Facebook for viral site (26)
I have a site like ViralNova. But my content is not getting enough likes or going viral. How does viralnova and others got there? Any tips?
Btw, I already have a ton of real facebook likes which i acquired via FB Ads.
Tell your site and fb.
I'm afraid I cannot do that, and was hoping for help based on the other sites marketing startegy
Is your business model getting visitors on your site and get revenue from advertising?
How many page likes do you have currently?
Over 200k likes (all real, nothing bought other than fb ads). I'm not interested in revenue, only to get my content to be shared/liked and consequently go viral.
Are you just using normal posts? Or are you also advertising those posts? If the former, at what time of day are you making them?
i havent promoted many of the posts, just a few and then yes, theres lots of engagement
If there is a lot of engagement in your posts, then maybe you should check your site, you can pm me, if you don't want to make that public. With 200k likes your content should get shared.
Hey Notopia, content gets shared but not enough and we havent been able to go viral
Viral nova's owner earned a lot of his fans before the facebook algorithm change that made it harder for stuff to go viral. He also has a very large budget that he uses to promote his posts, and create ads. If you look closely, you'll notice that a lot of his fans are not engaged, and therefor not valuable. Its very clear which posts he has promoted vs. let run organically, its difference of 20k likes vs 200... I have monitored his facebook campaigns on a daily basis via RSS updates for quite some time as I as well have a site like yours, and his, with xx,xxx legitimate fans that I paid x,xxx dollars for via ads on facebook. With a fan base of around 2.5 million people, he often only gets a few hundred likes on some of his posts which makes me suspect the purchased followers AND facebook's algorithm update. I've stopped putting my money into it personally, it isn't going to return quick enough for the money I am spending, am now letting it run more organically (no ads). Facebook is too uptight with what can go viral, kind of annoying... The pretty much expect you to promote your post (external, ie your website link) in order for your own fans to see it as they would if it were just a plain internal FB image.
yeah, i was aware that organic reach is more limited on fb, however, our shares are way too low, i think our content can be imporved and that may change things
zd_rd: do you promote all your posts? for how much and to your audience or new people or both? do you get natural likes as well?
No, not all posts. When I did run ads and promoted posts I rarely promoted them to my own fans, as I don't have enough fans for that to be a wise move to make. Pages that have 200k+ fans would benefit from promoting to their fans, and that's exactly what facebook is pushing as the new standard. There is no longer such a thing as: "Hey, I'm going to post a really awesome link to a adsense filled story I worked hard on writing (or copying haha) to my fans, and from that, I'm going to make some decent ad revenue!" Wrong... Facebook, the growth bully IMO, makes your fanpage story practically invisible if it links externally. Even viral nova with his 2mil+ fans gets only 100-200 likes on some stories linking to his site! Yet, when the post contains a cute puppy or some other ripped imgur/reddit crap, boom, 20k likes, 4k shares, as so on... It's unnatural IMO, so I'm done with the promoted posts on facebook for fanpages, they've peeved me too much...
zd_rd - i hear you, fb is a nasty beast to tame! that being said, can you share about what you did, didn't do, what worked best for you?
worked:
- bid on page likes if you want more fans, don't think that bidding on post engagement will get you a good amount of page likes, it won't!
- funny MEMEs are gold.
- for meme images, don't just take stuff off reddit/imgur, actually take 5-10 minutes in photoshop and make a really clever meme out of a photo. Use your own imagination and creativity. This worked wonders for me personally.
- Keeping post length short.
- use your own voice, be genuine, post quality stuff people WANT to share. People need to feel inclined to share, it has to resonate with them personally. So ask yourself, what will resonate with my target audience?
- looking at what's currently viral, then ask yourself all of the possible routes that post had to take to get to that point, then you can deduce a probable answer.
- frequency over quality! (don't think I mean post crap content, I'm saying post 10 average quality awesome/cute/heartwarming/viral worthy content VS 3 amazing quality content). Success comes in numbers.
- if you are including text in your post, PUT THE TEXT IN THE IMAGE ITSELF. probably the most noticeable improvement you can make quickly. People don't like to read, plain and simple. And if its in the image people for whatever reason react better. (note the image-to-text ratio must be < 20% for promoted posts)
didn't work:
- trying to make a viral story out of every post
- thinking that 10k likes on a promoted post will result in a good number of fanpage likes, it won't.
- trying to emulate the style of already successful pages to a 'T'.
- tons of other stuff didn't work, too much to write. you've just got to keep trying stuff.
Most important tip: Use your own creativity.
But to be honest, if you have 200k real fans, you're ahead of me, and you're obviously doing something right unless you spent a fortune on those fans. I am curious though as to how much you spent on ads to get those 200k fans...
hey zd-rd - thanks so much for your tips! how much traffic do you have? are you getting natural likes and making a profit?
bidding: i feel that bidding on engagement may make it easier to make a post go viral, don't you?
original content: thats smart!
as for me, yes, i spent a small fortune building this very fast in around 1 month
Not as much traffic now that I am focusing more on other ventures, but when I post content I do get very good engagement. So yes, I am profiting now that I've stopped buying ads! Just letting it run on its own, not really taking it as seriously has actually helped me.
Yes, it depends on your model. The 2 main models I know of are:
1) bid on page likes until you have enough fans. ideally 500k or more. Then at that point promote your posts to all of your followers. Promoting to followers is cheaper than promoting to non-followers, thats the point here.
2) don't even worry about fanpage likes, just promote your posts to bring in post engagement and instant traffic to your website.
So you're long term goal would dictate your actions in terms of what you bid on.
You could very well choose option 2, and try to make more money on ad revenue/affiliate offers/whatever, as long as you're spending less on your facebook campaigns than your revenue, that could be profitable.
thanks so much for your tips zd_rd, you took a long time to reply and im very appreciative for your help and guidance. All the best to you!
you're welcome! 
Good info,
Two things i don't understand:
trying to emulate the style of already successful pages to a 'T'.
What that means?:d
And how can u spend small fortune to get 200k likes? Fake?
Thanks
i didnt purchased fake likes, in fb you can pay for real fans based on your desired criteria
@notopia, "emulating the style of already successful pages to a 'T'" just means copying someone else's page elements as if its some magic formula that can be repeated. In certain cases, it very well may be repeatable, but usually not as people think. For example, if Viral Nova has a bird image for their main picture on the page, then you would have a bird picture on your picture too, and so on. I was going to add links to an actual example of this that I've seen, which would illustrate this perfectly, but there is a strong possibility that the page owner of the page I am talking about is a member of this forum, and I don't want to call anyone out...
Originally Posted by zd__rd
Originally Posted by outgoing
Very interesting thread guys. How are you monetizing your sites, mainly adsense? Do you manage to have good eCPM? I'm wondering if it's worth the investment in time and money as a business model.
Adsense + Ad networks + Content reccommendation services like Outbrain are a strong combo to get valuable page earnings.
hey guys i am doing the exact same things you guys are trying to accomplish. we should add each other on skype and discuss strategies what do you think?
my skype is tylerck123 if you add me say ur from stm so i know
Originally Posted by zd__rd
> Try to use Red Color marking like pencil tool or something and make a curvy path on the picture, It will force audience to click your ad. (Increases CTR).
> Image Quality should less than avg. because Viral works with that quality, Stock or HD Quality are total waste here.
> If you even copy from Reddit and Imgur, Do that red marking thing and re-write the content (native).
> DON'T TARGET USA.
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