Will your business writing go viral?

Whether it’s the Ice Bucket Challenge or Emma Watson’s stirring speech on gender equality, when posts go viral they draw a lot of attention from across the globe.

Writing content for your business is a great way to generate leads and demonstrate your position as a thought leader in your industry. If this content then goes viral, the audience can increase into the millions and shoot your business to stardom.

However, this is much easier said than done. There is no formula that can predict what trends are going to attract attention each week and a huge number of posts never reach an audience beyond a company’s internal circles.

Effective business writing is not generally designed for a viral campaign, as it performs the function of educating consumers rather than entertaining them.

However, there are a few key factors you can keep in mind when next writing a business blog post to give your content the best chance of going viral.

Be topical

The best way to get your content noticed is to write on the topics people are talking about. It is inevitable that popular stories will cause consumers to search for more information.

By posting a timely and informative piece based on a current trend in your industry, you may find your content is pushed to the forefront and used as a defining article explaining the development.

Use popular search terms

What are your audience searching for? If you can research the most common Google searches, for instance, you may be able to include these keywords in your own work.

You can also include sentences like ‘how to improve your business writing style’ within your piece and it will find a specific audience to those asking that query.

Try typing your headline or topic into Google and seeing what the search engine autofills. This can give you valuable insight into how to title your content.

Share it

A lot of business writing is posted on an internal site and left to draw people to that page alone. However, this is unlikely to result in a viral trend.

Instead, content needs to be visible and shareable. Consider posting the blog to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. This will ensure that your audience can share the content with their followers if they agree with your thoughts.