The Research on Viral Posts

Although social media is a relatively new field, there is already the foundations of research being conducted on just what makes content viral. Jonah Berger and Katherine Milkman have begun perhaps the first official peer reviewed look into what makes content viral. They explained their approach as, "although it is clear that social transmission is both frequent and important, less is known about why certain pieces of online content are more viral than others. Some customer service experiences spread throughout the blogosphere, while others are never shared. Some newspaper articles earn a position on their website’s “most e-mailed list,” while others languish. Companies often create online ad campaigns or encourage consumer-generated content in the hope that people will share this content with others, but some of these efforts take off while others fail. Is virality just random, as some argue , or might certain characteristics predict whether content will be highly shared" (Milkman).  Berger and Milkman decided to approach their research by looking at various New York Times pieces and examining the root emotion behind the sharing of any of the pieces, "We do so in two ways. First, we analyze a unique data set of nearly 7000 New York Times articles to examine which articles make the newspaper’s “most emailed list.” Controlling for external drivers of attention, such as where an article was featured online and for how long, we examine how content’s valence (i.e., whether an article is positive or negative) and the specific emotions it evokes (e.g., anger, sadness, awe) affect whether it is highly shared. Second, we experimentally manipulate the specific emotion evoked by content to directly test the causal impact of arousal on social transmission" (Milkman). The study hypothesized various reasons people share out in the first place:

"One reason people share news and information is to self-enhance or generate desired impressions. Just like the music people listen to, or the brands they buy, what they talk about and share affects how others see them. Consequently, people are more likely to share things that make them look good or enable them to signal desired identities. Second, people are more likely to share useful information, in part because doing so makes them look smart and in-the-know. If someone tells you about a medication that will quickly cure your cold or a website for last-minute travel deals, it demonstrates the sharer’s knowledge and expertise. Consistent with this perspective, more useful news stories  and marketing messages are more likely to be widely shared. Third, positive content is more likely to be shared than negative content. People prefer to make others feel good rather than bad. Further, people prefer to spend time with others who are upbeat and positive and what people share is a reflection of who they are. Consistent with this, people are more likely to share positive New York Times articles  and positive advertisements" (Milkman).

These causal reasons for sharing content led to the authors hypothesizing that feel good content would likely be the most shared out content and that depressing content would be less likely to gain viral status; the authors explained, "Awe is characterized by a feeling of admiration and elevation in the face of something greater than oneself (e.g., a new scientific discovery, someone overcoming adversity; see Keltner and Haidt 2003). It is generated by stimuli that open the mind to unconsidered possibilities, and the arousal it induces may promote transmission" (Milkman). After examining over 7000 Times pieces the authors were able to conclude that their hypothesis was correct and that the more positive content is, the more likely it is to become viral. The study concluded, "These findings are consistent with our hypothesis about how arousal shapes social transmission. Positive and negative emotions characterized by activation or arousal (i.e., awe, anxiety, and anger) are positively linked to virality, while emotions characterized by deactivation (i.e., sadness) are negatively linked to virality" (Milkman). This study directly correlates with the finding of virality on the mentioned social media networks on this website. Most of the 2015 viral posts involved fun, frivolity, and celebrity and nothing garnering negative emotions (except that pesky One Direction break up.)

This study seems to suggest that my absolute best bet at a viral post is to mainly keep doing what I am doing and providing largely positive content and staying away from things that provide negative emotions in my readers. The people on the internet generally want to feel good and sharing content that helps facilitate that emotion is the key to viral success.