January 25th, 2010 by Angie
The Dark Side of Viral Content and Link Bait
Category Link Building | 5 comments »
Breaking news and free stuff always makes good viral content. Humorous or articles that hit the emotions of your readers in some way work well too. And so long as the piece is well written, any of us who have worked with content programs should recognize it pretty quickly.
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I guess that’s what’s interesting about this type of content. Even though we know why it’s created, we often can’t resist sharing it with someone, discussing it, linking back, and giving the writer exactly what he or she wanted.
Others have a serious dislike for link bait and viral content, and honestly, I can’t see why. The only time I have a problem with link bait or viral content is when it doesn’t fulfill the promise made in the title.
Well, I shouldn’t say that. Some get irritated when they fall for it (also known as the ‘why didn’t I think of that’ syndrome), but it doesn’t generally affect the reader in a negative way. If anything, it should irritate you and make you think about the topic.
That being said, there is a dark side to viral content and link bait.
Viral Content Gone Wrong
Viral content can be priceless when it attracts the right crowd and drives the buzz in the right direction, but what happens when it goes wrong? While this often happens with controversial issues, sometimes even innocent viral content can have unexpected negative effects.
Say, for example, that you create an innocent blog post promoting a contest for a local charity. It goes well at the start and begins to generate a number of donations and a fair bit of excitement around the cause.
Now, imagine for a moment that a member from a particular religion, country, sex, or ethnic group reads the piece and gets offended by a particular angle to the contest, the subject matter, or maybe something to do with the charity itself. The next thing you know, a little bit of viral content becomes a PR nightmare for your company. After all, this type of reputation glitch doesn’t disappear easily or quickly.
While this will certainly increase the buzz surrounding the contest and the charity, it might not work to your advantage. And unless you’re quick thinking and have the resources to fight it, things could get pretty nasty and someone (likely you) is going to get into trouble.
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Viral Misfires
If you’ve created controversial link bait, the backlash from your ‘target’ should be fully expected. But what happens when content attracts the wrong crowd all together? Now, the ‘link is a link’ crowd isn’t going to care. Much. But what happens when it just happens to grab a lot of scraper links when the site really needs a few good authority links? What happens if it just generates some crappy links and barely any traffic at all?
Failed Viral Content or Link Bait
Any SEO who has been pushing to get a client site going understands the pure frustration of this, particularly if they’ve put a fair bit of time into the creation and planning of the content. Clients often don’t understand that audiences are very fickle.
Sometimes, articles you expect to take off and spend a lot of time on start to collect dust almost the instant you click publish. Then, the client is phoning and breathing down your neck because they’re not getting traffic or links and they spent a fair bit of money to create the content.
The next time, you publish something you scraped together in a hurry and it goes crazy. Suddenly, you’re dealing with comments and maintenance on a day when you hadn’t planned on it and really don’t have time. Did I mention the client is calling and freaking out because they’re getting traffic they weren’t expecting? (Believe me, it happens!)
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Pushing All the Right Buttons
Viral content and link bait is very much like a puppet show in text. The writer (the puppet master) knows just how to pull the strings to make the puppets (the targeted readers) to do what he wants. While this is generally harmless and often is nothing negative in the least, someone who is very good at it almost makes the situation eerie. I mean, when you think about it, it’s really no different than some of the greatest speakers in the world. The amount of power they have over others is almost scary.
Now, I’m sure I’m not the only one who has witnessed or experienced content strategies go bad. Have you had viral content or link bait go horribly wrong?
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January 25th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
It’s true that when you’re intentionally link baiting it can have both positive and negative outcomes, but what about when it’s unintentional?
For me, the idea of being considered a ‘link baiter’ is an unappealing one and I have, on occasion, decided to either not post or tone the post down to be more technically and/or politically correct (at the expense of appeal I suspect). This is even more likely when I’m commenting on other’s blogs.
I wonder if this is widespread and we’re missing out on interesting content because people (other than those with a professionally objective viewpoint like yourself, Angie) fear being labelled a ‘link baiter’, or maybe it’s just me?
January 28th, 2010 at 9:27 am
i was really hoping to read about real-world examples. Does anyone have any?
January 29th, 2010 at 9:00 am
“It should irritate you and make you think about the matter”?
No. It just irritates me, like all advertising. Part of it is the increased volume on TV or online when the ads come on, and the rest is the hyperventilating drones who tell me I should buy something because their salaries depend on it.
I have an “OFF” switch for such noise pollution, and I encourage others to install one.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:20 am
@Richard
I fully agree that some stuff is purely irritating and worth nothing more than garbage. But, I think you’re missing the point a little…I will disagree with you, but for one very specific reason: The PC/Mac commercials and the ‘Compare the Market’ commercials and content. I know the content made for these campaigns is all viral content. I know they’re ads, but they’re fantastic. I literally wait for the new stuff to come out, and there are millions of people out there with a similar opinion. To me, those are great viral content/link bait.
@Shell
There are tons and tons and tons of examples. Many companies have gotten it wrong while very few seem to have gotten it right. Subscribe to the RSS and you’ll see some real world examples.
@Stuart
I am completely guilty of doing the exact same thing. In fact, I spend more time editing a post and finding acceptable pictures than I do actually writing the silly post! But you know, a friend of mine said the other day ‘if you don’t piss someone off on Twitter at least once a day, you’re not using it right.’ I think he had a point, but I think it works for blogging too
(And yes, the good stuff and the personality usually gets cut. On the bright side, my extremely edited ‘rant’ posts seem to do very well lol)
February 1st, 2010 at 10:44 pm
Some points that are rarely considered when people set up free offers or other programs. This was an eye opener and for that I am glad to be able to avoid any future problems although you can’t make all the people happy all the time. (: