If you have asked Google a few years back, “What makes things go viral?” you’ll most likely get a simple answer: luck. While it seems like a great theory, it is not entirely true.
If your content activates a high-arousal emotion, then there’s a great chance that people will be sharing and talking about your content.
A high arousal emotion can either be positive or negative. Mind you, activating these emotions is not a walk in the park. You really need to consider which emotion you want to target and hit it perfectly.
Passion/Lust
To tap on this emotion successfully, you’ll have to tease people and pique on their interest. You can do this by teasing them with food, sex or products/services that create an anticipation of pleasure.
People’s passion quickly run dry so there’s a need for constant adaptation and creativity.
Fear
Fear is one of the biggest motivators on earth. When motivated with fear, people are forced to take action.
People want to avoid problems. You can tap on this emotion, define the consequences and inspire a fast action.
Anger
When you piss off people, they’ll most likely do something prove you wrong or attain justice. They may want to talk about it on their blog, on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.
Keep in mind, though, that pissing someone off for fun is not a good marketing strategy. So, might want to skip on this altogether.
Awe
Create something that people will find remarkable and people will surely comment on it.
Joy
Positive contents are more viral than the negative ones. There are a lot of things that can make people happy. It can be something inspiring, funny or anything that’s positively uplifting.
When you’re looking to increase traffic to your site, don’t just write content for the sake of writing content. Instead, think about these emotions and hit them well. This way, you can be sure that your content will get shared.
