Is this the single most important trick to going viral?

Max Woolf, a software engineer and amateur statistician, devised an experiment and found 30 phrases that will, with some consistency, make your article or quiz go viral: think phrases like "before you die," "blow your mind," and "of all time".

Woolf cautions that linkbait isn’t a de facto predictor of virality -- even stories that use the same headline construction end up being hit or miss. Some “before you dies” blow up; others bomb mysteriously. The exception, Woolf says, are stories that use the formula “character are you,” as in “Which Trivia Crack Character Are You?”, as those see a tremendous rate of virality.

So expect a ‘Which House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Member are YOU?’ article in Benton’s Digital Beat blog soon!