Likeable Content Daily

I believe that creating buzz is an art, not a science. But there are many factors that going into the success or failure of a hit video on YouTube, a super-popular Facebook Fan Page, or other online content created to get people talking about your company, organization, product or cause. Here are 5 factors that just might make or break you. We love acronyms @theKbuzz, because it’s easier to remember stuff like ASHES:

1) Authenticity: People like to see and hear real stories, from real people. Tap into both to create great content. Leave the actors and scripts to Hollywood – fakeness is a lot more expensive, and often doesn’t work anyway. That being said, authentic content can still contain 1 or more of the following:

2) Surprise, Shock and Sex: No, I’m not talking about adult video – but there’s no doubt that when a video, picture, note or blog contains surprising, shocking, or sexy content, people enjoy it – and want to pass it on.

3) Humor: A lot of the time, it’s not possible to be sexy or shocking and remain true to your brand and your target audience. But good, clean humor always makes people smile- and share.

4) Education and Inspiration: Teach people something, or inspire people with something, and they’ll remember – and want to educate and inspire others with your content. But as great as your content is, the 5th key factor is a must:

5) Shareability: Make it easy for people to share the content – via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, email, etc. Create easy links, buttons and widgets to do this. Give people a call to action and maybe a question – to get them talking about you and/or your content.

Those are my 5 top factors. So what did I miss? What factors do you think go into creating online buzz? -Dave Kerpen