Amy Reiter

What do an elephant rejected by its mother, a 105-year-old woman who swears bacon is the secret to a long and happy life, and a guy who does to a bank what banks usually do to other people have in common? Major crowd appeal. They are the subjects of three of the most popular blurbs I have written for msnNOW, racking up more than 315,000, 57,500 and 310,000 Facebook shares respectively. (Far more even than, say, this blurb about a rescued pup and the value of second chances, this one about a tear-inducing dog food commercial, and this one about a cat incessantly picking on a pooch.)

In fact, these posts were among the most-shared across social media in the history of msnNOW, a trending news site launched by Microsoft in February 2012, proving that what makes a story tops in traffic is not only carefully crafted SEO copy and following a trend – it’s sniffing out a good story before it trends and writing compelling copy people universally relate to. A story they feel a deep urge to share. And share again.

msnNOW (MSN)