stories allow people to join the tribe – and show off their membership – through the act of sharing.
The key is creating highly specific, niche content that caters to well-defined communities and subcultures. Whether it’s CrossFit addicts, vegans, Game of Thrones fans, or proud cat owners, tap into those concentrated pockets of shared identity and interests. Craft shareable content that lets those tribes connect through the digital ether.
6. The Fluffy Factor
Finally, while all the previous sharing motivations tap into people’s emotional and social needs, sometimes less is more when it comes to virality. Sometimes people just want to take a break from heavy subjects and share something light, fun, and frivolous.
Enter the fluffy factor.
This adorable video of fawn bleats being rescued racked up an astonishing 82+ million views through pure cuteness overload and little else.
Ditto for all those silly prank videos that spread through sheer entertainment value.
There’s no deep social currency or tribalism baked into these fluffy viral videos. They allow people to disconnect from the constant demands of life in favor of bite-sized delight and whimsy.
As one staffer summarized: “The internet is a superbly grotesque beast that delights in fluffy distractions.”
Don’t underestimate the viral power of injecting some whimsy into your content mix!
How to Engineer Your Content for Maximum Viral Reach
OK, so now you understand the core psychological forces that spark virality. But how do you systematically design content that unleashes these motivations?
Rather than leaving it up to chance, you can reverse-engineer viral content by applying a few strategic principles:
Optimize Your Headlines and Titles
Since social shares often start with someone initially clicking on an enticing headline, spending time crafting the perfect title is mandatory for viral success.
You want thought-provoking headlines that encapsulate one or more of the 6 core viral sharing motivations. A few proven formulas include:
• The X That/Who [Emotion Trigger] (ex: The Commercial That Made a Nation Weep)
• X [Surprise/Shock/Crazy] Things About [Topic/Niche] (ex: 17 Crazy Thoughts Every Web Developer Has Had )
• How [Knowledge Insight] (ex: How These Sneakers Were Designed to Be Indestructible)
Upworthy has built a cult following by relentlessly drilling down on curiosity-inducing emotional headlines like “His Final Words Will Leave You Speechless…”
Along with packing an emotional punch, the best viral headlines provide just enough context to pique interest, while holding back enough to force a click.
Know the Most Viral Content Types
Certain content formats lend themselves better to viral amplification than others too. For example, lists and quiz content tend to soar on social media due to their interactive and light-hearted feel.
Visual media like images and videos also spread like wildfire since they can be easily consumed and processed through feeds.
You’ll also want to tap into popular viral content genres like:
• Mind-blowing life hacks/tips
• Personality quizzes
• Nostalgic throwbacks
• “Listicles” around niche interests
• Visual brain teasers/optical illusions
• Amusing failures and bloopers
Don’t just stick to one format or genre though. The most viral content creators like BuzzFeed and Upworthy embrace an “assorted bag of content” approach.
Build Share-Worthy Content from the Ground Up
Finally, you can’t treat viral optimization as an afterthought. You need to bake virality into your content plan from the beginning.
Having a solid piece of content blow up and go viral is one of the most adrenaline-pumping feelings in the content marketing world. Watching a site’s traffic numbers skyrocket and brand awareness spread like digital wildfire is immensely gratifying.
While it’s flattering when the viral fairy dust happens to strike one of your pieces, you’ll never build a sustainable viral marketing engine through random acts of internet serendipity.
To consistently get those massive wins, you need to understand the deeper psychological forces that govern why certain content explodes.
By designing your content to tap into core human motivations around surprise, emotion, social identity, niche tribalism, and more, you’ll lay the foundation to create endlessly shareable media. Keep data and audience research at the center of your process to pinpoint the specific viral motivators that work for your niche too.
While chasing viral wins may seem like capturing lightning in a bottle, mastering the psychology behind virality can make that coveted success delightfully repeatable. Seize the boundless opportunity that viral content provides, and let the massive scale of internet shareability turn your brand into a digital phenomenon.
So what are you waiting for? The world is your viral oyster – It’s your time to start slaying those viral hits!
