How we create attractive content for article?
There are certain websites, authors, marketers and content creators that seem to rule the internet. Everything they put out there seems infectious, capturing an audience of millions and sparking conversations on social media.
Uncovering the secret of viral success is the mission of researchers, media organizations and businesses these days. After all, infectious content leads to great rewards in the form of readers, subscribers, advertisers, raising awareness of an important issue, brand recognition, and financial success.
1. Write good content
Bottom line: Tell a good story and tell it well. Readers are quick to abandon stories with weak content and poor writing.
Start by making sure your story clearly communicates the five Ws: Who? What? Where? When? Why? This will show your reader the basic premise of the story and why it matters.
In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick, co-authors of The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users, explain that stories should accomplish one of many tasks: explain what happened, explain what something means, to explain how to do something or surprise the reader.
2. Evoke strong emotions - positive is better than negative
According to a 2011 study by University of Pennsylvania professors, stories that evoke intense emotions tend to increase in popularity.
Content that triggers “high arousal” emotions performs better online, whether those emotions are positive (like awe) or negative (like anger or anxiety). While content that evokes "low arousal" emotions (such as sadness) is less likely to go viral, write professors Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman, who studied the viral nature of New York Times articles over a three-month period. And while there's a lot of complexity at play, the general rule of thumb is that "positive content goes more viral than negative."
When Jack Shepherd, BuzzFeed's editorial director, wrote 21 Images That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity, it generated millions of hits. The list evoked the emotions you feel when "you're in the presence of the triumph of the human spirit," Shepherd says. Today it has 15.4 million views. (Full disclosure: Shepherd has been a friend for years.)
“When people share something like this, they're not just sharing a story, they're sharing a strong, positive emotional experience that they had. You really can't fake it,” says Shepherd. For more tips from Shepherd, check out the companion piece BuzzFeed's Guide to Viral Content (Cats Optional, but Encouraged).
3. Be brief
Get to the point quickly and keep the reader interested.
“Our experience is that two or three sentences on Google+ and Facebook and 100 characters on Twitter are the best places for curated content posts,” Kawasaki and Fitzpatrick say.
"The sweet spot for created content is 500 to 1,000 words."
4. Write compelling headlines
Headlines are the gateway to the story—your only chance to pique readers' curiosity and convince them to stick with you. Headlines can make a story a smashing success or a total flop, even if the content is fantastic.
Grab your reader's attention with headlines that
- State the purpose of the article clearly and concisely
- Use interesting adjectives
- Communicate the value and ease of the story
In other words, tell your readers up front that they will get a lot out of your story with little effort on their part. (For example, my headline This One Smart Habit Can Slash Your Airfare told readers that they could save a lot of money by learning one habit. Tons of value and so simple.)
Twelveskip.com offers this list of engaging headline templates to help you create great headlines.
5. Be visual
Visual content increases engagement. So pair this compelling headline with a striking visual. Always. This is key to getting readers interested.
Buzzsumo, a content analytics company, found that having at least one image in a Facebook or Twitter post leads to an average of twice as many shares compared to a post without images. A Skyword content marketing study found a similar correlation between images and engagement, Kawasaki and Fitzpatrick write. "Overall views of her clients' content increased by 94% when a published article contained a relevant photo or infographic, compared to articles without an image in the same category," the co-authors write.
6. Play the numbers game
The more you post, the more chance you have of going viral. Neetzan Zimmerman, who the Wall Street Journal called possibly "the most popular blogger working on the web today," blogged for Gawker until 2014 and routinely attracted the most unique visitors to the popular site. In an interview with HubSpot.com, Zimmerman shared that he posts 10 to 15 times a day. Not every post goes viral, but the greater the volume of stories, the better the chance that one will take off.
And don't stop once your work is out. Promote it actively on social media and do it repeatedly on different days and times to engage different audiences. Tailor your posts to the social media platform.
Sure, you might lose some followers who don't like re-sharing. But Kawasaki and Fitzpatrick have found that practice pays off. “When we decided to test the effect of repetition by sharing four identical posts with four different click tracking links, we got about 1,300 clicks on the first, about the same on the second, 2,300 on the third, and 2,700 on the fourth. a total of 7,600 clicks. Would you be willing to risk retweet complaints to get 5.8x more clicks?”
7. Play nice with others
Include links to the resources you have on the site in your articles where appropriate.Links send traffic to the source as an act of gratitude; allow readers to learn more from the source; and increase your traffic.
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