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Content Outliers: Learning from the Web's Most Viral Content
Content Outliers: Learning from the Web's Most Viral Content |
| Content Outliers: Learning from the Web's Most Viral Content Posted: 16 Mar 2014 04:14 PM PDT Posted by jamesporter Let's start with some questions.
If you answered yes to any of those questions, then you should be thinking about creating viral content. What can viral content do for you? This is a piece of content we launched 4 months ago. Since launch it has been featured on CNN, ZDNet, and Fast Company, has hit over 500 linking root domains, has earned over 95k social shares, and most importantly, has driven 270k+ unique visitors to the client's site. So, how can you start creating viral content? First things first: What do we mean by viral content? Any sort of content where the viewership grows rapidly as the result of sharing. Here's a good primer. Secondly, how do we get good at viral content? Looking back at past viral success is a great way of understanding what's going to be successful in the future, so we need to get our hands on some data! To get that data, I worked with the team at BuzzSumo, a content marketing research tool I highly recommend. We dug into their database to find the 2,000 most-shared pieces of content on the web that were published within the last six months. For each of those domains, we then pulled the second-most shared pages, which gave us a great opportunity to do some maths and identify the "content outliers"â€"the pages on a site that have massively outperformed other content on the same site. (source) For this analysis we looked for content outliers within the top 2,000 list, and also took a deep dive into the top 50 most-shared pages. So, what did we learn from the analysis? 1. Make visual content, because it's easy to engageOf the top 50 most-shared pieces of content, 48% were video, and 24% were image-based. That means 72% of the viral content analysed was primarily visual. So why is visual content so successful? Visual content is incredibly easy for people to understand and engage with. By reducing the engagement demands on the viewer, we're increasing the amount of people that take the time to engage with our content and therefore increasing the size of our audience that engage and share. 2. The quality of your idea is EVERYTHINGThis sounds obvious, but it's worth drilling into. In his excellent book, "Contagious: Why Things Catch On," Jonah Berger flips contemporary thinking on his head by saying that mavens (influencers) are less important than we think. The real key to viral success is the quality of the idea. This piece of content from Mirabeau Wines, "How to Open A Bottle of Wine Without A Corkscrew," is an incredible example of a winning idea. To date, this piece has been shared nearly 1 million times, featured in The Telegraph, The Mirror and Time Magazine, and has been viewed over 5 million times on YouTube.
Content marketing tip: Forget everything else, just get your idea right. How? To start, read this. 3. Create your content around scalable themesWhat stood out in the data from BuzzSumo was the broad appeal (scalability) of the topics that were being shared. Marriage, friendship, family, cancer, and personal improvement featured in more than 30% of the top 50 posts. But why did they feature so heavily? These concepts are relevant to a large audience and provide the opportunity for wide-scale sharing. As a content marketer, when ideating content, you need to make the distinction between targeting a niche audience and targeting a broad audience.
The audience that you choose to target has a major effect on the level of success that your content is likely to achieve. Content marketing tip: A third way is to target a broad niche. This involves creating content that is interesting to a specific niche audience, which then stimulates interest in the larger market. By doing this you get the benefits of the concentrated sharing of a highly passionate user base, which then stimulates interest in the larger market. Using 'The History of Dance Music' as an example, you can see the way the content could spread through the web, from: Highly active and passionate dance music fans > Interested dance music fans > General music lovers 4. Make content interactiveInterestingly, the two most shared pieces of content pulled from BuzzSumo were both quizzes:
There are many reasons why this content killed it, but one of the key reasons is the interactive nature of each piece. By forcing users to interact with a piece of content to fully experience it, you increase their level of engagement. The more people that engage with a piece, the more people will share it. Content marketing example: This interactive piece detailing the tech sector's acquisitions since 1999 has been a great success. Why it worked: The content encourages engagement via scrolling or zooming to drill into the data. 5. Stimulate an emotional reactionA key way to create viral content is to stimulate an emotional reaction. Why is emotional content so often viral? At a simplistic level, our emotional experiences are amplified through sharing. So when we experience a strong emotional reaction, we want to share it. Think of social buttons as a vent for expressing our emotional experiences. What's really interesting though is that the emotion you stimulate (positive versus negative) is less important than the strength of the emotional reaction. Recent research has found that the strength of the emotional reaction is absolutely key in viral content. I defy anyone to read this article about a mountain pathway in China without experiencing some sort of emotional reaction (mine: seriously sweaty palms!). This piece has been shared over 1 million times and it's the strength of the emotional reaction that has stimulated people to share. (source) Content marketing example: As a content marketer, it can be pretty difficult to create an emotional reaction if you're in a boring industry. But you need to look beyond your products to your audience and the things they love and care about. Think of the Dove Real Beauty campaign. Soap is boring. They took an existing emotional issue that their consumers cared about and developed it into an incredible marketing campaign. 6. Leverage social triggersHat tip to Jonah Berger again for this one. If we can link our content to existing environmental cues, then it's more likely that we will get our content noticed by our target audience. This works because we are leveraging existing audience awareness to get cut through. By playing off issues that are already front of mind for our audience, we increase a piece's chances of success. There were various examples of this throughout the BuzzSumo data, but a key one (not in the list) was from Time, titled "The Selfiest Cities in the World." Selfies are a major social trigger at the moment, so Time have hooked their content into that. 7. Personalised contentWhat can you teach people about themselves? Content that allows people to better understand themselves and their relative standing with the rest of the world performed really well in the data sample. The following is a great example of this type of content. By making content specifically about a user you automatically stimulate interest. 8. Target an audience likely to shareWe all know that you need to create content for a specific audience (and ideally for your customers). But you can increase your chances of virality by targeting audiences that are highly likely to share... If your content is targeted towards a group of people that don't share a lot, then it is going to be harder to create viral content in that space. Pro tip: An audience that Buzzfeed target their content towards is the "Bored in Work, Bored in Line" audience. Basically this audience is a group of people who are bored, surfing the web, looking to be entertained or surprised. The "What Career Should I Actually Have" is a classic example of Buzzfeed targeting this audience. Content marketing example: Another great example of audience targeting comes from the site "Wait But Why," called Why are Generation Y Yuppies So Unhappy. By specifically creating content for and about Generation Y (a highly active sharing group) they were able to increase their chances of success. This article was syndicated to the Huffington Post and became that site's most shared piece of content (1.2 million shares). Pro tip: According to viral kings Upworthy, "middle-aged women are the biggest sharers on the web. If you can target them, do!" 9.Take a contrarian viewpointA great way of stimulating an emotional response is by taking a contrarian viewpoint. An example from the buzzsumo list of contrarian content was this:
By taking an entrenched viewpoint and flipping it on it's head, you're making a piece of content a must read because you are challenging people's existing views. 10. Reinforce viewpoints people already haveAnother viral content approach is to make people feel right. Creating content that reinforces what people already think and feel is a great way to stimulate sharing. This video is about people using their phones too much and not living in the moment. It expresses a sentiment that a lot of people related to, which in turn increases their propensity to share. Content marketing example: Upworthy focus the majority of their content towards existing viewpoints that people already have. Whether it's LGBT, education, parenting, guns and crime, by playing off existing emotionality, they increase the virality of their content. Here is the full data list of BuzzSumo's 50 most-shared pieces of content on the web along with the sharing statistics: Hope you enjoyed the post. Fire any questions to me in the comments. Up and to the right!!! Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! |
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Seth's Blog : What's not here?
What's not here?
When you show me a business plan, a wireframe, a features list... whatever you're building, it's not enough to talk about what's there.
Tell us what's not there.
Tell us what you're choosing not to do, what you're not supporting, who you're not interested in working with.
If the there + the not there doesn't add up to the universe of choices, you've missed something.
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duminică, 16 martie 2014
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
| Posted: 16 Mar 2014 06:43 PM PDT UK Prime minister David Cameron has agreed to an up or down British vote on the EU but not until 2017 (conveniently after the next election in 2015). Should Cameron lose the election, one can forget about the promise to hold an up-or-down vote. Cameron's Telegraph Op-Ed Cameron has other strings attached to the vote. Yesterday, after at least a year of promises to do so, Cameron outlined the changes he wants to the EU treaty in his Telegraph op-ed EU is Not Working and We Will Change It. People are worried that Britain is being sucked into a United States of Europe; that may be what some others want, but it is not for us. They see decisions being taken far away, rather than by their elected representatives in Parliament. And they worry that European rules have allowed people to claim benefits without ever working here. As a result, democratic consent for Britain's membership has worn wafer thin.Cameron's Wish List of Changes
Proposal number 1 is straight from the looney bin. Cameron proposes setting up some sort of committee that can block EU regulations that the majority of countries in the EU want. Proposals 2 and 6 limit the ability of the EU to set trade rules. If every country is free to create its own trade agreements, precisely what is the EU for? Proposals 3, 4, 6, and 7 make perfect sense except for the fact that Germany and France and likely the rest of the EU would never agree to change the treaty along those lines. Nowhere does Cameron specifically mention financial transactions or absurd tariff proposals, but arguably they are implied in points 1 and 2. Yet, without specific written agreements on agricultural subsidies, financial transaction taxes, bailouts, and even the funding of a European army, eventually the majority is going to rule. Europe is 'For Life', Francois Hollande tells David Cameron Flashback December 14, 2012: Europe is 'for life', Francois Hollande tells David Cameron in EU Power Spat The French President, Francois Hollande, declared that Europe is not "a la carte" like a menu from which member states can pick and choose their powers.Anything Changed Since Hollande's Message? Has anything changed since December 2012? Not really. If anything, disagreements with Cameron have gotten more widespread. Merkel Says She Cannot Satisfy All Britain's EU Wishes February 27, 2014: Merkel Says She Cannot Satisfy All Britain's EU Wishes. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the British parliament on Thursday she was not prepared to promise fundamental reform of the European Union for London's sake, but said the bloc did need some changes and that Britain should not leave it.Likelihood of Implementation If appears Merkel is in favor of changes on Cameron's wish list item numbers 4 and 5. That's it. Everything else is as Merkel says "Britain would have a chance – along with everyone else – to submit proposals for reform". That means the UK would be subject to eurozone bailouts, funding a European army, inane agricultural tariffs, and even financial transaction taxes at the whim of a majority vote. Germany and France want more powers, not less for Brussels. Did Cameron Lose His Mind? Does Cameron really believe he has any chance of getting what he wants from Germany and France, or is some other identifiable force in play? What about election carrots? Election Carrots Cameron kicked off his Telegraph article with this message: "The British people now have a very clear choice: if you want a referendum on whether Britain should stay in the EU or leave, only the Conservative Party will guarantee to hold one. If I am Prime Minister after the election, I will negotiate a new settlement for Britain in Europe, and then ask the British people: do you wish to stay in the EU on this basis, or leave? I will hold that referendum before the end of 2017, and respect the decision." Cameron does not want a vote now, he only promises one after he wins. Of course he might not win. But even if he wins, Germany and France will never agree with his proposals. Question of Integrity The likelihood of Cameron getting the changes he wants is precisely zero. Is it possible Cameron does not understand that? To the extent Cameron is making an election carrot ploy, he is willing to let the UK make a major mistake if it slightly helps his election chances. If so, that speaks tons about his integrity. Of course, there's always the possibility Cameron has lost his mind. I believe both. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
| Posted: 16 Mar 2014 12:18 PM PDT Crimea returns to Russia It's a done deal. Nothing can be done about it. An Exit poll shows Crimeans Choose to Join Russia in Vote A majority of Crimeans chose to join Russia in a disputed referendum, exit polls showed, deepening the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.Goodbye Hryvnia, Hello Ruble Crimea will switch to the Russian ruble and abandon Ukraine's hryvnia on April 1, RIA Novosti cited Crimean Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Temirgaliev as saying today. McCain Wants Military Aid for Ukraine The US senate's head-warmonger, John McCain said Obama is giving "serious consideration" to sending military aid to Ukraine. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, in an ABC interview, said the U.S. should pass "crippling sanctions" on Russia and help Ukraine rebuild its armed forces. Biden Promotes US as World's Policeman U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will travel to NATO members Poland and Lithuania tomorrow for talks on Ukraine, according to a White House statement. The Pentagon said last week it would send 12 F-16 aircraft to Poland as a sign of U.S. commitment to defend allies in the region; the U.S. previously sent six fighter jets to Lithuania. Do US citizens support wasting tax dollars sending Aircraft to Poland? Of course not. Does McCain or the Republicans care about balancing the budget? Of course not? Did Obama take down Guantanamo Bay, get all US troops out of Afghanistan or Iraq? Of course not. In case you missed it, please see President Obama is the Biggest Fraud Ever Perpetrated on US Citizens (Fantastic Carey Wedler Video) Support for war, spying, and for the US to waste money being the world's policeman is rampant in Congress, deficits be damned. But hey, don't worry Ukraine and Russia Agree to a 5-Day Truce. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
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Seth's Blog : Confidence is a choice, not a symptom
Confidence is a choice, not a symptom
The batter has already hit two home runs. When he gets up to bat for the third time, his confidence is running high...
It's easy to feel confident when we're on a roll, when the cards are going our way, or we're closing sales right and left. This symptomatic confidence, one built on a recent series of successes, isn't particularly difficult to accomplish or useful.
Effective confidence comes from within, it's not the result of external events. The confident salesperson is likely to close more sales. The confident violinist expresses more of the music. The confident leader points us to the places we want (and need) to go.
You succeed because you've chosen to be confident. It's not really useful to require yourself to be successful before you're able to become confident.
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