Anyone who has engaged in any form of internet marketing knows how big it can be for a video, article, image or other type of content to “go viral.” It's a big example of the snowball effect; as one person shares your content, they allow more people to see it and share it, and it can all happen extremely fast. This can have a huge impact on your brand recognition.

Unfortunately, there's no single tried and true method for betting your content to go viral. But there are ways that you can increase your odds. Here are a few tips:

• Have some sort of value. A lot of content that goes viral has some sort of perceived value to it. It could be instructional content, breaking news, contests, giveaways or simply something humorous. But whatever it is, it should be interesting and valuable. Not all content is meant to go viral.

• Make your content easy to find. You can't expect to post a new blog and have it go viral automatically. Advertise your content across multiple channels. Social media is particularly important for helping content  to go viral. Be sure to share your content on your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more. You should also have an easy-to-use search feature on your website so that people can easily find content there. You should also be sure to have share icons on all your website content.

• Share other links. People are more likely to share your content if you share theirs. You'll notice that followers on social networks will tune out quickly if you only spend your time plugging your content and asking for them to share it with their friends.

• Be selective as to what you share. As previously mentioned, not all content should be made with the intent to go viral. Pick and choose what you feel are the most interesting or useful pieces of content to share. Your followers will appreciate it.

• Take advantage of timing. If you have content that is newsworthy or capitalizes on a big cultural trend that has taken the nation by storm, then you need to be sure that you share that content before it's too late. The only thing worse than not sharing any content is sharing content that is behind the times.

• Appreciate the degrees of “going viral.” Chances are that you're not going to get a million views on your YouTube videos, or 300,000 clicks on your blog post. But you can learn to appreciate the milestones that you hit and the fact that you're increasing your exposure.

Take these tips into consideration, and you'll have a much better chance of reaching out to new potential customers with your online content.

Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer | Viral Solutions LLC