My bet is that you are not writing your health blog posts for yourself.  Instead, you want to spread your message to others- to help, inform and engage your readers.  Having your blog post go viral (spread to many others in social sharing online), is a dream and objective to all those who blog.  Here is how to increase your chances to spread like wildfire.

Blog Strategy

Insert Captivating Images in Your Blog Posts

You’ve heard the expression ” a picture is worth a thousand words”.  Well, photos are worth thousands of likes when it comes to social media.  According to research published by eMarketer, photos amounted to three-quarters of posted content on Facebook pages globally. Photos attract an amazing 87% interaction rate and more retweets on Twitter as well.  No other content type receives more than 4% interaction rate.

A study released by the Twitter Media Blog,  when analyzing content from more than 2 million tweets sent over a month’s time, showed that adding a photo to your tweet boosts your retweets by 35%.

Buzzsumo’s study revealed that  articles with images once every 75-100 words got double the social shares than articles with fewer images.

So, consider adding images to your posts after every few paragraphs.

Arouse Positive Emotions

Have you noticed that the videos that go viral are the ones where puppies and babies do cute things?  That’s no coincidence.  Scientists are discovering that positive emotions have a powerful effect on our brains, inducing a feeling of feeling better, even euphoria.  We act and feel our best when exposed to positivity.  In this state, your attention, memory and awareness is increased and you are more receptive to learning new skills.

There is an old question “What is the difference between an optimist and a pessimist?”  The answer is “they are both right 50% of the time but the optimist feels a whole lot better!”

When people are positive, they are happier and healthier.  They also want to share this feeling and what made them happy with friends and family.  Thus, you should link your content to positive emotions, i.e. joy, love, gratitude, hope.  Try inserting a story within your content that arouses at least one positive emotion.

In the Buzzsumo study:

they found that evoking positive emotions lead to more social shares.

As you can see from the above image, the most popular emotions are:

  • Awe (25%)
  • Laughter (17%)
  • amusement (15%)

amusement (15%)

 

Types of written online content 

These include:

  • List posts
  • Why posts
  • What posts
  • How-to posts
  • Guides

Bear in mind that  list posts are the most popular ones online.  They are easy to scan and easy to read.  Think of how you can create this in health content:

*5 ways to overcome depression

*10 questions to ask your surgeon

*5 things to know about health insurance

There are countless ways that you can make lists that refer to services you offer or conditions that you treat.   Take a look at BuzzFeed, one of the biggest viral sites online.  They receive over 200 million monthly unique visits.Most of their content consists of  list posts.

Econsultancy shared that half of their most popular 25 posts were lists.

Insert a Mini Infographic

Mini infographics are those short informative, and interesting images that stress your point visually and ramps up your content. Think of a quote or a story that illustrates your point.  People love to share uplifting quotes. According to the study from Buzzsumo  people love sharing info graphics even more than list posts. Try inserting them into your blog posts for more views and social shares.Add Social Sharing Buttons 

Having social share buttons makes it easy for readers to share your content with friends on social media without trying to figure out how to do so. If they have to go to different sites to share, the chances are that you have lost the opportunity to go viral or have your content shared with others.

Take a look at BuzzFeed. It shows you social sharing buttons before you start reading their contents and again after reading the content which increases the chance for social shares.

Help

Need help with your health marketing content?  Call to get your free consultation at 561-325-9664.