We all wish we could produce Viral content.  It gets attention, increases recognition, drives traffic and encourages back linking.  Don’t you wish we could determine exactly what makes viral content go viral?

Well, we can’t.  Not entirely.  A lot of it has to do with intangibles and factors that we don’t consciously sense.  Sometimes we think something has viral possibilities, only to then see it go ignored. 

There are, however, a few things that most viral content shares in common.  If you want to increase the odds of having a hit, it makes sense to create materials that fall in line with those characteristics.

First, it’s generally bite-sized.  Long things just don’t get passed around as often or as quickly.  Full length movies don’t go viral, clips do.  You want to make something that is easy to take in quickly.

Second, there’s usually a visual component.  Sometimes, it might be a photo.  In others, video is at play.  Rarely do you see viral content that’s solely audio- or text-based.  It’s apparently easier for someone to advise others to “look at this” than it is to “read this”.

Finally, it’s generally funny or highly controversial.  Serious, middle of the road content just doesn’t have the same level of viral potential.

Whenever anybody asks me about Twitter for Marketing, I have one response: “Twitter Rocks!” That’s right, rocks. It is one of the most awesome additions to the Internet and with the right knowledge it is one of the best marketing methods out there for driving targeted traffic to your website, quickly and effectively. If you visit the Twitter site, you will probably think I’m a loon. However, bear with me while I break down how you can use Twitter to be a viral marketing engine that gets you steady traffic.

What Is Twitter?

Twitter is the original microblogging platform that allows friends, family, co-workers and potential visitors to communicate and stay up-to-date on the goings on in your life and business. It answers one simple question: “What Are You doing?” Specifically, what are you doing right now? Now, this may seem a bit ho-hum, but it goes way beyond just the ordinary. You can follow people, get followed and send out updates on a continuous basis. It is called microblogging because you are only allowed to use 140 characters or less to communicate your entire thought.

Only 140 Characters, Oh My!

You might think that 140 characters isn’t all that much to get across an entire advertising message, let alone getting it to go viral. You are so wrong. If you tailor a message that is interesting, unique with a title that grabs attention, you can not only pick up followers, but people will deliver your site simply because they want to find out what your whole message is.

Through direct communication, you can send messages to up to 1000 of your friends in one day. I’ll bet your wondering how you get 1000 people to follow you. I started with 10 and I am now at 1,057 followers, and I’m following approximately 2K people. I’ve been Twittering one month, but I’ve picked all these people up over time. Now, when I send out a message, all the people who are following me read my message and follow any links I put in it.

People Need To Know That You Care Before They Care What You Know

They also like what I post, so I get direct messages where they’ve reposted what I’ve written to their friends and followers. Viola, it just when viral. Instead of sending a message out to only 1,000+ readers, many times messages are cut and pasted and sent out to my followers followers. It is indeed a powerful medium to get your message out quickly.

Making A Message Go Viral Takes A Bit Of Ingenuity

People hate to think your selling them something and the only reason you picked them up or followed them is because you want to send them spam tweets. What you have to do is send out the occasional tweet that points them towards some kind of product or service, but mostly you simply point out the interesting places you’ve surfed. Using words like, I found a cool site here or there is taken much better than go here and sign up for my affiliate product. If you have an affiliate program, cloak your links so that it doesn’t look like an affiliate link. One great place to do that is with www.tinyurl.com. It will take you extremely long URL and make it a super-short URL, which is good because you only  have 140 characters in which to type you message. You wouldn’t want it taken up with your URL only.

Tweet My Blog

Another great thing to do is get the TweetMyBlog WordPress plug-in. It allows you to tweet to your Twitter account every time you update your blog. It shows that there’s an update and a brief title and a bit of what it’s about. This is automatic and people will follow you if they’re interested in what you’re blogging about.

Twitterfeed

Another great automation tool is Twitterfeed.com. Through this site, you can load up your blog’s RSS feed and every time you update, it will send a tweet out. This, in turn, goes out to all your Twitter friends, who can make it viral if they like what you’re blogging about by Twittering their friends and followers.

Twitter Is Addictive Fun

Twitter is one of those addictive devices that’s so much fun, you can spend all day – off and on – twittering about what your doing. When I went on vacation in Florida, I twittered about my vacation and trip to Disney World using the SMS texting feature that Twitter has to give live updates. It was fun and it again let my followers know that I didn’t just Twitter about business stuff that tried to get them to buy. If you mix it up between personal, fun and business, you will build a following of people who simply like to Twitter with you.

In the end, you will have a Twitter-list that doesn’t mind hearing about your “next big thing”, and will likely visit the site you Twitter about and tell their friends, too.That’s why when asked by fellow Internet entrepreneurs, what I think about Twitter, I say: “Twitter Rocks!” Try it and find out about the power that 140 characters can give you.