This document provides insights into what types of content tend to go viral and strategies for creating shareable content. It analyzes highly shared posts from 2015 and identifies common elements like being surprising, leveraging trends, inspiring people, using cute animals/babies, and being amusing or controversial. Other shareable elements include providing warnings, secrets to success in areas like love/dating, health tips, and heartwarming stories. The document advises including emotional elements, shareable content types like facts/images, resonating topics, and engaging formats like quizzes or lists. It stresses the importance of headlines that utilize these shareable elements to maximize sharing of content.

1. How To Go Viral
Insights from the Most Shared Content of 2015

2. Viral Posts Are Outliers
#WriteOn

3. #WriteOn

4. Insightful Outliers
• We can learn from viral posts and examine the
elements that helped them go viral
• Gain insights into what we can do to make our
content more shareable
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5. Not Looking at Celebrity Content

6. How To Go Viral
2015 Examples
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7. 1. Surprising
Champagne Prevents Alzheimer’s Disease (938,000 shares)

8. 1. Surprising
The Cause of Addiction Is Not What You Think (2m shares)

9. 2. Leverage A Trend
Zombie-Themed Cruise (1.5m shares & 400,000 comments)

11. 3) Inspire people
51 Beautiful Sentences in Literature (1.4m shares)

12. 4) Create Stunning Picture List Posts
52 Places To Go
In 2015
(522,000 shares)

13. The Guardian: Overpopulation, Overconsumption in Pictures
(700,000 shares)

14. 5) Exploit Cute Animals & Babies
This Site Will Make A Stuffed
Animal Clone Of Your Pet
(683,000 shares)

16. 6) Be Amusing
Earth Endangered By New
Strain Of Fact-Resistant
Humans
(1.4m Shares)

18. When You Realise, You’ve Had One Too Many (827,000 shares)

19. 7) Be Controversial

20. Interactions (likes/shares) of Donald Trump’s FB Posts

21. 8) Quiz People
What Is Your Most
Dominant Character
Trait?
(3.9m shares)

22. 8) Quiz People
The Color Quiz (5m Shares)

23. Baby Name Popularity Interaction (781,000 shares)

25. 9) Provide Warnings

26. 10) Tell Them The Secrets Of Success
How Successful People Stay Calm (127,000 shares)

27. 10) Tell Them The Secrets Of Success

28. 11) Health, Diet & Fitness Tips

29. The Only 12 Exercises You Need (968,000 shares)

30. 12) Secrets of Love & Dating

31. To Fall In Love With
Anyone, Do This.
(885,000 shares)

32. This Is How We Date Now (1.6m shares)

33. 13) Secret To A Long Life
109-Year Old Woman
Says Secret To Long
Life Is Avoiding Men
(1.9m shares)

34. 14) Share A Heart Warming Story
Husband 108, Wife
105, Celebrate 82
Years Married
(580,000 shares)

35. What Can We Learn?
• Viral posts are outliers
• Not just about content but ignition and
amplification
• Are there common elements to viral
posts that make them shareable?
• Combined elements eg quiz on a
popular topic, picture list posts

36. Shareable Elements?
Emotional element Content Element Topic Element Format Element
Amusing
Surprising
Heart Warming
Beautiful
Inspiring
Warning
Shocking
Images
Facts
Charts
Quotes
Video
Interaction
Trending topic
(e.g. Zombies)
Health & fitness
Cats & Dogs
Babies
Long Life
Love
List Post
Quiz
Story
Curation
Research Insights
Practical Tips

37. Content Creation Questions
• Does the content have an emotional element?
• Does the post include shareable content types,
such as facts, images and quotes?
• Is the topic one that resonates with your
audience? Is it trending?
• Is the format one that works well with your
audience, such as practical tips or a quiz?

38. Headlines
• Great headlines matter
• Can you use the shareable elements?
1. Emotional words e.g. Surprising
2. Topic e.g. Zombies
3. Type e.g. Facts
4. Format e.g. List post
“10 surprising facts about Zombies”

39. Thank You
@Buzzsumo @steverayson