What’s viral content? It’s content that gets passed around until it’s sweeping through your niche like an out-of-control prairie fire on a windy day. And since your marketing message is a part of that content, you get instant, massive exposure when you create and launch this sort of content.

All marketers hope to create an ebook, video, tool, software or even an article that gets this sort of exposure. It’s easy to fantasize about creating a video or ebook that overnight becomes “the next big thing” that everyone’s talking about. And we all feel like it could happen, because the social media sites (like YouTube and MySpace) make it so easy for anyone to create and share content.

But few marketers actually accomplish this. And even fewer know how to create content that’s “buzz worthy” and likely to be shared. Here’s what you need to know before you launch your next viral campaign:

* Create Edgy Content

If your 85-year old grandma sees your content and approves, it’s probably not going to sweep the Internet like you hope. But if her jaw drops and she’s shocked and offended, then you might be on the right track.

In other words, bland “newspaper style” articles, videos or other content won’t make the rounds online. It needs to push the envelope, be engaging, maybe controversial and a little offensive, and/or highly useful.

Just think about the last article, ebook or video you shared with a friend. I bet it wasn’t the sort of content you could find in a thousand other places, was it? It caught your attention because it was different. And likewise, you can catch your market’s attention by delivering something different than they’re used to seeing.

* Encourage People to Share It

You can’t create content and then just cross your fingers and hope someone shares it. Instead, you need to encourage sharing it. That means that you tell people, specifically, to pass it along to their friends. You may also use a “tell a friend” form. And of course, you should make it easy for people to share it on social bookmarking sites (like Digg.com and StumbleUpon.com) by adding those badges and widgets to your site.

* Get Your Content in Front of People

Finally, you need to get your content in front of as many people as possible. Indeed, pretend it’s a paid product and “launch it” with a marketing campaign. Use Digg, MySpace, Squidoo, YouTube, article directories, blogging and every other tool and site at your disposal to get the word out. The more people who initially see it, the better chance it has of going viral, fast.

For more information about creating buzz-worthy content – and for all the secrets of using social bookmarking to build your lists – check out the brand new ebook, Social List Building.