12 ways to make your content go viral

Social media guru Dan Zarrella offers tips to get others to pass along your content

Social media wizard Dan Zarrella, author of “The Social Media Marketing Book,” has won rave reviews from industry players like Guy Kawasaki and Brian Solis. Zarrella was in Washington, D.C., recently for the Gov 2.0 conference and led a presentation on why certain pieces of content go viral. Ideas do not spread because they are “good,” he said.

“I have to myth-bust this,” Zarrella said. “There are plenty of good ideas that do not go anywhere and plenty of bad ideas that go everywhere.” Ideas spread because they fill a need or stand up to certain pressures better than others, he said.

Zarrella’s advice can help you boost the chances of your social media content making it far and wide.

1. Seed your campaign. Grow your Twitter followers, e-mail lists and Facebook friends. The more people are introduced to your idea, the more that idea will be shared.

2. Find and target the digital influencers who can pass your ideas on to their followers.