You can leverage viral content and create your own for free.
And you already know that it is highly likely to work in your favor because it worked for others.
But the real question is how to do it easily.
For this follow the below steps.
Step #1
First, find your top-performing post headlines or those of your competitors, and then ask ChatGPT to generate content ideas based on that.
Also, make sure that the headlines come from the same niche especially if you’re in the starting phase and doing it for personal branding not for a business.
Because creators with high following start exploring different niches on their accounts and they’ve high following as a result they get high engagement, don’t get into this trap.
So you need to make sure that you select the posts only from your niche from all of your competitors.
Here are the prompts that you can use for articles and videos:
1. Prompt for articles
Based on these article headlines given below, use your creativity and give me a list of 15 article ideas.
Make sure the article's idea you generate contains the main [keyword=] of the relevant topic that needs to be discussed in the article.
The article headlines are:
[paste the headlines here]
You can tweak this prompt for video content as well.
For video, you need to provide thumbnail text if it is there, a description of the thumbnail, or any other description that you think made people click on that specific video.
2. Prompt for videos:
Based on the thumbnail descriptions given below, use your creativity and give me a list of 15 video ideas.
Make sure the video ideas you generate contains the main [keyword=] of the relevant topic that needs to be discussed in the video.
The thumbnail descriptions are:
[paste the thumbnail descriptions here]
Step #2
Once you have your title ready then you need to create a hook.
The hook will make your audience read or watch your content. So, you need to make sure that you create a hook that would make you read/watch the content.
If you don’t know the difference between title and hook; here it is:
A title is the name of a piece of writing, designed to grab attention and indicate the topic, while a hook is a sentence or two at the beginning of an essay or article designed to capture the reader’s interest and encourage them to continue reading.
Prompt to create hooks
Generate 20 highly engaging hooks for a [social media post/YouTube video/article] about [topic]. The hooks should be curiosity-driven, emotion-provoking, or controversial to capture attention instantly and should not have more than 20 words.
Some examples from Finance:
You’re probably losing money every day without realizing it. Here’s why!
Broke at 30? Do this NOW to change your financial future!
The one financial mistake that’s secretly keeping you poor…
They don’t teach you this in school, but it’s the key to getting rich!
If you have less than $1,000 in savings, watch this NOW!”
Step #3
Leverage Storytelling for Emotional Impact
You can ask ChatGPT to structure your content like a compelling story to make it relatable.
Prompt You Can Use:
Create a short emotional story on [topic/fact/any other content type] that will make people stop scrolling
You can read or watch any content, and you will find that all the posts that have gone viral in the past have a story except for a few facts-related posts.
The reason stories make content engaging and easily grab the attention even if the content is related to academics or field or any other thing.
You can also understand this with the sales of movie tickets in comparison with the ticket sales of a science exhibition. There is a huge gap and the reason is storytelling.
People know that the movie is not real but it triggers their curiosity because it is a story they can relate to which is not the case with scientific research for everyone.
Step #4
Use ChatGPT to Predict Trends Before They Happen
Just like the news, there are many things that have the potential to go viral but we can’t be sure about which ones.
So, you can ask ChatGPT for the same using the below prompt:
Prompt: What are the top emerging trends in [industry] that are likely to go viral?
Secret
Content that goes viral on any platform most of the time has one of the following things in the title(I’ve written a detailed article on this here):
Using Authority — Authority means big names like government organizations, big brands, big personalities, etc.
2. Using Promise, Achievement, Hope, or Confidence
3. Targetting a Community
4. Using Extreme Unusual Emotion
5. Rhyming
6. Using Top, List, or any other Numerical value
7. Using a call to action
8. How to’s?
9. Using Surprise
10. Using Prediction Power
11. Reverse Questions or Thought-provoking Questions
12. Using Negativity
Does this work when you start?
I’ll be honest with you. Nothing works the way you expect when you start but when you keep doing the right things then you start seeing the results.
And this happened with all the content creators but most of them learned this the harder way or someone mentored them.
Most of us expect that we get thousands of views/reads when we start because we used the right strategy but the platform that you’re using doesn’t know whether you will be active or not and it takes time to build trust.
So, make sure that you do it consistently and you will see results.
Is it possible to go viral for beginners?
Yes, it is.
If people would love your content then they’ll share it with others and it could go viral sooner than expected.
I interviewed an Instagrammer and he told me that his content went viral in 3 days.
You can read about this here.
Still, it is better to do your research about the content that has gone viral in the past so that you can understand the elements that you think worked for those creators.
Advice
I believe that if you’re true to yourself and deliver quality then people will start following you for sure.
Remember that Quality always Wins over quantity in the long term.
I am making a bold statement here by saying “always” but think of it like a Ferrari car. If you can afford one then you’ll buy one but even if you can’t afford then you’ll have a dream to buy it(just an example). So, in the long term, you want quality.
Similarly, people like your content if it is of at least good quality.
This is the rule in content creation.
Harsh Truth: One more thing if someone is creating better content than you then people might leave you and follow that person or follow both of you but there will always be some who will stick with you.
That’s it.
