There are lots of factors involved in making memes truly resonate with people. For one, they’ve got to be relatable. If memes don’t connect with human beings, they’re not successful memes. True memes are ideas, attitudes, beliefs, and points of view that go viral and spread within society.
Humor, though it certainly helps, isn’t technically necessary for this to happen.
However, something that is certainly vital is what emotions you decide to portray with your internet content and online communication. This isn’t as straightforward as you might think.
Positive content tends to be more viral than negative content. What’s more, virality tends to correlate with surprising, interesting, and practically useful content.
On top of that, virality also rises with how prominently the content is featured.
That being said, according to the authors of one study, the intensity of the emotions at play here is also important.
The researchers explain that virality is driven by “activation and arousal.” For example, content that evokes so-called high-arousal emotions, both positive (for example, awe) and negative (for instance, anger or anxiety), tends to be more viral.
On the other hand of the scale, content that focuses on low-arousal or deactivating emotions (for example, like sadness) often tends to be less viral.
“Sadness, anger, and anxiety are all negative emotions, but while sadder content is less viral, content that evokes anxiety or anger is actually more viral. 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,” the researchers explain.
According to the study, if your goal is to design a successful viral marketing campaign or craft contagious content, then you should aim to amuse your audience, rather than relax it.
So, for instance, advertisements that relax consumers or make them feel content won’t be as viral as those that amuse people.
Furthermore, if you want virality, you can’t avoid certain unpleasant emotions like anger and anxiety.
They can help your content spread further when used right.
On the other side of the scale is sadness, which you probably want to avoid as a marketer, organization, or content creator.
