The Irresistible Allure of Trending Content

The Irresistible Allure of Trending Content

97% of what you're creating right now is being completely ignored.

Why?

Because while you're busy perfecting your content schedule, your audience is chasing dopamine hits from whatever is trending RIGHT NOW.

I've built and scaled multiple businesses, and I can tell you that mastering the trend cycle isn't optional. It's the difference between explosive growth and painful obscurity.

When I started creating content, I was convinced that “quality” would win. I was dead wrong.

If everyone's attention is focused elsewhere, the market doesn't care about your perfectly crafted evergreen pieces.

The entrepreneurs making millions today understand one critical concept: attention flows to what's trending, and money flows to where attention goes.

But here's where most get it wrong – jumping on trends isn't about being reactive. It's about developing a systematic approach to identify, leverage, and monetise trending content BEFORE your competition notices the pattern.

Why Trending Content Matters

Content that trends reaches a massive audience.

A single viral post can introduce your brand to millions of new people.

Not only that, but viral content generates valuable social proof. People who see others engaging with your content are likelier to do the same. This herd mentality effect accelerates sharing.

But most importantly, trending content fuels organic discovery. Algorithms favour content that generates buzz. So, a viral post will continue surfacing in feeds long after initial sharing dies down. The momentum can introduce your work to new waves of people over an extended period.

In other words, one piece of trending content can have a long-tailed impact on your brand awareness. Rather than constantly fighting for attention, you earn an ally in the form of an algorithmic amplifier.

Understanding Algorithms' Role in Virality

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok amplify content through their algorithms.

These systems favour content that sparks quick engagement, generating rapid likes and shares. The algorithms recognise this as high-interest material, promoting it to broader audiences.

Algorithms continually assess content's relevance and engagement, prioritising posts with heightened interaction. On Instagram, an early spike in engagement can propel a piece to the Explore page, extending reach.

TikTok's ‘For You' page showcases videos that are rapidly gaining traction. Knowing how these mechanisms work helps creators boost visibility on these competitive platforms.

The Psychology of Virality

Virality relies on specific emotional responses. Crafting contagious content means strategically eliciting reactions that motivate people to share. Let's explore critical viral triggers:

Surprise

Unexpected ideas shatter assumptions, delivering cognitive jolts. These moments of surprise stick in people's minds while prompting deeper processing. Research shows that interrupting people's existing narratives with unfamiliar angles makes content more shareable.

Inspiration

Uplifting stories about overcoming challenges or exhibiting virtue spread widely. Inspiring content builds hope, renews faith in humanity, and promotes positive values. These nourishing emotional rewards incentivise sharing.

Humour

Laughter releases pleasure chemicals that improve mood. Comedic content offers people social currency to brighten others' days. Funny memes, jokes, and wit spread cheer through networks.

Outrage

Anger is a high-arousal emotion that motivates action. Outrage can ignite people's sense of injustice, driving them to raise awareness. However, constructive outrage focused on uniting people behind solutions tends to spread further.

Awe

Experiences of profundity through exposure to wisdom, talent, beauty, or skill can evoke an awed response. By sharing the source of the awe, people act as digital evangelists for meaningful ideas.

As you can see, content that sparks strong emotions compels sharing. People pass on viral ideas as “gifts” to provoke reactions in others.

Emotional Triggers and Cultural Context

How emotions are perceived varies across cultural contexts. Content that may trend in one area might not be in another. For instance, humour that resonates within Western contexts might miss the mark elsewhere.

Storytelling that touches on shared cultural values can bridge gaps across regions.

Recognising these cultural aspects ensures content trends and meaningfully connects with varied audiences.

In some areas, content highlighting collective achievements can invoke national pride, boosting shareability. Conversely, individualistic cultures may prefer personal success stories.

Ingredients of Viral Content

Now, let's examine critical ingredients that make up shareable content across formats:

Novelty

As mentioned above, fresh, unexpected angles intrigue people. Presenting common topics in new ways piques interest. The unfamiliar also promotes deeper cognitive engagement as people interpret further information.

Continuity

Content that connects to trending topics feeds off collective attention—tapping into what's already popular with a unique addition leverages virality momentum.

Positivity

Most people prefer sharing uplifting concepts. Harmful content breeds fatigue from excessive outrage. Promoting human virtues through storytelling tends to inspire more engagement.

Simplicity

Ideas that distil complex topics into accessible language and digestible formats spread more quickly. Hard-to-process concepts require deeper thinking, raising sharing barriers.

Visual Impact

People increasingly consume content via scrolling feeds. Visually striking images, videos, or bold typography stand out in noisy streams. This stops scrolling and prompts shares.

Utility

Helpful, practical advice people can apply in their own lives offers value. Educational how-tos, life hacks, and productivity tips give valuable knowledge and social currency.

Storytelling

Compelling narratives structured with dramatic arcs elicit emotional investment. Stories feel relatable while allowing imagination to fill gaps. This immersive engagement boosts sharing.

Controversy

As mentioned above, with outrage, reasonable counter-narratives to accepted thinking prompt discourse and debate. This fuels sharing from multiple angles.

Humour

Laughter disarms people and improves mood, priming positive associations. Funny content offers emotional release, making it highly shareable. Just avoid off-colour or alienating humour.

Comment Bait

Content structured to provoke reactions through strong opinions, questions, or provocative assertions can drive comments. This engages people in public discourse.

These elements infect content with the potential for contagion through networks. Study viral hits to see ingredients combined for maximum sharing.

Optimising Content For Virality

You can strategically engineer content to encourage sharing by planning for crucial elements:

Headlines

Craft headlines targeting emotional triggers like curiosity through creative phrasing. Focus on providing value by highlighting what the reader will learn.

Imagery

Select images that grab attention through bold colours, composition, and visual interest. Photographs can enhance content or contradict expectations.

Topic

Connect content to trending conversations and current events by offering novel analysis or commentary. Timeliness fuels opportunistic buzz.

Style

Adopt an engaging, conversational tone that reads like a friend sharing ideas. Use strategic questions and humour to entertain readers.

Structure

Break up walls of text with numbered lists, bullet points, subheads, and bold/italicised highlights. This improves skimmability for overloaded readers.

Length

Shorter content optimises shareability by easing consumption. But provide enough depth to enrich readers rather than superficial fluff.

Closing

End with a recap and call-to-action. Prompt readers to apply insights, share reactions, or reframe perspectives. This activates audiences.

Promotion

Share content through owned channels, outreach to influencers, and paid amplification. Getting the initial momentum going is critical.

Iteration

Track engagement and modify underperforming elements. Constant optimisation using analytics improves sharing over time.

Virality combines science and serendipity. While you can engineer content for maximum share potential, unpredictability remains. However, implementing these lessons should increase the odds of creating a runaway hit.

Case Studies of Viral Content

Let's analyse real examples that won the Internet's heart:

Lane Moore's “It's All Going to Be Okay” Music Video

This video captures the pandemic's collective grief through vulnerable singing into a webcam. Simple and emotionally resonant, it struck a chord during an uncertain time. Moore's authenticity fostered a rare sense of connection between strangers.

Brene Brown's TED Talk on Vulnerability

By candidly discussing a topic riddled with shame, Brown permitted people to embrace vulnerability as strength. Her storytelling made the research insights accessible while reframing a taboo. This empowering message uplifted countless viewers.

Humans of New York Photo Series

Brandon Stanton's photography project captures the diversity of human experience on NYC streets via portraits and captions sharing people's stories. The relatable glimpses into strangers' lives reveal our shared humanity. This compelling concept spread globally.

Gary Vaynerchuk's “Crushing It”

Vaynerchuk's energetic straight talk on mindsets for success resonated widely by mixing humour, profanity, and unfiltered opinions. His charisma and “zero to one million” personal story cemented his digital thought leader status.

Ylvis “What Does the Fox Say?”

This absurd song and meme-able video highlight the power of novelty, humour, and imagery. The weirdness of grown men dressed as foxes singing nonsense phrases became an international viral sensation.

This song's viral success hinged on its eccentricity and catchy tune. The video's comedic elements, combined with its unexpected premise, captured global attention. Its engaging, share-worthy nature allowed it to transcend language barriers, illustrating humour's universal appeal.

Each example combined critical ingredients for maximum shareability while filling a cultural need. Studying their formulas provides helpful models.

Risks of Engineering Virality

The lure of mass attention can lead brands to prioritise engineering viral content over substance. But forced efforts often backfire through a lack of authenticity. Consider these risks:

Compromising Credibility

Over-optimisation for shares can make content feel gimmicky, emotionally manipulative, or blatantly promotional. This damages a brand's integrity.

Neglecting Values

Virality motives may tempt marketers to create status-quo content that lacks diverse perspectives. But meaningful representation deepens human connections.

Encouraging Toxicity

Content designed to outrage can breed unhealthy discourse, falsehoods, and divisiveness. Responsible brands uplift humanity.

Losing Focus

Viral fixation can distract from core brand objectives and audience needs. Stay grounded in purpose-driven communication.

The most potent viral content remains aligned with brand values while meeting audience interests. Avoid chasing engagement through clickbait, which only provides hollow reach.

Clickbait can yield swift engagement but risks degrading viewer trust. Brands like Upworthy, once known for this approach, have since focused on deeper storytelling to regain audience confidence. Reliance on sensationalism might achieve short-lived success.

Over-reliance on clickbait harms long-term audience connections.

Research shows constant use of enticing headlines can lead to viewer fatigue, diminishing interest over time. Genuine engagement relies on balancing attention-grabbing techniques with meaningful substance.

Brands like BuzzFeed have shifted towards more authentic storytelling to maintain trust while still drawing interest.

Ethical Considerations in Viral Marketing

Ethics in marketing emphasizes honesty and transparency. Brands must respect privacy and avoid misleading claims.

Ensuring that viral campaigns uphold these principles fosters credibility.

Ethical marketing also involves avoiding exploiting sensitive issues just for trending purposes.

Content should respect the dignity of all individuals and communities involved.

By focusing on messages that uplift and inform, brands can cultivate a reputation for integrity, enhancing long-term brand loyalty and fostering a positive community impact.

Sustainable Success Through Purpose

Trending content offers a temporary rush of attention. However, brands seeking lasting cultural impact should focus on purposeful ideas that meaningfully connect with audiences.

Ask yourself these questions when creating:

• How does this enrich people's lives?
• What new perspectives or insights does it provide?
• How does it empower positive action?
• Whose voices are represented?
• What change could it inspire?

Content that provokes reflection, stirs compassion, or rallies support for progress generates deeper engagement than fleeting virality. Audiences crave substance that improves society.

Platforms will continue feeding our addiction to distraction through ephemeral content “snacks” designed to maximise ads. But we must nourish our better selves through ideas that lead to understanding, justice, community, truth, and positive change.

Brands play a crucial role in shifting focus to nourishment. Make resonant meaning, not eyeballs, the metric of success.

Key Takeaways

Trending content leverages psychological drivers of sharing to achieve viral reach. Strategically incorporating surprise, inspiration, utility, simplicity, and more into your work can expand its audience.

However, engineered virality risks compromising brand integrity if not aligned with purpose and values. Avoid surface-level clickbait. Instead, focus on creating content that meaningfully impacts people, speaks truth, and creates social value.

The most potent ideas erupt from authentic human insight. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously stated, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his facts.” Anchor your ideas firmly in reality. Seek truth. And let meaning blaze trails through networks.

With these principles guiding your efforts, you can send created content rippling through culture, reaching shores of resonance far beyond your sight.

Frequently Asked Questions