Facebook Insights, the analytics for Facebook fan pages, actually shows a percentage of virality for each post. Here’s Facebook’s definition of virality: The percentage of people who have created a story from your Page post out of the total number of unique people who have seen it.

How to Write Viral Content

What you need to know is, virality comes by way of information sharing. So, how does a copywriter share information? Blogs, articles, press releases, social media posts.

The key to success is composing text that centers on a hot topic, like the Super Bowl or who-married-whom in Hollywood or whatever political issue is most popular right now. Controversy is also big – just make sure you don’t incite a riot of bad commentary on your post. The blog that my client emailed me about focused on the health benefits of Valentine’s chocolates, and it was published on the lovers’ holiday.

Jazzy Titles Rock

Keep in mind, about 80% of viewers will read your title. Only 2% will read your article. Knowing this, you could challenge yourself to write titles that make people want to read more. The smarter thing to do, I think, is write titles that people will want to share. The more you share, the more people see your post, and the greater number that 2% will represent. Make your title urgent, helpful, specific, and useful. How-to blogs are exceedingly popular. Don’t negate the importance of valuable content, but first, focus on an unforgettable, must-share title.

You also need to ask for shares. Ask your readers to share your link on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Here’s how to ask: Did you like what you learned in this blog? Please share it with your writing pals! No, seriously. Please share it!

Go-To Sources for Clinical Information

You are not a dentist and your intended readers are not dentists. Therefore, highly technical articles published in peer-reviewed journals may not yield the type of usable information you need. Instead, focus on resources aimed at the general public such as:

• Animated-teeth.com: This website offers step-by-step explanations of a wide range of general dentistry procedures and techniques. Per the site’s name, many of their articles are accompanied by helpful animated gifs.
• WebMD.com: Your mom’s favorite website for self-diagnosing her medical problems also has an extensive library of easy-to-read articles on a variety of dental topics. While not peer-reviewed, WebMD does put its articles through a careful editorial process to ensure accuracy.

Unexpected Sources of Useful Information

Sometimes you just need a quick reference. Sometimes you need to think outside the realm of the expected, especially if you want to find a fresh spin to put on a topic. Consider the following:

• Wikipedia: Yes, we know your college composition professor said to never, ever use Wikipedia. While that is absolutely true when crafting a scholarly, peer-reviewed article, Wikipedia can yield useful and highly accurate information to help you write for a general audience. A 2005 study conducted by Nature demonstrated that Wikipedia’s science articles were as accurate as those found in Encyclopedia Britannica.
• Yahoo Answers: While you certainly don’t want to use Yahoo Answers as single source for clinical information, the questions and answers posted here yield something your more traditional websites don’t offer: firsthand patient experiences. Whether you have someone talking about the cost of a CEREC crown or someone describing their root canal procedure, you can plumb those experiences for fresh material and engaging spin.

Using Your Resources Wisely

Never use a single source when writing your copy. Drawing from multiple sources gives your writing a dynamism that your readers will appreciate. Above all, use your common sense. If the information you find seems questionable, don’t use it.

For Exceptional Dental Writing

If you would like to see how great writing can drive your marketing strategy, we encourage you to talk to the dental marketing experts a Modern Dental Practice Marketing.

Many dentists are under contract with a dental website company, and they become frustrated with poor search engine rankings. The contract, however, holds them to two years, or they’ll face a hefty fee. One typical cause of low SEO rankings on template dental websites is duplicate content. Often, dental website companies pull text from a bank of library articles. This means, all of their clients’ websites have the exact same text about services, like crowns, implants, cleanings, etc. The only original content is that which the dentist delivers, usually for the homepage and bios.

Google Webmaster Central Blog tells us again and again that original text is necessary for optimal Google rankings. Using library articles on a website goes directly against this advice.

Keep Your Contract, Change Your Copy

The marketing consultants at Modern Dental Practice Marketing are happy to work with your current website and make it better. Many times, website companies allow their client dentists to submit original text and metadata for their websites. Our dental copywriters, who understand search engine optimization, clinical dentistry, and dental marketing, can craft original, optimized text for your current website. The copy will include metadata, the keywords and descriptions important to indexing by search engine robots. Depending on your website company’s policies, either our staff or their staff can upload the copy and submit the site for re-indexing by Google.

Dental Copywriters for Hire!

Don’t leave your reputation to chance. To discuss your dental website content, call MDPM Consulting today at 972-781-8861 or email us. We offer complete branding consulting, from assisting dentists with a vision, mission, practice name, and tagline to creating a logo, website, and print materials for use on- and off-line.