In 2015, my agency realized the content marketing potential of April Fools’ Day when a prank blog that I wrote for the travel website VisitMySmokies.com went viral on social media. In subsequent years, we replicated and surpassed this success with several April Fools’ blogs for our clients. April Fools’ Day presents a unique opportunity for content writers because it is the one day each year that it is acceptable to share “fake news.” In addition to generating an eye-catching headline, a good April Fools’ Day prank shows that your brand has a sense of humor and engages readers, who love to comment on whether or not they were fooled.

Below, you will find three of my most successful April Fools’ Day articles. These three blogs have over 1.5 million combined page views and account for 16.45% of total blog traffic for VisitMySmokies.com. Please note that I did not write an April Fool’s article for Visit My Smokies in 2017 because of the recent wildfires in the region.

Polar Bears to Be Introduced to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2016

For my first viral April Fools’ Day article, I told our readers that 5,000 polar bears from the Arctic Circle were being relocated to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The blog was extremely popular, garnering 94,400 social media shares and over 234,375 page views. The following year, the story was picked up by WKYQ radio in Paducah, KY for their April Fools’ prank.

Active Volcano Discovered Under the Great Smoky Mountains

In 2016, we topped the previous year’s April Fools’ Day joke by announcing the discovery of an active volcano in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The blog has 103,000 social media shares and over 663,975 page views. The initial Facebook post sharing the blog reached 2,273,753 people. From April 1 – 3, site traffic increased by 1,258.98% compared to the same period in 2015. Additionally, Visit My Smokies gained 3,673 email subscribers and 1,385 Facebook fans on April Fools’ Day. The story has been mentioned in The Washington Post, Snopes, Knoxville News Sentinel, Local 8 News in Knoxville, and ABC 7 News in Los Angeles.

Massive Sinkhole Growing in the Smoky Mountains to Become “Second Grand Canyon”

In 2018, we were presented with the challenge of finding a story bigger than the discovery of a volcano in the national park. Fortunately, we found the perfect solution: a sinkhole the size of the Grand Canyon. My blog about the uncovering of this massive sinkhole in the Smoky Mountains broke every record we had previously set, garnering 154,000 social media shares and over 666,165 page views. The article was covered by NBC 10 News in Knoxville and profiled in Snopes’ “April Fools’ Day Roundup.”