Infecting Consumers with Contagious Content in 6 Easy Steps

Coming up with creative content that is original, relevant and engaging can be a challenging affair. Not only does it need to appeal to your user base, it has to be irresistible to them. They should be left with no other option than to share it, like it, post it on their walls, retweet it and more. It is vital to go viral, and going viral means producing creative content that is contagious in nature. Here are 6 elementary ways to create compelling, contagious content.

1. Social Currency

Social currency refers to how your peers feel about a particular topic, idea, or brand. It is a direct intuitive look into the popularity of a business. People have conversations about things that make them look smarter and most informed. Basically, everyone likes to show off. Why not give your consumers something valuable to talk about which not only makes them look good, but you look good as well. As soon as they start to feel special and look good to their peers, they will start to share the creative content that had that effect on them. Game over.

2. Triggers

When we refer to triggers, we mean associating your product or idea to common occurrences in the daily lives of your consumer so your recall value is high. Triggers are known to impact human behaviour trends quite significantly. They shape what we talk about, the choices we make, as well as the brands we interact with. When you link your business or brand to prevalent triggers, you can lead to the success of your own initiatives.

3.  Emotion

Before evoking emotion in your consumer, you need to first arouse them. There are certain emotions that may activate us while others leave us indifferent. Anger, humour and awe are some of the most common emotive arousals that have prompted people to share content.

4.  Public

The use of colours, design elements, and logos leads to a product becoming more public and subsequently increases its visibility and brand recall. This results in product adoption and discussion among your consumers. Steve Jobs noticed that the Macintosh Apple used to face the user in earlier designs but was upside down for everyone else. We obviously know how that story ended.

5.  Practical Value

The truth is that most people are looking for useful information to share. The most pertinent and relevant a piece of content is, the more likely it is to be shared on social media. Beauty tips, fashion finds, travel articles – all of these things get shared because of the practical value attached to it.

6.  Storytelling - The broader narrative that surrounds this idea, topic or brand

If a brand or product is part of a larger narrative, people will start to talk about it.  We use stories to make sense of things in the absence of facts.