

The anatomy of a post that got over 500,000 likes - Pr0
http://blog.bufferapp.com/what-makes-content-go-viral-the-anatomy-of-a-post-that-got-over-500000-likes

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kirse
Between the Joel.is posts and this latest "Buffer" blog posting I have to say
the majority of material coming out of these folks just reeks of "Quick-Fix"
(Steven Covey term) superficiality and marketing spam. It's highly
individualized reflection that gets generalized back into principles and
platitudes for success and looks great on the surface, but there's no depth.

They spout off a few "lessons" -- really just post-success
reflections/rationalizations -- all of which may or may not truly be
principles that lead to success, and then slather their posts with some filler
remarks. Top it off with a few random EXTRA-BOLD / _italicized_ points to pass
it off as "fact" and then slap a ton of social media, newsletters, etc. around
it.

I can just imagine the folks at Buffer discovering the words of Jesus...

"Here at Buffer, we like to love your neighbor as yourself, _for in loving
others we spread compassion and grace_. Our phenomenal work in spreading
compassion to one man, who we found nearly dead at the side of the road, has
helped us all understand love better. The key is this: _if you want to love,
you need to stop on the side of the road for all people_. Also, get BufferApp.
PS, sign up for our newsletter. Buffer."

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andy_t
I don't think I've ever seen a more vapid blog than the Marc & Angel site.

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citricsquid
I went through the blog (the last 3 pages of articles) they all have quite
consistent share ratios (Facebook likes are almost always 6 - 7x the number of
Tweets) and the number of likes seems to hover around 4k for the "average"
post (so it's plausible they have a regular audience liking most posts).

Every blog post on their site follows the formula talked about in this blog
post (explaining "why" it went viral) so why haven't these posts gone viral?

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cristianpascu
The one, and most important thing that will most likely make a blog post go
viral is to say what people like to hear.

So, stop having an opining, stop being yourself, and write a blog post about
'being yourself'. They will share it like crazy!

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minimaxir
And ending the post with a question to the reader. And encouraging the readers
to LIKE, SHARE, and COMMENT on the post!

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programminggeek
Um, one thing that is critical is time and place. You can do all of these
things, but with content that isn't for the right people at the right time and
it goes nowhere. It's like the idea of the tablet. 10 years ago the tech was
too expensive. Idea was great, execution was not totally horrible, but at
$1000+ who cares? At $200-500 with even better execution it's a phenomenon.

