K atie c ouric

Make It Emotional
Another question you should always ask yourself when creating content is,
“Will this content create an emotional response in the viewer?” Any content
that can get an emotional reaction out of those who see it is valuable. When
creating a piece of content and thinking about the message, ask yourself if it
can get someone to laugh, cry, smile, feel angry, feel motivated, or have a
strong opinion about what’s being said. Emotional messages and content get

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people to share. If the content moves your audience internally, there’s a
greater chance that they will make an external move to share it with others.
Also linked to this idea is the concept of social currency. Jonah Berger’s
2013 book 
Contagious
explains the psychology of what affects our
behavior, illustrates how to get people to share messages, and introduces the
idea of social currency. Social currency is content that we share because we
feel that it reflects well upon us to share it. We think sharing it makes us
look smarter and as though we are being helpful to others.
BuzzFeed has had tremendous success deploying the social currency
tactic on the Facebook page for their food brand Tasty. In September 2017
Tasty’s main Facebook page was the third-largest video account on
Facebook with nearly 1.7 billion video views. Tasty creates simple
instructional how-to recipe videos that teach people how to make delicious
food in a visual format. By sharing these videos fans feel that they are
helping their friends learn how to make dishes that will bring joy to their
family and friends. And it makes them feel important for sharing
information about a topic that’s valuable to many people (almost everyone
loves great food). People share this content at a high velocity because it
gives them social currency.
The sharing of articles surrounding actor Bill Paxton’s death also
illustrates the effectiveness of this tactic. The articles about his death
evoked a strong emotional response and people were sharing the
information. Some people were sharing it because it was emotional, while
others were sharing it because it gave them social currency—they felt
valuable for being the first person to tell the world that Bill Paxton died.
For some reason, celebrity deaths are a topic that, when used
appropriately, can be very helpful with your messaging strategies. One time,
I created a website with resource information to help treat drug and alcohol
abuse. This isn’t a very sexy topic. People are often embarrassed and don’t
want to be associated with addiction. It’s content that’s usually difficult to
get people to like or share. But I figured out a way to make it more
accessible and shareable for the public.
By tying celebrities dying as a result of drug and alcohol abuse, and
talking about celebrities that are struggling with addiction, I made this
important and helpful information more shareable. I linked the resource

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information to rock star Chris Cornell’s death and also to stories about
certain Kardashians struggling with drug and alcohol abuse.
I played into this celebrity angle to draw attention and get people to
come to the website. They may have gone there to read this high-level
celebrity gossip, but the article had substance to it. It had information about
what to do if you or someone you know is struggling with addiction. People
were coming to the content for entertainment—and I’m sure there’s a big
percentage that didn’t see the value beyond that point—but there was a
decent subset of people who took away some helpful advice about drug and
alcohol abuse. The information weaved in made them think twice, and
perhaps they then had resources to help a family member, friend, or even
themselves if they were struggling with those issues.
Again, there’s plenty of information out there about drug and alcohol
abuse. It’s not a new topic, but creating a messaging strategy that helps the
information stand out and gives it a unique hook point that grabs people’s
attention is key. The message becomes more relevant to more people.
You can look at Facebook to find out which topics are
trending and learn from those messages. The trending topics
can help you choose which content to share on a specific
day and can show you examples of headlines that are
generating interest. This information can help play into new
story angles and link your content to topics that are already
generating interest.