How to create Viral Content using Circular Viralocity

You guys.

The other day, I came across the most amazing podcast and I have to share it with you.

It’s all about DIY internet marketing and the golden formula for a phenomenon Brendon Burchard has coined, “Circular Viralocity.”

A.k.a. keeping your content fresh and ever-circulating across all your social media networks. And, best of all, not wearing yourself out in the process.

Let me tell you a little about who this is coming from: Brendon is a #1 New York Times best-selling author and internet marketing mentor. He’s one of the Top 100 Most Followed People on Facebook. He’s the exec producer on the number one self-help channel on YouTube, runs a podcast, and has written like, 3 books.

Long story short: He runs a whole lot of different channels, and is a bawss.

If you’re anything like me, you might have a Facebook, a Twitter, a neglected YouTube channel, an email sign-up on your website, and some other social channels here and there scattered across the internet. You probably understand that consistency is key when you’re trying to grow your online presence. You’ve heard that people expect new, compelling content that is catered to them on their social network of choice.

So how the heck can any one person juggle all these different channels at the same time without spending 80+ hours a week just making and organizing content?

Enter “Circular Viralocity”. The little gift that will save your sanity.

What is Circular Viralocity?

It’s got two parts:

1. It’s a way of building and releasing content that is cyclical. There is a simple formula for releasing content that’s repetitive and simple.
2. Content is presented in such a way that it is easily sharable. Content that is easy to digest and easy to share gets shared frequently, and thus, we have viral content.

What does that really mean?

When you practice CV, your life gets simple and your reach continues to grow. All you have to do is stick to the formula.

Really. This is about as easy as it gets.

It ties in to all your social networks and your email list. Let’s dig in.

The Magic Formula for Maximum Reach

The key to all of this is that it starts with just one. Single. Piece. Of. Content. Yes, literally, one.

Set a goal for yourself. Something like:

Goal: I’m going to create one new, fresh piece of content every week.

If you’re a musician, this could be a video of yourself playing a song. If you’re a blogger, this could be one long, in-depth blog post about your topic of choice. Just pick one thing that you know you can do well and create consistently. We want to simplify your life, so pick something that doesn’t give your major panic attacks about committing to.

Example: Brendon says he starts with a video. He walks into his studio once a week, stands in front of the camera, and simply “riffs” on one particular topic. No script. No notes. No cuts or retakes. Just simple, unfiltered communication about his topic of choice. He does this for 5 to 15 minutes.

Here’s the fun part:

1. Brendon takes that video, edits it, and posts it on YouTube.
2. He then uploads it to Facebook.
3. He will transcribe it and include it as a written blog post on his website.
4. That blog post gets automatically emailed out to his mailing list. (see link at bottom)
5. He takes the audio from that video and bam, there’s his podcast.
6. He finds 1 quote from that video and makes a quote card for Twitter.

SO easy!

I love this approach because it not only makes it stupid simple to organize your content sharing schedule, but it takes all the pressure off of you to keep making new content for each channel.

Another thing: it’s super easy and inexpensive to find people who will reliably make some of these pieces for you.

This approach is also incredibly easy to customize for your industry. Whether you’re a caterer, or a musician, or a photographer, or an educator, you can design your own magic formula to fit your needs. 

Let’s build a Magic Formula for an imaginary musician:

1. Musician takes a video of herself playing her new single.
2. It’s simple, filmed right at home in their home studio. Perhaps even simpler - it’s filmed in the most photogenic spot in their house. Or their buddy’s studio. Using daylight. And a usb mic.
3. She takes a quick photo or a 15 second video and immediately posts it to Instagram.
4. She posts the full video to YouTube.
5. She posts that video to her Facebook fan page.
6. She uses the audio from that video and posts it to Soundcloud.
7. Maybe she even gives it away exclusively on SoundCloud as a free download (or Reverbnation. Or Myspace.)
8. She transcribes the lyrics from that video and adds them to her blog (and includes the video). She could even write up a little more info on the song if she wants to - where the idea came from, what it was like writing it, plans for the album, etc.
9. That blog post gets automatically emailed to her mailing list.
   
10. She picks out her favorite lyric and creates a Twitter card, tweets about it.
    
11. She takes that same image and pins it on Pinterest. Bonus points if she includes that card in her blog post and pins it directly from her own blog!

The basic idea is to see how many different ways you can use one single piece of content. You want to get as much mileage out of that one piece of content as you possibly can.

Here are some other services to help you even further.

So maybe you’re not the world’s best graphic designer, and you’re unsure how to make a Twitter card. Or maybe you don’t know anything about video editing. Here are some resources for making the various small pieces of connecting content:

Graphics:

Canva - https://www.canva.com/
Wonderful, free, in-browser service. Upload your own images or use theirs. Beautiful pre-made typographic layouts. In-app purchases also available.

WordSwag - http://www.wordswag.co/
The go-to free iOS app for bloggers. Excellent for putting text over images.

Over - http://madewithover.com/
Similar to WordSwag. Available for iOS and Android devices.

Fiverr - https://www.fiverr.com/
The premier marketplace for immediate, I-Want-It-Now-For-Cheap solutions. Bajillions of graphic designers who will make your graphic, today, for $5.

A friend with Photoshop
Yup. Nothing like a good friend with great gear who owes you a favor. Or better yet, offer to throw them a few bucks to be your go-to graphics person.

Video and Audio editing:

Garageband
Garageband is included on all mac computers. If you know nothing about audio, watch a couple of YouTube tutorials and you’ll be good to go. Garageband is meant for anyone to be able to use without much of a learning curve.

Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
A popular, free Windows recording software. A nice alternative to Garageband.

iMovie
iMovie also comes with most Mac computers. It’s just like Garageband in that it’s super easy to learn, no matter your experience working with video.

Fiverr - https://www.fiverr.com/
Again, you can find someone to do pretty much anything for you on Fiverr. For $5. Go wild.

How to tie your blog posts to your email list with Mailchimp:

http://www.stuffedweb.com/automatically-email-latest-post/

If you want to listen to the podcast and hear it straight from the source, check out Brendan Burchard’s interview with Chalene Johnson, part 1 and part 2.

Are you utilizing this type of strategy to release your content? Have you come up with anything better? Share your magic formulas and great ideas below. 

Don't forget to download and share this handy infographic. Click here to download.