Content in any form (text, image, video) is STILL king and perhaps that's the reason every travel brand is striving to create quality content for their sites.
But, what does it takes to create viral content? While there is no straight formula to predict the viral quotient of a piece of content, there are steps that can be followed to create viral content.
WhoIsHostingThis, a web hosting information service provider has crafted five tips for producing potentially viral content.
The travel industry has witnessed numerous examples of content that has gone viral in various time frames. For example,
- KLM Surprise campaign/video that captured the emotion when people at airport where surprised with gifts
- Google's video ad ('Reunion') about promoting Search in India where it again captured the emotion between two childhood friends
- The Korean pop star who produced the 'Gangnam style' video that was later named as 'The most watched video of all time in YouTube'. As an effect, Korean tourism reported record high visitors to the country in 2012.
- A complaint letter written by an Air France passenger addressing the CEO of the airline about various inconveniences
- A United Airline passenger who expressed his unhappiness (via a song) towards the airline for allegedly breaking his guitar
And, there are many more.
The above examples of viral content have captured elements like humor, emotion and happiness that everyone can relate to.
A summary of WhoIsHostingThis's recipe for creating a viral content:
1. Emotional appeal: Content that connects emotionally catches the user attention. Positive emotions tend to do better than negative emotions.
2. Create share-worthy content: Create practical, useful, and memorable content that people can share and earn social currencies.
3. Its all about timing: Plan your content release with time bound factors like holidays, and events.
4. Good design: Visual appeal, placement of content, and usage of colors play a key role in the viral equation.
5. Content distribution: Take advantage of social media channels to get your content in-front of as many people as possible. A user has to see the content before sharing it.
Below is the infographic that elaborates on the above pointers:
NB:Megaphone image via Shutterstock.