How to Use Viral Trends and Channel their Traffic-Generating Powers

In case you haven’t figured it out from the very title, this article will be about using all those viral Internet trends to your own advantage and utilizing them to boost your traffic and promote your business, blog, website, product, service, etc. You’ve probably heard about the proverbial lemons given out to us by life, as well as the modern variation of this proverb involving tequila (When life gives you lemons, go buy tequila!), but before you go out and buy this popular Mexican alcoholic beverage to celebrate your optimistic views, make sure you read this useful article all the way through. Tequila is much more fun when you are celebrating  the success of your digital marketing plan.

Using social media for online marketing enables both small and big businesses to reach bigger audiences and get new customers, while keeping the old ones satisfied and smiling. If you are a consumer-facing company, having a successful and up-to-date content marketing strategy is one of the best ways to engage with audiences online, improve your search rankings, and increase brand visibility by encouraging social sharing and interaction. One of the easiest ways to boost your traffic is to take advantage of viral Internet trends. Grab those lemons, son. Squeeze them dry.

What do we consider viral trends?

Viral content helps us share the most interesting stories, photos, videos or online trends across the globe in a matter of hours. Through these trends we become a part of a global conversation, we stay up-to-date with the rest of the globe, and have a lot of fun. So, why not cash these viral trends in while we’re at it? Successful and resourceful online marketers use these trends on a regular basis within their marketing plans. They use them to leverage the attention these posts can generate and channel their traffic to their own backyard.

Remember the Gangnam style dance? blue/gold dress phenomenon? How about the more recent confused-Travolta meme? These are all viral trends that became so popular so quickly, and many people managed to take advantage of them and use them in their marketing campaigns. So, how does all this work?

It is quite simple, actually. We use curiosity and the human need to belong. Curiosity didn’t just kill the cat, it brought millions of dollars to many a successful online entrepreneur, while our need to be part of a larger group of people who share similar opinions is also a huge factor. Everyone wants to be a part of the next trending conversation, so if you can be the one to provide an engaging social media post as an outlet for that conversation, why not use that opportunity to promote your own business, webpage, or blog?

Lemonade – Making Of

Since now you know why boosting the engagement of your posts by connecting them with viral trends is one of the most practical and efficient ways to leverage viral content and reach wider audience base, let’s see how it can be done in 5 easy steps.

1. The Copycat – For starters, maybe it would be best to simply follow other successful social sharing models. Snoop around and see how other, more successful competitors from your niche, are utilizing the newest viral trend. If you like what you see, follow their example.

2. All aboard the Humor Train – Once you have seen how other’s do it, it is time for your own take on the whole shebang. Be original, join the social conversations, and post about a recent viral trend by putting it in your own context and adding a funny remark to the whole thing.

Let’s take the confused-Travolta meme for example. You can take one of the many gifs available online and add a caption that will tickle the fancy of your target audience. Let’s say you are a writer and you are writing about digital marketing, your caption could read: Poor Travolta. This is how a great post that didn’t reach its target audience must feel. Just find a suitable context, activate your funny bone, and with a little luck, these trends could be your next gold mine. Also, make sure you think about which viral trends work best for which social platform.

3. Increasing your Shares by Using Content Buzz – You can always use book-marketer sites like Reddit, Inbound.org or HackerNews, to post links back to your own site when talking about a viral story. Just pay attention to the relevant subcategories and make sure that you’re being respectful of a website’s standards and rules.

4. Anticipation & Newsjacking – Almost all popular sites that deal with the news from the pop culture are doing this, so why wouldn’t you? Some news are simply bigger than others right from the day one and these have a tendency to go viral. This is where you come in and report on a trending story that might go viral, so your post ends up being one of the first to report the big news.

5. Starting a Debate – Another great and rather fun way to take advantage of viral content is to try and debunk a suspicious trend that is generating much attention. Ask your audience for their opinion on certain topics that are close or relatable to your niche. There are many viral videos and posts out there which are so amazing and unbelievable, that we still don’t know if they are real or not.

Is the dress blue or gold? Will Travolta ever find what or whom he is looking for? (He will, obviously, we all saw “Pulp Fiction”, but it is still fun, isn’t it?).

Now you can go and drink that lemonade (or tequila) with gusto!