Blogging Checklist: Viral Posts

Blogging Checklist: Viral Posts

Have you ever had a post that has gone viral, but you’ve been unprepared for it? It doesn’t mean that your post wasn’t worthy of virality, but that some of your associated social media or links weren’t quite up to scratch. Here is my checklist for making sure as much as possible is in tip-top shape! It’s a comprehensive as I can make it, based on what I use and what I know others use.

 

Why am I writing this? Well, earlier this year when a board of mine was featured by Pinterest, I felt really embarrassed because I hadn’t even written a description for the board!  So that spurred me a little to make sure that everything is in order, just in case this little blogger gets some more hits!

Blogging Checklist: Viral Posts

Of course, not every post will go viral. Or get an acceptable number of hits. (Acceptable is something you need to work out for where you are on your blogging journey & what your goals are.) But, you want to make sure that every post is suitable for going viral, in case it does. And not just your posts – your website, your social media – as much as possible should all be branded with correct links.

 

The Post: 

  • “Pinnable” photo
  • Edited
  • Proof read
  • Disclosures stated
  • All links tested & working

 

Your Website:

  • Updated ‘about me’ page.
  • Correct information on PR/Freelance or any other sort of business related page

 

Pinterest:

  • Profile Description
  • Link to your website
  • Verify your account
  • Correct links to your other social media (Facebook, Twitter, G+)
  • Your boards have categories and descriptions

 

Twitter:

  • Profile description
  • Website link
  • Header Photo
  • Profile Photo

 

Facebook:

  • Cover photo
  • Profile photo
  • Website link
  • About section filled in

 

Instagram:

  • Profile photo
  • Profile Description
  • Website link

 

Other Sites:

Sign up for social media accounts you don’t use so that the name is reserved. The last thing you want is to go viral, get a response on a social media site you don’t use, decide to engage, and find your name is already taken. Site I am registered for but rarely or never use include:

  • Vine
  • Tumblr
  • Dropbox
  • StumbleUpon
  • MailChimp
  • BlogLovin

 

General Tips:

  • Check ALL YOUR LINKS. Check them logged in and logged out. Then check them again. And again. Maybe again. Links are the backbone of the internet. Check them.
  • If  a post goes viral, it’s worth a quick check over your publicly available information. Make sure your address isn’t public through business name registrations, photos posted on social media or location tagged statuses. We all share, but there’s no specific reason to make that information totally public!

 

There are a few things I still haven’t done. Mostly header photos on Twitter & Facebook – I just have no idea what to display on them and would rather write a blog post than spend time on them!

 

Of course, you can also use this as a general maintenance checklist for your blog and social media – it’s worth checking these things regularly.

 

Have you ever had a post go viral? What other tips would you offer?

 

10 Replies to “Blogging Checklist: Viral Posts”

  1. I don’t think I have any posts viral worthy but this is great lists for general maintenance checklists for our blog and social media. Yes, it’s worth checking these things regularly !
    Thank you.

    1. I’ve never had a post go viral, the closest I’ve been is the featured Pinterest board. But it made me stop and think about what I would do!

  2. So many good tips. I’m in the process of checking all this stuff ATM. I discovered the other day that my google plus settings were set to private, so all my shared posts were only seen by me! It’s worth checking everything out!!

    1. Oh privacy settings are a great one to check!! Good tip!

  3. Great advice, on the very off chance that something I write takes off! I’m quite a newbie so keep discovering new things I should have/could have done every day.

    1. That’s what’s both great and sometimes frustrating about blogging, so many things to learn. But that way it’s never boring.

  4. Great tips, especially updating social media accounts such as pintrest. I know most of my boards don’t have a description!

    1. I still haven’t added descriptions to all of mine, but I need to.

  5. Excellent advice. I It happened to me twice, very early on. I have no idea why. And I was not remotely prepared either time, and so it was a fantastic few days of stats on both occasions…and then nothing….crickets…

    Am going to go off and check everything from your post!

    1. I had no idea how my board was chosen on Pinterest; it was brand new at the time too!

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