According to statistics, 55.1 percent of the world’s population has access to internet as of June 2018. And with the huge percentage of internet users, approximately 196 million people in the United States used the social media in 2016.
The number of social media users continue to grow. It is predicted that more than 216 million will have access to social media by 2011.
With the surprising statistics, it is imperative for businesses to maximize the potential market when issuing a press release. Competition is so stiff among brands that they need to make the most of their efforts to reach each and every target market, even on the social media.
How do you make your release viral on the social media?
According to Digital Marketing Expert Neil Patel, a viral content is something that spreads widely and rapidly from one internet user to another. A viral content has the tendency to be shared and spread like a virus.
Tactic #1: Craft an engaging and interesting content.
People on the social media are browsing their newsfeed until they find something that is interesting to read on. Since releases are known to be old and boring content, think outside the box on how you can make it attention-grabbing.
Include images, videos, graphs or infographics to attract the audience. Social media users are more on visuals. They are attracted to content that is appealing to their eyes.
Content with images or videos are read and shared more than those that do not have anything on it. Furthermore, choose topics that are relevant to them. You can check https://www.newswire.com/features/distribution.
Tactic #2: Pick the correct social media channel.
Promote your content on the most appropriate social media platform. There are a number of channels to choose from, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Keep in mind that each platform has their own way of promoting a content and have their own audience. Make sure that you know how you can maximize it. Like for example if you want to share your content on Instagram, you need to compile a number of high quality images.
If you decide to promote it on Facebook, ensure that it is informative, entertaining and shareable. Issue releases that have a catchy and relevant headlines. Audiences should find a reason why they should pay attention to your content.
When promoting on LinkedIn, make sure that your content is relevant to its professional audience. They should find content that can enrich their profession or business. For Twitter, promote content that is trending, interesting and witty.
Tactic #3: Identify and study your audience.
It would be hard for you to craft a viral content if you fail to analyze your target audience. You need to know their needs, habits and behavior. You need to create a marketing persona.
Visualize who your target audience is. You need to know their content preferences, social media behavior, demographic and psychographic.
It would be easier for you if you can have a direct interaction with your potential customers. Observe their interests, perspectives and preferences to know how you can convince them to make a purchasing decision.
Tactic #4: Focus on one story that people would care about.
One fault of majority of marketers is telling their entire story or focusing on all the features of their products. Doing this can overwhelm your readers.
It would be difficult for them to digest this kind of information, and also easier for them to just disregard it. Instead of being too general with your topic, offer a more specific subject to discuss.
Provide a story that they would care about. Going back to the earlier tactic, if you know their needs and preferences, it is easier for you to offer a story that would attract them.
Bring a unique story. Provide something that is not yet offered by your competitors.
Tactic #5: Provide a user-centric story.
Your audience doesn’t care about a new feature of your product or service. They are more concerned about how they are going to benefit from it.
This is why before crafting your story, think what specific need your audience have. Answer how your product or service can solve or provide it.
When following this tip, place yourself in the shoes of your audience. Perhaps, you can offer a solution to a problem they have for a long time, provide tips or techniques, or offer a new information that can change their lives.
Avoid a story that is like a sales pitch. The last thing you don’t want to happen is to look like you are using a release to sell your product or service.
Do not write a self-promotion content. Divert from promoting your company or product too much.
Although a release is an effective marketing tool, it shouldn’t be used as an advertisement. Remember that it should be used to inform and not to sell your offer.
Journalists should see that you are focused on the audience rather than your business. This way, they can easily pick your story for publishing.
Tactic #6: Use hashtags.
Use hashtags or the pound sign in the headline to make your content easier to find on the social media. It is the quickest way to go viral and boost sharing among users.
Today, it is normal to use the hashtag symbol (#) and Twitter handle (@). Include it in your content to increase its visibility.
People using a certain hashtag can easily find your content. Hashtags turn a word into a metadata tag. Using the pound sign helps a user expose their own content to others who are also using the same hashtag.
You can monitor the thread or conversation happening around your brand. You can use the sign on various channels like y Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Tumblr, Pinterest and LinkedIn.
If ever you are going to use hashtags, make sure to use popular ones. If you are a new business, don’t attempt to create your own because there is a lesser tendency that other companies are using it.
Tactic #7: Use video.
One way to easily make a viral release is by including a video in a content. Images are worth a thousand words, but a video is worth millions.
A video can drive more traffic to a site and engage more audience. It also encourages them to share it more across the social media.
Moreover, videos are an easy method to attract your audience, retain their attention and promote a message. It is a powerful form of content that is easy to understand than a block of text.
In order for you to maximize it, make sure to create interesting, clever and creative videos. A video makes the audience want to engage.
Tactic #8: Use images.
Another important element of a release that makes it easy to share on social media channels is images. Use quality photos relevant to your story.
For instance, if you’re announcing a new product, don’t just capture a still photo of the product. Instead, include a picture of your product while in the production.
It should be connected to what you are announcing. Avoid using “stock images.” These aren’t going to describe what you are promoting.
Use images that add value to the story. When adding the description, use keywords to optimize your content on Google Images.
Tactic #9: Incorporate social media sharing buttons.
Today, whenever you share your content on different social media platforms, ensure that there are social media sharing buttons. It makes sharing easy for the users.
You want to encourage users to share your content to as many people as possible right? By incorporating these buttons, you make the work easy and fast.
It is easier not to pay attention to these buttons. However, ignoring them to promote your content can affect the result of your campaign.
With social share button, you’ll get social signals. These days, search engines like Google give credit to content that is mostly liked, shared, tweeted and posted on the social media sites. A content that is shared more often has higher ranking on search results for a certain keyword.
Using these buttons can boost your brand exposure. When you use it, it clearly indicate that your content reaches new customers who may not have been exposed with your brand or content. The new potential customer can again quickly share it on their social media network.
Tactic #10: Blog it.
To maximize the potential of your content to go viral, blog it. However, don’t copy paste the entire release on your blog. Doing this can hurt your search engine optimization as it is considered as duplicate content.
When blogging, summarize your release. Include a link on your blog to boost traffic to your site.
It is also good if you extend the life of your release by repackaging its content and changing your target readers. Use hashtags to include it in conversations happening online.
You can also leverage on influencer marketing campaigns. Publish your release on your newsroom. Encourage bloggers to help you promote it to their followers.
