In a world where the attention span of adults and teenagers is trending towards zero and where sites like http://viralnova.com and http://upworthy.com do so well, links that go viral have to do more than educate the reader - they have to briefly 'elevate' the sharer in their loosely defined peer group with a momentary ego boost.
Reminds me of something that a legendary e-commerce marketer did once (before FB probably banned the practice). He played to ego - the most important player of all:
* Setup a Facebook app for fans of a certain college team (I believe it was the Cornhuskers)
* The Facebook app challenged the user with various and obscure trivia about the college team
* If you scored well enough, you were "rewarded" with a chance to share your score with your FB buddies and a "no-strings-attached" Netflix trial subscription
Reminds me of something that a legendary e-commerce marketer did once (before FB probably banned the practice). He played to ego - the most important player of all:
* Setup a Facebook app for fans of a certain college team (I believe it was the Cornhuskers)
* The Facebook app challenged the user with various and obscure trivia about the college team
* If you scored well enough, you were "rewarded" with a chance to share your score with your FB buddies and a "no-strings-attached" Netflix trial subscription