What to post on Social Media to go viral

Vee Tardrew | 1 August 2014

The viral social post.

The secret dream of any content marketer.

All that love. All that reach!

The reality though is that very few will ever achieve viral greatness on par with the Upworthys, Buzzfeeds and Huffington Posts of the world. In fact, the latest research from CoSchedule and OkDork shows that only 10% of all content shared on Social Media Marketing platforms is shared more than 100 times and a miniscule 1% will achieve 10,000+ shares. That leaves 89% of all social media posts with less than 100 shares.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t aim for that top 11% though, right? Right. And there are a few tricks to prime your social posts for viral potential. One such way is to use words in your headlines that are commonly shared on the platform.

Their research went on to highlight the words that each social platform audience share the most and it presents some interesting insight. Here's what they picked up.

Words To Use In Your Social Media Headlines

Twitter

  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Facebook
  • Android
  • Giveaway
  • About
  • Social
  • Media
  • Reasons
  • Should

Insight: Social media orientated list posts will do very well on Twitter – or any Android device giveaway!

LinkedIn

  • Google
  • Facebook
  • Social
  • Media
  • Ideas
  • About
  • Should
  • Things
  • Chicken
  • Apple

Insight: Yeah, the chicken one threw me a bit too! That aside, Twitter and LinkedIn audiences seem to have an appetite for similar content. (Still trying to work out how I can leverage that chicken insight!)

Facebook

  • Video
  • People
  • Recipe
  • Homemade
  • Healthy
  • About
  • Things
  • Reasons
  • Every
  • Should

Insight: A video or recipe about healthy, homemade food has a good chance of going viral. If you can’t tie that into your offering, go with a list post. Words like things, reasons, should and every are indicative of a list post.

Google+

  • Chocolate
  • Peanut
  • Butter
  • Cookie
  • Cookies
  • Cream
  • Chicken
  • Cheese
  • Recipe
  • Google

Insight: People on Google+ are hungry and unlike their Facebook counterparts they want sugar – or cheese. Unless you have a recipe for chocolate peanut butter cookies, you may want to share something about Google on Google+. I must admit, I found this data the most interesting as I anticipated more business orientated results.

Pinterest:

  • Wedding
  • Homemade
  • Salad
  • Recipe
  • Chicken
  • Butter
  • Chocolate
  • Peanut
  • Cream
  • Cookies

Insight: The brides-to-be are also hungry and craving sweets, but are careful to throw in some chicken and salad recipes too! This wasn’t a major surprise as Pinterest is a more of a personal social platform. That said, if these terms do apply to your business, there is massive share potential for when it comes to Pinterest. The data revealed that Pinterest holds a 90% slice of the social media share pie, trailed by Facebook at just 6%.

This research clearly talks to a need to tweak your content and posts for the platform you’re publishing to. Twitter and LinkedIn will share business orientated material (or something about chicken – yes, still not over it!) more often. People on Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest, on the other hand, are more likely to share home-orientated content - and boy - do they love to pin those chocolate peanut butter cookie recipes!

Action Plan for a Viral Social Post:

  • Head on over to my blog post on what type of content gets shared the most, as this deals more with the characteristics of the content
  • Create something and then share it on your social media platforms using the words in this post
  • Tweet me @veetardrew or leave a comment below and let us know what your results were!

creating-great-content

Image Adapted. Photo Credit: justgrimes via photopin cc

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