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Viral Images | A Strategy Guide
Let's get this out of the way . . . there's no guarantee you'll ever create a viral image.However, there are things you can do to increase the odds—but before we get to those things, you should know this:
Even if you never have an image go truly viral, any of them can send fresh, new traffic to your site. Lots of traffic. The more you try, the more likely you are to have some big hits.
All the little hits add up, too. The Mississippi River is knee deep and about 18 feet wide where it begins. It's obviously much deeper, wider, and far more powerful by the time it gets to the Gulf of Mexico. It's all the little streams and tributaries that flow into it that turn it into one of the mightiest rivers in the world. Similarly, several small traffic streams can create a flood of visitors to your site.
But you have to keep creating the streams. A handful of images won't solve all your traffic problems.
The good news is that making graphics can be quite fun! Creating or finding a message you want to send, adding it to a cool graphic and making it look good, are both creative activities that feed our minds and help us to feel good. We were born to be creative. We were born to feel good!
So what are the things you can do to maximize your chances of a graphic going viral?
Make Them Easy to Share
Yes, people on social media are used to sharing and the social media platforms make it very easy to do so. But before you call me Captain Obvious, did you know you can add social media share buttons to your website?You can custom code your own share buttons, or with Facebook and Twitter you can use their developer tools to generate the code to add to your site, or you can use a service, which is the easiest option. If you do add social media share buttons you may want to update your privacy policy.
Here are the links to the Facebook and Twitter developer pages, as well as links to four services (with free options) that provide the code to add share buttons to your site. Note that I've not used any of these services so I'm not making any recommendations. The one I used on my old site is terminating their service. It worked well for years, but termination of service is always a possibility when you use outside services.
- Create your own Facebook buttons
- Create your own Twitter buttons
- ShareThis
- AddToAny
- Shareaholic
- ElfSight
There are also services you can use to post to many different social media sites at once. I haven't used any because I don't have many social media account, I just wanted to make you aware of it in case it might interest you. Whether you use a service like that or not, it's a good idea to post anything you hope goes viral to all you social media accounts.
Tug on Emotions
Consider creating an image that elicits an emotional response from viewers and easily relatable or amusing to your target audience. The image should evoke emotions such as happiness, surprise, nostalgia, empathy, inspiration or other strong emotions have a higher likelihood of being shared.So what creates an emotional connection in a digital world? At the end of each device is a real person, so the same things that have always created emotional connections still work.
- Things that amaze or inspire us, like the Nick Vujicic story.
- Uplifting, positive messages that make us feel better about ourselves or the world around us.
- Unusual topics or viewpoints. Think offbeat, quirky, surprising, or unexpected.
- Cute and happy things: laughing babies and children, goofy animal behavior, etc.
- Motivational messages that . . . well, motivate us to pursue our goals, do good works, or affirm our beliefs.
Memes and Humor
Memes and humor go hand-in-hand and can play a significant role in making images go viral. Here are some ways to leverage memes and humor to increase the chances of a viral spiral:Relatable Situations: Memes often depict relatable situations that people can identify with in their daily lives. An image that captures a universally relatable experience, quirk, or funny moment that your target audience can connect with and share has a better than average chance of virality.
Wit and Cleverness: Incorporate wit and cleverness into your image. Puns, wordplay, or clever visual elements can add an extra layer of humor and make your image stand out. Aim for a combination of creativity and humor that resonates with your audience.
Pop Culture References: Memes often reference popular culture, such as movies, TV shows, celebrities, or internet trends. Capitalizing on the latest trends and using relevant references in your image can make it more relatable and increase its chances of being shared.
Irony and Satire: Utilize irony or satire to create humorous social commentary. People enjoy content that cleverly mocks or parodies certain aspects of society, trends, or behaviors. However, be mindful of striking the right balance to avoid causing offense or controversy. Some people seem to specialize in being offended these days.
Mimicry: Consider creating an image that follows the visual format of popular memes. Mimicking a well-known meme format can make your image seem familiar and relatable to a wide audience. This may increase the likelihood of your image being shared as people recognize and connect with the format. It still has to be share-worthy content, the familiarity just helps others pull the trigger faster.
Unexpected Twists: Incorporate unexpected twists or elements of surprise in your image. Catching viewers off guard and making them laugh or react can make your image more memorable and encourage sharing.
Context and Timing: Memes often thrive on current events or ongoing conversations. Pay attention to trending topics, news, or pop culture moments, and create humorous images that relate to them. By capitalizing on the context and timing, you can increase the chances of your image being shared.
Relevance and Timeliness
Align your image with current trends, events, or topics of interest. Pay attention to what's happening in popular culture, news, or social media and create content that connects with the ongoing conversations. Being timely can significantly enhance the chances of your image being shared. This type of meme isn't likely to be evergreen, but that's not really an issue with memes like it is website content.Monitoring trending hashtags on social media platforms and is a good way to stay on type of these trending issues. Creating images that align with them and using the trending hash tags can be a solid way to increase the chances of your image being discovered and shared.
Simplicity and Clarity
Keep the image simple and easy to understand at a glance. Images that are immediately clear and require little explanation tend to perform better and have a higher likelihood of being shared.Influencer Outreach
Influencer outreach is a strategy where you connect with influential individuals or social media accounts within your target audience and give them the opportunity to share your image.Influencer outreach requires a thoughtful and strategic approach. Find a few influencers whose values align with yours and ensure they have an engaged and active audience. Quality is more important than quantity when it comes to influencer outreach, so focus on building genuine relationships with a few key influencers who can have a significant impact on the viral potential of your image.
Follow their content, comment on their posts, and share their work. Building a beneficial relationship with them increases the odds they'll share your images. Once they've recognized your participation in what they do, you could tag them in your posts, or even reach out to them personally. You might ask if they wanted to collaborate, or offer an exclusive image to share (discretely branding with your web address), or even offer to make a meme for them.
Encourage User Participation
Create an image that invites users to participate in some way, such as by adding captions, sharing their stories related to the image, or participating in a challenge. User-generated content can help increase engagement and the likelihood of your image going viral.Remember, while these strategies can increase the likelihood of your image going viral, it ultimately depends on the preferences of your target audience and the unpredictable nature of virality.
Visually Compelling
Of course, what is visually compelling is subjective. A grungy texture can be awesome to one person and hideous to another. One person's sleek sports car might be another person's impractical waste of money. Whether a person likes or dislikes a particular images doesn't necessarily mean it isn't visually compelling though. If it captures attention, it's visually compelling enough!
However, because tastes vary, it's a good idea to create all kinds of images: beautiful images, ugly images, grungy images, clean and neat images, funny images, serious images, smart images, goofy images, and so on—until you find what works for you, then you can work on developing your own style.
I've touched on several things here, but the most important is this: know your intended audience. What do the consumers and leaders in your niche love? What motivates them? What lights their fire? When you know your audience, resonating with them becomes much easier.
For example, if your target audience is business owners, posting a photo of flowers with text that reads, "Stop and smell the roses" probably isn't going get a lot of shares no matter how nice the graphic is. If your target audience is gardeners, that image would likely do better. However, that saying is so well-known I wouldn't expect it to go viral unless the graphic is exceptionally well done.
Knowing your target market is paramount in making viral images, in writing sales copy, and in creating products that sell.
