Who does not want to succeed again? Everything that hits the highway to success has many takers who want to imitate the winning formula. In my experience, I have rarely come across a viral content being made of repeated material. For example, try to produce a music video like Gangnam Style or Kolaveri Di. You are bound to fail miserably. I’m quite sure that many have tried and failed! The same goes for movies that are very successful commercially. There are many who want to create the same type of content and earn the big bucks.
Things do not pan out that way. The reason is simple. Once it is done, it does not have the same novelty factor anymore. The result is that none of the imitations attract as much as the original. The question I’m raising here is, after a content piece, be it a video, an infographic or a written article, goes viral, is there any way to hit those high benchmarks of success again? I think the answer is yes, provided you try to climb a peak different from the one that has already been climbed before. In other words, you cannot try to imitate success. You have to create a new success story.
Analyze This and That
The first step towards replicating runaway success of content pieces is to analyze them carefully. Your idea is not to find the right ingredients and plug them in a fresh piece. Your aim is to understand and reflect why these ingredients became successful in the first place. If you crack that puzzle, it will be easier for you to cook up fresh ingredients and create a whole new success mantra. Analyze what connected with the audience in the first place. Study the congratulatory tweets or mentions. Read the reviews. Find out what worked. If necessary, talk to the people who have liked the piece. Jot them down as guidelines.
The Technicalities of Success
The next step is to look at the technicalities of the content piece. For example, if it is a video, what was the length? If it is a written piece, how many words went into it? These are snippets of information that are important because you need to find out what works optimally. If the video is too long or too short, you will lose out on taking it viral. The same goes for an article or blog post. Information overload is another key aspect of this process. Trying to pack in too much will prove counter-productive. The title of the piece, the keywords and various other technical details are crucial to measure success. Keep all this information on standby.
The Time Factor
Taking a content piece viral has a lot to do with timing. The right time can make all the difference. Have you noticed how movie releases are cut down to a bare trickle during the hard summer days or even in the biting winter cold but shoot up blatantly during festival seasons? The reason is that movie producers know that festival days are when people will turn up to watch movies. The biggest releases are slated for Diwali in India and Christmas in USA. That brings in the big bucks! The same applies for content. When you post something that is topical and timely, it is bound to grab attention. Inversely, when you try to imitate its success, the timing has already run past you.
Influencers Matter
Why will a child listen to the teacher and not to the same advice coming from a stranger? It is because the child believes the teacher to be right. The teacher has that power to influence the child, which the stranger does not have. When you are thinking viral about your content pieces, you can quote a couple of influencers in that domain. These are people that others listen to and they have ample credibility as a dependable voice or authority. I usually do not use such name-dropping in my posts but this is not really a bad idea. People like to know that the industry veterans think of matters and if you provide them that, their credibility rubs off on your posts as well.
The Final Word
True to what I started the post with, it may be very possible that despite all these steps and methods, you are unable to hit those high numbers that you achieved with a certain post. The internet is fascinating in that way! There are many phenomenal stories that cannot be explained. Obviously, cannot explain or replicate that success simply because you cannot comprehend it fully. The key is to keep trying to do your best, whether the piece is successful or not. But always work with an eye to upscale or amplify your content pieces.
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