I've always loved this sentence:

"If you have haters, you must be doing something right."

It's the same with content. If your content only sparks mild positive reactions, then something is missing.

But if your content gets occasional haters and people who oppose your point of view, you are onto something.

Devin Reed (one of my favorite content strategists) calls these pieces of content "Firestarters."

A Firestarter is a bold opinion that gets people fired up, making them either cheer you on or totally disagree. 

It's a cool trick to get loads of likes and heated chats going. 

But, it's kind of like playing with fire because not everyone's gonna love it, and you gotta be okay with some backlash.

The purpose of these kinds of content is to spark a debate with you and among your audience.

A perfect example of Firestarter content by Daniel Vasallo:

The result is a comment section that’s absolutely on fire:

🕵️‍♂️ How to Steal it?

Your content needs an enemy.

For Daniel Vasallo, who is big on a “small bets” type of entrepreneurship approach, that’s YC (venture-backed incubator).

So whenever someone from YC talks about being scrappy and living in a shitty bedroom, he “attacks” back with a Firestarter type of tweet.

The key here is to make your opinion either a “I 100% agree” or “I 100% disagree”.

No inbetween.

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Side note about Firestarter type of content: it might not be for you

If it doesn’t feel right, don’t post it.

Don’t just share a bold opinion just for engagement’s sake. If you do it, it must be because you believe in what you are saying.