Viral: It’s a word that’s on every content marketer’s mind for obvious reasons — it could mean the difference between the local coffee shop and the verdant mermaid iconography instantly recognizable worldwide. This word that also means “diseased, infected and sick” has a largely positive connotation in the digital age, but there’s a lingering caveat in euphemizing it.
Striving to create viral content can be tempting, and content marketers are right to have widespread attention as part of their goals, but rather than it being the primary objective, it should be a secondary goal — something that results from producing engaging, high-quality content. Here are just a few reasons why you don’t want your content to go viral: