How To Is The New Black

3 Best Tips for Creating Viral Content


Many business owners get discouraged when I tell them how frequently they should post new content on their website and social media channels. The thought of “writing” or otherwise creating content usually bogs their mind down – because most business owners don’t have the time or lack the confidence in creating content. However, most of them overlook the number one trending key topic, “How To.”

The same business owners that cringe when I tell them they should be posting new content daily, get energized when I ask how they do their job. They seem to be filled with delight to share their skills and demonstrate even the simplest of things such as how to accurately record a mileage log for tax purposes. Why not use that knowledge to help produce unique and relevant content for your marketing? Your audience is BEGGING for it!

2017 Google Search Trend for How To Make Slime

According to analytical search data gathered via Google for 2017, the phrase that was searched for the most in 2017 was “How to make slime?”…no, really. (By the way, if you aren’t already using Google Trends, you should start using this free tool today.) Google breaks search trends down into over fifty subcategories. “How to” has its own subcategory. For the last few years, this subcategory has been consistently beating out other categories like Sports, Dogs, Cats, Cars and even Politics.

Why? I believe that this happens because the type of content that is categorized as “How To” usually have more longevity trends. Topics like “Hurricane Irma” can have massive spikes in search trends in and around the time of the weather occurrence. However, before and after the weather event, no one is searching for “Hurricane Irma.” In contrast, (apparently) many people were searching throughout the entire year for the best instructions on how to make slime.

Most “How To” articles have no expiration date. For example, the best way to boil an egg will always be information that is needed, and, best of all, it will always be a matter of opinion demonstrated by thousands of amateurs, professionals, comedians and regular joes. So there’s plenty of room on any topic for you to chime in with your method.

3 Tips for Creating Viral Content

3 Tips For Creating Hot Content

A “How To” topic within an article on “How To” search trends. Wow! How creative! But seriously, I wanted to share some of my ideas to help webmasters, bloggers and frustrated small business owners on this critical topic. So here are a few of my suggestions for creating fast, fresh content:

1. Make a Quick “How To” Video

Use your smartphone to video yourself demonstrating how to do something. Make it something simple for your first video. You can also ask someone to help you film if you need assistance with getting better quality footage. You do not need to be super professional and have thousands of dollars of camera equipment. Most smartphones shoot HD quality video, and you can quickly post to social media or upload to the cloud for online use.

The goal is to get a small clip to publish within your marketing. For first-time creators, I suggest shooting for a clip with a duration of 1 to 5 minutes. Don’t get bogged down on the details. It will not be perfect but be sure that you cover your topic thoroughly, and that video is decent quality (minimal shaking, audible vocals, etc.) Publish the video clip on YouTube, Instagram, and your website.

You do not need to spend hours editing video. As you create more videos, you might find spending a little more time producing the videos will enhance your viewers’ experience and sharpen your professional image. You can use a FREE video editing software like OpenShot or purchase software for video editing. I use both Adobe AfterEffects and Sony Vegas Video (depending on project). Add intros, titles, transitions and special effects to make your video a polished clip. Be sure your video title and description contain key phrases that relate to the topic. Learn more about Google's suggestions on how to write smart video descriptions.

Convert Boring FAQ Pages Into Viral Conent

2. Convert Boring FAQ Pages

Most websites have a frequently asked questions section. It is usually a boring list of questions that…well, people frequently ask. Taking these topics that you know to be frequently asked and making them into spicy little nuggets of creative content can be much easier than you might think. Open a word processing document. Type what you would consider the most important FAQ. Now think about your answer in steps. Make a numerical list if you can. Then for each of the list items, write a little more to explain further. Provide an example when you can. Once you’ve finished expounding on each of the list items for this FAQ item, you now have an article…CONGRATULATIONS! Remember, your articles do not need to be lengthy. Shoot for a goal of 300-500 words.

After you write your article, be sure to use a spell checker for spelling or grammatical errors. I use and highly recommend Grammarly. Now that you have an article, you should publish it on your website and social media channels. The article can be inserted organically into your existing website content by hyperlinking keywords, key phrases or block quotes to the article within the appropriate page context. Another option would be to create a new area of your website with the main navigation support. For example, you might create a main menu item that points to a blog, news category or forum where you discuss this and other related topics.

To further enhance your new article of information, you should be sure to add hyperlinks throughout the article which link to further information. You will also need to add the appropriate header tags (H1, H2, etc.), a hyperlink to external resources, add supporting images to break up the textual content, and any other supporting graphics or infographics. To make your article pop, I suggest that create a video that explains everything you cover in the article. Add that video directly to the article, but don’t forget to publish it on YouTube, in your website video gallery and on social media as well.

Discover Your Target Market

3. Re-Discover Your Audience

If you can’t think of relevant topics to feature on your website, you have likely lost touch with your target audience. You need to think about who you are trying to reach. Before reaching your goals, you should ask yourself the BIG FIVE! Who, what, when, where and why. For example, if your goal is to sell more floral arrangements, who is buying floral arrangements, in what are they most interested (besides floral arrangements), when do they most often purchase arrangements, where do they most often live, shop and gather and why do they purchase floral arrangements. Use social media and Google Trends to discover topics of interest to your target audience. You can also let your audience give you hints on what you need to cover. Post a poll on your Facebook, Twitter or ask your customers when they are present in your store. Listen to them.

After you define your target audience and discover topics of interest, you need to publish videos, blog entries and articles to cover these categories (and subcategories) of interest. Remember that you need to think like your target audience. Use language that they understand. Don’t get caught up in technicalities by using language or discussing topics that your audience may have trouble understanding.

Pretend you are your target audience for a day. Use Google search to research your topic of interest. Uncover blogs, Facebook pages, YouTube channels, LinkedIn groups, Twitter topics and Instagram feeds that discuss relevant topics. DO NOT be afraid to subscribe to your competition’s pages, blogs or channels. I know. That sounds crazy. But you might be surprised at what you can learn. Sometimes you can unlock viral topics by just reading emails or social media threads.

Having confidence trouble?

If you don't feel confident in your abilities to create content, your suffering from writer’s block or maybe you simply don’t have the time? Call me at 225-964-6825 and let’s chat for a few minutes about your marketing goals. I do offer absolutely free consultations with absolutely no obligation.

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