Viral Content: What Marketing and Advertising Lessons Can Newspapers Learn?

Dream Local Digital’s Shannon Kinney, Local Media Association’s Nancy Lane and others talk with Editor & Publisher about why some content gets shared more than others.

Illustration by Tony O. Champagne

In digital marketing, marketers seek opportunities to gather attention, encourage viewers to share, and establish an emotional connection with the audience all while getting a particular message across. In this article, Editor & Publisher discuss popular videos that have been shared and watched millions of times such as the “Chewbacca Mom,” Dollar Shave Club, and our personal favorite: the Honey Badger video that served as the inspiration for the Dream Local culture.

Viral Content is something everyone in the digital marketing age strives for, and newspapers are working hard to learn from viral success stories that enable them to make their readers care about the content they publish.

Editor & Publisher discuss important aspects of viral content such as:

• The emotional appeal
• Keeping content “short and sweet”
• Where the key value of the content resides (quality vs. presentation)
• Key takeaways for newspapers

The strategy behind many viral videos can be applied to any of us who foster content our readers, followers, target audience, and any others who will find the content useful and entertaining.

Whether you are a small business looking to get more out of your social media, a newspaper or media company that needs to increase site traffic and engagement, or a marketer determined to help your clients reach more people, this article is a great read and well worth your time.

Read the full story here.