Scandalous content marketing, or how to use negativity, conflicts and provocations to sell goods and services. Types of engaging content on social networks Provocative content

Modern Internet marketing relies primarily on quality content. From how much V You will be able to win the interest of users, the overall performance of the company will depend. But writing a text that will be interesting to a large audience is not as easy as it seems at first glance. Let's look at a few subtleties and secrets of creating content that will become a real bomb.

What to write about?

Before we talk about howto write, let us touch upon the question ofwhat should be on V our website to attract usersovals. How content works:the user finds V your site, sees on him useful, and most importantly, originalother information, reads it -receives benefits and pleasure, becomes a client.

• viral, which provides a lot of benefits and attracts users;
• expert who will make it clear that in you understand a particular industry, and also leads the user to purchase V your product or service;
• a seller who makes a lucrative offer.

In this case, it is necessary to maintain a balance - 50% viral tocontent, 30% expert, 20% –selling. This is a rough plan, but in any case there should be the least amount of selling information.

How to write a useful article?

Viral content – key in involved ii au audience to the site. But in order to write it, you need to understand what interests the target audience and what material will attract it. To do this, you need to answer just one question: “Would I myself?Read this information to the end?

Unfortunately, most of the information that is published on the Internet is written only from one no purpose - fill in the blank pages of the site. Only a small number of resources are truly interested in ensuring that their users receive quality materials.

Important e rule when writing text isthe concentration of utility should be off the charts. That is, ifyou give useful advice -they really should beuseful and there should be a lot of them. Only such an article will attract the user, open his eyes to the problem and encourage him to useput all the advice into practice. TI'm not far from transferring him to lead.

Surely there is already good information on this or that topic. V our competitors. We propose to take it as a basis, but make it even better, more informative and more voluminous. For example, V We found the article “The 5 Best Countries to Travel” that contains some good information. But if you write an article in which you reveal the 50 best places to travel, supplement it with relevant interestinginformation, bright pictures -such an article will become much more interesting, the user will want to save it and visit all the places described. So what if you are presenting hire a travel agency - then in All we have to do is offer the user only the most “delicious” tours.

If in If you don’t know where to get ideas, you can use resources buzzsumo.com and ahrefs.com . By typing the desired phrase into the search program, V You will get the most interesting results in terms of the number of views and shares. All that remains is to select the most interesting ones and rework them.

Publish cases

Case – one of the most effective types of material. They show what V your skills in practice or demonstrated V your product in all its glory. It is the case published on the website that can attract buyers and generate sales. Such material usually evokes a lively response from users, they become more thoroughly familiar with the materials and begin to comment on them, which is also not bad.

The main thing is that the material is sufficiently detailed and written honestly, without unnecessary praise.

Provocative content

Provocative content – This is stuff that goes against the grain of most people. A on a specific topical issue, or touches on the most painful points of the audience. It is importantstick to one rule -material shouldbe written fully and convincingly prove this point of view. According to statistics, such materials simply “blow up” the network, users begin to actively discuss information,express your points of view -in general, the content becomes truly “killer”.

No humor

Filling a site with only dry, useful information does not always result in a large influx of users. If we talk about attracting visitors, then it’s worth remembering websites raging entertaining content – their visitors do not receive any benefit, but the number of visits is growing every day.

It is worth posting humorous content from time to time. GIFs, demotivators, current memes, comics and parodies generate user activity well. If V If you don't know what to write, visit the sites fishki.net, yaplakal.com or pikabu.ru.

What should I write about?

Home page problem when writing content -it's the lack of a theme. If V If you don’t know what to write about, you can use ready-made lists of topics. This includes:

• list in ashi x favorite tools to use;
• R review of someone else's material your topic;
• project case;
• And interview with a representative your company;
• photo report about life or working day of the company;
• video review of a product or service;
• from answers to frequently asked questions from clients;
• summing up results for the project, month, year;
• h e-sheet on the audience problem, for example, “Howunderstand that it’s time for you to rest?”;
• requests s of users from comments;
• With link to someone else's content from description of why I liked this material;
• R Tell us about the company or team. But you shouldn't write about young peoplem, a promising team -make a text about living people for other living people.

If in If you’ve already written about everything, but new ideas still don’t come, he recommends visiting forums on similar topics. This is where users gatherdiscuss living problems. Read the discussions, choosePlease list the most pressing questions -and write quality material.

Killer content starts with the title

Almost every article on online content talks about the need to create strong headlines. But Despite the fact that this advice is found more often than not at every turn, many still do not use it.

The main principles of writing a title:

• promise benefits - " How to make money from SEO in 2018»;
• show the value of the information –“ 50 best internet marketing services»;
• arouse curiosity – “Case – to How the company's problems were solved with the help of the CEO»;
• emphasize the material - " Top Tips for Internet Marketers» .

Don’t forget about the content of the key query in the title. The user should immediately see that the material will contain the answer to an important question.

Provide links to other interesting articles on the site

Many sites have “Most Popular” or “Most Discussed” sections.– they are placed for a reason to fillthere is space. On the contrary, this isan excellent source of attracting user attention. Let's say he went to your website , I read interesting material -and then right next to it I saw a link toanother article on his question -this way you can keep him on the site for a long time.

You can often find a technique where a link to material relevant to the topic is inserted in the middle of the article. This technique works great because it makes the user interested in reading material that complements the answer to his main query.

Give users interactivity

Absolutely everyone loves to take small tests or mini-games. Using some services, you can create surveys, quizzes and other interesting materials that attract attention and keep users on the site for a long time.

The benefits of longreads

Many people still argue about what format content is most popular –short articles or full longreads? The argument for short materials is that they can be read quickly. But from our point of view, long, carefully prepared materials are more useful to readers because they contain comprehensive information.

A user visiting a website is looking for an answer to a question. If he doesn't get it from you - he will go to other resources, and in the end may become a client of competitors. But if it is V Once he finds a complete description and solution to his problem, there will be no point in searching further. Therefore, we recommend making longreads with a high concentration of usefulness.

Killer content – what is more important?

To summarize what has been said, I would like to once again emphasize that the mostThe main thing when writing content istake into account the interests of the audience, provide answers to the most pressing questions, and solve real user problems.

At the same time, do not forget about the design of the material. A sheet of dry text, written in one font, without highlights and accents, is unlikely to be understood by users.

These are clearly chapters of a future book. And it promises to be very interesting. Perhaps the most important difference between these articles is their versatility. In SMM, everything changes very quickly, and it seems as if you always have to run ahead of the locomotive. Rumyantsev's articles bring us back to earth: there are unchangeable things. And one of them is communications.

By engaging (communicative) content, I mean content that encourages users to communicate. These could be posts that enhance communication on the group wall (in the comments) or invite subscribers to go to the “Discussions” section to communicate (in the case of working on VKontakte). In the second case, a topic is set on the wall and a link to the topic is given. The main goal of this type of content is to create a sustainable “living” community around your company. Simply put, parties where everyone knows each other and where they constantly return. I'll first list the types of posts that can spark discussion, but there are a number of other comment techniques that spark those discussions. They will be discussed in a separate article.

Discussion of problematic issues on your topic

And here are the comments:

You need to understand that the more acute the problem, the livelier and longer the discussion will be. In some situations, even in a small group (1-2 thousand people) you can receive hundreds of comments. The main thing is to hit the painful point. For example, on a children's topic, discuss vaccinations: should they be done or not?

As I said earlier, the best option is to look for topics on specialized forums, in discussions of other groups, or using the Wordstat.yandex.ru service.

You can discuss (find out the opinions of community members) not only pain points, but also news and the latest industry trends. If your topic was Internet marketing, for example, the impact of mobile technologies on promotion and the emerging mobile advertising market would be suitable.

You can't be a professional at absolutely everything. It doesn't happen that way. Let's say you can sell very well, but understand nothing about design. Be able to set up targeted advertising, but bad at writing long articles. There's always something to learn. Don't be afraid to ask your followers to share and discuss their experiences in related fields.

Speak about something with utmost sincerity

Have you noticed which posts spread on social networks with maximum speed and collect a sea of ​​feedback? That's right - posts where the author is sincere, hides nothing and turns himself inside out. It is impossible to pass by such posts and not comment. Moreover, such posts establish a special trusting connection between you and your readers, which will subsequently sell. In some situations, this model of work is made the basis of management.

Someone else's pain always evokes sympathy. No matter what anyone talks about the callousness of people in the 21st century. If you “complain” or share your pain about some issue (especially if it is a personal issue), there will definitely be those who will try to calm you down. However, there will be those who will say that stop whining. But such comments also play into our hands - we still raise involvement.

The only thing is that you shouldn’t overdo it and really whine about trifles; on the contrary, it can cause rejection. And, of course, such a model must be consistent with the overall positioning of the project. It's hardly right to complain about anything if you're a martial arts trainer.

Discussion of general socio-political issues and simply current topics

You don’t have to be rigidly attached to your topic. Something is constantly happening around. Many events affect and excite people from a variety of industries. Accordingly, these topics can be discussed. What do you think about “cutting out” pirated audio recordings on the VKontakte network? Are you outraged by the law on insulting the feelings of believers? Why is there such a fuss about Putin's divorce? Are you against the adoption of our children by Americans?

Something happens in our country every week. Go to any news site (for example, Echo of Moscow) and look at the most discussed topics. Socio-political issues are usually highly controversial. Ask your audience for their opinion, people will definitely speak out.

Just watch the comments and try to delete insults so that communication does not turn into abuse. This happens when discussing hot topics.

Sometimes you can even combine professional and social. Why not?

Night chat

This technique allows you to strengthen the horizontal connections of subscribers. In this case, they communicate with each other, and you are the moderator of the discussion: you set the topic, invite them to communicate. Typically, such chats are launched closer to the night (that’s why they are called night chats). It is at this time that most have finished all their business and are ready to communicate.

The younger the audience, the better the response. Many people use such chats for dating. Adult audiences engage in such discussions much less frequently.

I recommend using this technique if the size of your group exceeds 10 thousand “live” participants. Anything less and the chat usually dies quickly. I also advise you to set a topic. She has the main function - to start communication and turn it in a certain direction. Then the participants act on their own and often go far away from the given topic. The theme of relationships works very well, it is always popular. For example: “How do you feel about men cheating?”

One of the varieties of night chats is Friday chat. The logic is similar, it’s just that the time is chosen specifically after the work week, when people are already going to rest.

Encourage your followers to give each other advice. The best way to do this is to use the corresponding topic in “Discussions” and a link to it from the group wall. In particular, the Books and Coffee club launched the “Recommend Good Books” topic, where community members advised others on what to read.

Games

It is better to ask this communicative content in “Discussions”. As practice shows, games collect the maximum number of comments. The main thing is that they are not complicated.

What games can there be? For example, “Describe me in one word.” The task is to describe the person who is in front of you in the discussion in just one word. There is also a game called “Compliments” - you need to give the best compliment to the previous participant in the discussion. Another example is the game "Celebrity". The task is to write what celebrity the previous participant in the discussion is like.

You can come up with a lot of such games. Again, this works great with younger audiences, especially female ones.

What to improve, what to write about?

Any commercial group should have such a topic in the “Discussions”. Here people tell what content they would like to see in the group, what additional sections need to be introduced. For example, in one of the groups where posters of children's events are published, a topic was posted with the question: “What events interest you most?” From this topic we learned that free events are in demand among subscribers. We were asked to display as many of them as possible.

Another option is to ask users - what else should you write about? For example, it periodically comes Lena Kovarskaya.

By the way, in addition to the fact that this will provide communication, you can also learn a lot about user problems

Polls

The functionality of VK allows you to conduct surveys on any occasion. However, if you just do a poll with voting, then there may be no activity in the comments. Therefore, if you need to get it, I recommend doing an “unfinished” survey. That is, either deliberately not give one of the obvious answer options, or offer to write your own option in the comments. In both cases, users actively join the discussion.

If you have a store, you can ask your subscribers which product they like best.

For example, if you sell cell phones and other gadgets, compare different models. Invite users to explain in the comments why one brand is better than another. I’ll immediately mention one caveat: such surveys can reduce the number of sales of some product items. On the other hand, good models will become more in demand.

If you have a service, you can ask subscribers which feature is most in demand and why.

"Hit" or "Boiled"

Just as pain evokes sympathy, indignation about a situation always evokes reciprocal comments.

Actually, you probably already guessed that the number of comments is directly related to strong emotions. Both positive and negative. The main thing is the degree.

If you shout loudly on the street, you will definitely cause a flurry of attention and feedback. Everything is the same here. Write an angry post about how endlessly terrible Yandex ranks sites, and that it will soon die, and there will definitely be those who agree with you and those who do not. Be outraged by the terrible work of the service or the actions of an unscrupulous competitor, and you will have the same effect.

Provocations

Sometimes provocations can be used to shake things up. You are writing an extremely harsh (scandalous) post on a current topic with an extremely one-sided interpretation.

There will definitely be those who will disagree with you.

And they will definitely write about it in the comments. Let's say you speak out on the topic of antibiotics. You can write that all children, without exception, need antibiotics, and mothers who do not use them are poorly educated and influenced by myths.

However, one should be careful with provocations. They can greatly affect your reputation and alienate some of your audience.

Help

Like sympathy for the pain of others, the desire to help is still alive in people. And in ours, even too much, because often they try to help, even when they are not asked to do so. Especially with advice :) Imagine what will happen if you ask for them?
Of course, there is a little sarcasm here, but this does not change the essence - a request for help in some task is sure to attract a lot of comments. Those who read my community carefully have probably noticed that posts asking for errors on the landing page are the busiest:

Fludilni

A fairly common move to increase activity in a group is to create a separate topic in the “Discussions”, where people can just chat about nothing. This type of communication came from forums, where such sections are most often called smoking rooms. There people discuss absolutely everything - from politics to football.

Today, search engine promotion is increasingly moving away from the standard methods that have been popular over the past decade.

Technical and reference methods are becoming a set of standardized recommendations, and the influence of these factors is becoming less and less significant. The main character becomes the person. The success of your website now depends on how convenient and enjoyable it is for people. Therefore, to attract search traffic it is necessary to resort to non-standard and, in fact, creative methods.

In this article, we will give 5 life hacks that will attract useful traffic to your website.

1. Reveal the essence of search intent

To attract a user, it is often not enough just to tell him what you have Product A, register on the page “ Buy goods A"or write a corresponding article. There are many areas and areas where people do not know what product they need, but may encounter a problem that this product can solve. This problem is partly illuminated by Hunt's theory of the ladder of recognition. However, it is not necessary to build complex processes with different levels of article promotion for this. Sometimes it is enough to get additional information about a product.

For example, you sell Fly Ezzy or Philips Xenium E311 phones. In addition to standard optimization using keywords, try to answer the questions: what is this product? Who is it for? What problems does it solve?

We can imagine what a special feature of the phone is - it has large buttons.
We will receive the request [phone with big buttons]

We can guess what problems the phone solves - it will be convenient for those with poor eyesight.
We will receive the request [telephone for the visually impaired]

We can think about what category of people this phone is for - it will be convenient for people of retirement age.
We will receive the request [phone for the elderly]

We can assume that such a product may have a frequently used, for example, slang name.
We will receive requests [grandmother's phone] And [dialer]

Thus, having understood the essence of the problem, we can more accurately formulate the needs that arise from consumers. People do not always know what qualities a particular product has, and then they begin to make a request based on their problems.

The result is a “product + problem” scheme.

To look to find queries like this:
— similar queries in Wordstat;
— feedback and questions from visitors to your site;
— forums and websites where there is a discussion of the product you are selling.

2. Control your reputation in search results

Reputation is an extremely important part of the life of not only a store, but also a website. A good reputation can bring you additional traffic, while a negative reputation will deprive your site of visitors. Even if you are in the TOP for popular queries, it is far from a fact that you will receive all the traffic.

For example, let's look at the search results [buy mobile phones in Odessa]

Local results will be displayed with a map that contains information about nearby stores. As you can see, there is one site with the maximum rating and the largest number of reviews - that is, the sample is quite representative.

Thus, if a person is looking for a store closest to him and sees a store with good reviews in the search results, then, most likely, he will pay attention to it and follow the link. Another option is for the user to go to the reviews tab and be able to form their opinion about the site.

Therefore, if you invest in developing the reputation of your site, you will receive traffic even for those requests for which your project is not in the TOP.

What do we have to do:
— maintain your reputation on social networks and through Yandex and Google reviews;
— use various review sites: Irecommend, Otzovik, Otzyvua (for Ukraine);
— leave information about your website on thematic and regional forums.

3. Select relevant content

In addition to using standard optimization methods, it is sometimes necessary to go beyond and understand what format of content will be interesting to the user and attract his attention. Nowadays, search engines increasingly understand user requests and provide them with the necessary content.

For example, you have an article that describes how to tie a tie. Do you want to promote a request? [how to tie a tie]. Let's look at the Google results.

For this request, the first results are not website search snippets or even videos, but images that demonstrate in detail the technique of tying a tie. Do you want to know how to tie a tie? Here are the diagrams please. No need to search for a long time - everything is in one place. If the user clicks on the image, he will be taken to the article itself.

In this way, the user can be attracted by the functional and user-friendly type of content, which will encourage him to click on your website.

What should be done:
— assess the predominant type of content in the search results;
— create suitable content: if the search results are dominated by pictures, you need to prepare an article with images that are understandable to the user; if videos predominate, create video content, in the description of which place text motivating people to go to your site (the video should also be placed on the site itself).

4. Anticipate demand

In modern conditions, it is extremely important not only to create a large amount of content, but also to present it to users on time.

For example, this is what search demand for the query would look like: [what to take to the beach]- peak popularity occurs in June-July.

In this regard, it is worthwhile to first create content that, by the time demand grows, will already have a history, and it will also be indexed by search engines.

If we look at the results, we will see that in the TOP there are articles from this year, which just appeared a month before in April-May.

What should be done:
— study the peak points of popularity that correspond to queries from your topic;
— prepare a plan that will take into account the creation of future content within the required time period;
— release content 1-2 months before expected demand.

5. Create provocative content - go backwards

Everyone knows that it is difficult to create popular topical content, especially in competitive topics. But you can add value to your informational site or blog (if you have a commercial store) by doing the opposite.

For example, a lot of articles of this type are created: "TOP best phones of 2017" or "Best phones of 2017". It is quite difficult to compete in such a field. But instead, you can go the opposite way and create provocative text: "TOP worst mobile phones", “TOP phones that you should not take”, "10 phones that will ruin your life". This article can explain why you should not buy this or that product.

Such information is likely to raise many questions among users and discussion will arise. In this case, one thing is extremely important - your arguments must be based on specific facts. For example, your phone may have a weak battery and drain quickly.

The phone can be extremely inconvenient - easily soiled, heavy, with poorly placed buttons. In the article itself you can place links that will lead to other articles on your site: a review of really good phones, TOP phones, tips for choosing phones, etc.

To get initial traffic for such an article, it is better to use referral sources and social networks. You can create one attractive post and drive traffic through provocative news. And then users can go to other pages of your site if they wish.

What should be done:
— find popular topics;
— create content that has a provocative message;
— place links in the content to your other articles, categories, products in context;
— attract initial attention through posts on social networks and referral traffic.

So, if these ideas are implemented correctly, you will receive additional traffic that will benefit more than just your landing pages. The right content will increase the number of users involved, and as a result, you will improve the behavioral factors of your site.

P.S. Are you constantly working on your website, but your visibility and traffic are not growing? Perhaps you are doing something wrong. Send us a request describing the situation and we will help you figure it out.

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SMM specialists use a limited set of tools. Provocative content, attention-grabbing photos with cats and children, surveys and prize draws - all this quickly sets one's teeth on edge. Spoiled by an abundance of information, the audience reacts sluggishly to the content published by brands. In such a situation, marketers who have in their arsenal tricks and tricks that can stir up the reader win. In this article you will find a description of such tricks.

Trick #1: Show off positive customer reviews on Facebook

On average, 35% of comments on brand pages on Facebook are positive reviews, thanks and compliments. The remaining 65% are most often neutral in nature. These are user questions, links to any publications, etc. There are always more neutral posts and comments, so they hide compliments. But you can change this situation. To do this, use the following recommendations:

• Select the View Activity Log menu.

• In the control block on the left, select “Published by others.”

• Select the posts you want to appear on your Timeline using the "Included in Timeline" icon to the right of the note.

Trick #2: Format Your Google+ Posts

We already talked about formatting posts on Google+ in an article about increasing traffic using this social network. So that you don’t have to search for the necessary codes for a long time, use the following hint:

If you did everything correctly, you will end up with a post like this:

Trick #3: Find out what photos visitors to your stores and restaurants post on Instagram

This trick will be useful for offline business owners: shops, catering establishments, etc. You can see what photos visitors to your outlets post on Instagram. This will allow you to find out what your customers like or don't like.

• Take a photo of something in your restaurant or store. Activate the “Add to photo card” option and mark the location.
• Post a photo. After publishing, a link will appear above the photo with the name of the place you tagged.
• Follow the link and see what photos other users are posting.

Trick #4: Change the Look of Your Twitter Account

You can make your Twitter account more visible by changing its appearance. The microblogging service allows you to use a branded background image, as well as choose the color of links and hashtags.

To customize your profile, click the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen and enter the Settings menu.

In the left control block, select “Design”. Use the "Customize Your Own Theme" menu to brand your profile.

Trick #5: Post Visual Content on LinkedIn

This is banal advice for users of Facebook, VKontakte and most other social networks. However, LinkedIn users do things the old fashioned way: they mostly post links and text notes. This makes the news link on LinkedIn look rather boring, which is generally normal for a business network.

But who said brands have to be boring and old-fashioned? Post photos, YouTube videos, SlideShare presentations, and other visual content to LinkedIn. Like other social networks, LinkedIn users can view YouTube videos, presentations, and other visual content without leaving their news feed. By the way, according to LinkedIn, posts with video content get 75% more shares than text posts. And photos receive 98% more comments compared to posts without visual content.

Trick #6: Use Pinterest to Attract Customers

Still think that social networks serve only for abstract branding, some kind of increase in awareness and increase the reach of something there? And some brands are already selling with all their might using Pinterest.

This social network is suitable for selling clothes, jewelry, decorative items and many other products. Of course, you're unlikely to sell a life insurance policy or shared hosting services through Pinterest. However, visually attractive products that generate impulse demand sell like hotcakes here.

To sell products on Pinterest, follow these steps:

• Open your profile for search engines.
• Use relevant keywords when creating your profile and board descriptions.
• Use appropriate hashtags.
• Post the sales department's phone number in the geolocation field.

Trick #7: Let Your Audience Share Your Content in One Click

Of course, you already use social media sharing buttons. Complete them with pre-populated tweet links. They are created like this:

• The first part of the link looks like this:

Have you ever wondered why many people react more strongly to negativity than to positivity? Why do they enthusiastically write nasty things in the comments? Why are they more willing to empathize with other people’s failures than to sincerely rejoice in the happiness of other people? Why do they like to read information about disasters so much? Do you want to know? Today we're talking about negativity and whether it can be used in marketing to beneficial effect. And if it is possible, then how? On illustrative cases.

I did not plan to write and publish this article. But it so happened that a few days ago I spoke at a seminar on the topic “Scandalous Content Marketing”, and it aroused strong interest, including from local media. In addition, not everyone had the opportunity to come to the seminar. Therefore, why not? Make yourself comfortable, we're starting!

Scandalous content marketing - a fragment of a speech at a seminar.

What is scandalous (or hype) content marketing?

First, a brief definition. So to speak, to immediately be on the same page.

Scandalous (hype) content marketing is a strategy for creating provocative materials (hype content) for a mass audience. Such publications, as a rule, are based on scandals, conflicts, negativity, contradictory and ambiguous information. The main task is to get results (money, image, reputation, social effect, etc.).

To solve the problem, the copywriter activates the necessary psychological triggers (more on this below) so that there is a viral effect and, as a result, maximum reach of people. Advancing through scandals and conflicts is a gamble. But there are three factors that increase the chances of success. We'll start with them.

Why are people susceptible to negativity?

Let's go back to the first question for a moment. Have you ever wondered why people react more strongly to negativity: in the news, in life, in learning? Why is it that when you treat your subordinates well, they often “sit on their heads,” but if you “take them down like a horse” (to work, of course, and not just like that) and threaten them with dismissal, they immediately start working?

You don't have to look far for evidence. Here is a screenshot of the feed of one Belarusian news publication (the first thing that came to hand, but you can see exactly the same picture on any other news resource).

An example of how people react to negativity in the news.

To make it more convenient for you, I have marked the key points with numbers and frames. Three pieces of news are symbolically posted here. Almost in a row.

News number “1” tells how a traffic police officer nobly moved an old woman across the road. Pure positive, but no hype - only 10,000 views. News number two is about a woman’s accusations against traffic police officers of unlawful use of force. There is a conflict, and there are already 30,000 views. Well, news No. 3 is generally about a showdown on the road with a “wild mess” and massacre - almost 55 thousand views, or 5.5 times more than the positive news. Why do you think? The answer is simple.

People react more strongly to negativity because this is an evolutionary mechanism inherent in them by nature. It is needed for the survival of the species and the accumulation of experience, because in ancient times man (and not only man) constantly fought for existence, and mistakes could cost lives.

This theory was proven at one time by Academician Pavlov. In an experiment on dogs, whose brain physiology is similar to that of humans. He found that if a dog is punished for bad behavior, it “learns the lesson” within 1-2 times. In contrast, if you reward for good behavior, then only from 6-8.

Living in the modern world has become relatively safe for humans. There are not many direct threats. But the evolutionary mechanism has not gone away. If the brain does not receive negative input from the outside, it creates negativity for itself: either in the form of fears and phobias, or in the form of aggression (a distorted derivative of the “fight or flight” instinct).

Negativity amplifiers

The same person can react to the same situation in diametrically opposite ways, depending on a host of factors. And one of the most significant is hormonal levels and, in particular, the level of the hormone serotonin. It is also called the “happiness” or “good mood” hormone. The higher its level, the lower the susceptibility to negativity.

Hormonal levels directly affect the perception of negativity

Yes, you yourself have probably noticed: the happier a person is, the less he wants to quarrel with others, and he always reacts to life’s troubles with a smile. The opposite is also true: an unfortunate person is hurt and unsettled even by little things: a bad joke from colleagues or a minor scratch on a car.

So, people's natural sensitivity to negativity is the first factor, or, so to speak, component of scandalous content marketing. Let's move on to the second component - envy.

Envy

Contrary to popular belief, envy is neither a bad nor a good thing. This is a derivative of the instinct of imitation, which, by the way, only humans have. It appeared when man began to produce goods for himself (civilization arose). Envy as a derivative of instinct has two important functions:

1. Motivates to create benefits (sort of an internal kick).
2. Contributes to the distribution of these benefits in society.

However, like everything else in humans, this mechanism became distorted over time. For some, envy becomes a motivating factor (aka “white envy”): “Oh! My neighbor bought a new car! I need to earn money for the same or even better! All! I set a goal, I achieve it!” For others - on the contrary - a negative factor (aka “black envy”): “Rrr! A neighbor bought a new car. Major! Dude! I'll puncture his tires, let him walk like everyone else! Or he uses public transport!”

Envy is a derivative of the instinct of imitation, which motivates people to have the same benefits as their relatives. But there is a nuance...

The second option manifests itself in moments of so-called strong “affective tension”, which urgently needs a way out. This is when a person has desires and ambitions, but there is no opportunity to realize them here and now. Anger, negativity and aggression are a way to discharge. In addition, this is a way to justify yourself.

That is why for every success story there will always be a dozen or one and a half (or even more) angry, “exposing” comments. However, the same person can react to the same event differently, even diametrically opposed, depending on, I repeat, hormonal levels (see above).

Psychological triggers

Finally, the third factor that is important for scandalous content marketing is psychological triggers based on the same instinct of imitation. In particular, we are interested in three triggers:

1. . To make decisions, people look at other people's reactions.
2. . People rely on expert opinions when forming their opinions or taking actions.
3. The principle of benevolence. A person feels sympathy for people who are similar to him.

The first and third triggers are especially indicative when they work together. In the nineties, if you remember, S. Mavrodi organized a financial pyramid on a federal scale - “MMM”. Many people have heard about this, but few know how the history of the advertising campaign unfolded.

Now that we have three key components, let's look at how to use them in outrageous content marketing.

Case No. 1: “divide and conquer”

Back in 2011, we decided to use the scandal to attract new audience segments to the coupon aggregator website. To do this, they wrote a provocative article a la 2 in 1: hysteria with refutation. Plus, we added a pseudo-referral link (to count registrations, because back then Google Analytics and UTM tags were not particularly used).

Dividing the audience into “us” and “strangers” makes it easier to manage.

Bringing a post to the main page of LiveJournal (it was a fashionable platform back then) is a matter of technique. They took us out and began to wait. Initially, everything went according to plan. The audience was divided into two camps: those who were in favor of coupons and considered the author an unbalanced hysterical and those who agreed with the author. Both camps quickly began to figure out which of them was right in the comments, and the post gained organic popularity. And so that both camps would not get bored, we did the so-called. “salting” - added artificial comments, adding fuel to the fire of discussion.

But then the situation got out of control. Someone noticed the referral link and began to say that this is all profanation, that the main scoundrel is the one who published the post, he earns commissions from honest people! As a result, both camps quickly became friends against the author of the publication, and some even began to brag that they had registered on the site by cutting off their “referral tail.”

During the first day of such a company, we received about one and a half thousand registered new users, plus hundreds of unaccounted registrations that cut off the “referral tail”. The registration price turned out to be lower than other traffic sources.

Case No. 2: delayed provocation

In 2013, I decided to conduct a similar experiment on my blog. To do this, I wrote a provocative article about. And, looking ahead, then nothing worked out for me.

That same scandalous and provocative article.

The fact is that at that time I had a fairly loyal audience on my blog and in communities that agreed with me, and therefore there was no conflict. “Well, it didn’t work and it didn’t work, I thought.” And I forgot about the experiment. For three years.

In October 2016, I noticed a strange anomaly. On average, the blog received 2-3 requests for orders per day. But one day the number of applications exceeded 10 pieces. With the thought “The spammers have become completely insolent!” I went to check and noticed that all the applications were from real people. Strange. Moreover, judging by the analytics, all these requests came from the article about 12 types of clients. And indeed, the article experienced an abnormal jump in traffic.

Most of the visitors came from Facebook. A couple of minutes of searching and I realized what was going on. As it turned out, my article was republished by one business community, and the material caused a strong resonance there. And, what’s most interesting: most of the fifty comments were negative.

Here, too, the audience was divided into two camps (those who agreed with me, my target audience) and those who were against. Plus, in many comments there was envy, they say, we work with whoever we have, and this dude still chooses clients! But the main thing is that the material received relatively good coverage - hundreds of reposts and links to the blog. Moreover, I still work with one of the clients who came through the article.

Case No. 3: the “double bottom” scandal

This is one of my favorite scandals of 2017. Briefly, an information businessman (a woman who sells information products on psychology) contacts an SMM promotion studio. The quality of services was not satisfactory, and a conflict broke out, and on a Runet scale. Everyone and everyone, including the popular media, began to write about the conflict. The number of comments began to grow exponentially (everyone needs to speak out for or against!). Moreover, the employees of the SMM agency constantly supported the discussion, provoking the audience in every possible way.

People wondered: “Why are you doing this? You’re ruining your reputation!” To which the employees of the SMM agency responded with an imperturbable look, saying that this is how it should be. At first, I didn’t understand right away either, but then I looked at the situation from the other side and everything fell into place.

The target audience of the information businessman is women 30-45 years old. By their type, they are, as a rule, victims: victims of circumstances, misunderstanding, unrequited love, etc. And now the key question: in what form does an information businessman appear in this situation? Absolutely right - the injured party, that is, the victim.

Thanks to the conflict (negativity), the division of the audience into two camps and social proof, the story, like buckshot, covered huge layers of the audience (including the target one), and thanks to the trigger of goodwill, the situation immediately formed an initial trust between the target audience and the trainer.

Case No. 4: anti-case

A visual demonstration of the result is always accessible and understandable. But it doesn’t always evoke a positive reaction from the audience. Especially if this story is about success. Envy does its job. For example, when I published , it received a very mixed reception on social media.

And this case is far from an isolated case. Look at any other successful case. There will always be people who would be happy to skate along it.

But the situation is completely different when you publish an anti-case or a failure story. It is also called, in a fashionable manner, “fuck up” (English: fuck up). For example, my story about how I lost my entire subscriber base was much more successful.

It would seem like a negative experience, but it works as a plus. You probably already guessed the reason yourself. The psychological trigger of goodwill is triggered. And he also explains why people empathize with the grief of others with much greater zeal than they rejoice in other people’s successes.

The man did nothing and received nothing. Of course, he will happily console another person who has done a lot of things, but also received nothing (similarity trigger). The first principle: “If there is no difference, why bother and do something? What a great guy I am, I saved so much time!” And immediately a surge of dopamine.

Case No. 5: single lunge

Sometimes it happens that random negativity plays into your hands. At the same time, you can often find statements on the Internet in the style of: “They are scoundrels, scoundrels and crooks!” This happened with one text uniqueization service. This service is designed for students and solves a narrow task - making the text unique for checking using the teacher's anti-plagiarism system. The initiator of the conflict did not pay attention to this, used the service for other purposes and issued a “devastating post.”

Like any conflict, the article attracted people's attention (we need to find out who is wrong!). As a result, thousands of students learned about the existence of the service, its functions, and began to use it.

Summary

Scandals, conflicts and negativity are bad. But this does not prevent copywriters from using them to solve problems. True, I strongly recommend using traditional methods first, because scandalous content marketing is a gamble that will lead to no one knows what. Yes, you can predict the effect, but you can also get the opposite result if you overdo it.

We still have an open question about how to protect ourselves from negativity on the Internet and conflicts in real life. This is a separate topic, and I will cover it a little later in a separate article.

And unlike the classic call, if you decide to use scandals and negativity for promotion, do it very carefully, because... Hmm... It may not work out.