@stooffi dabbles in the world of advertising, public relations and Internet marketing. Loves learning and discovering new things everyday, and how social media expedites this process while making the world a smaller place. Feel free to follow / educate / discuss / say hi!
Viral marketing has become a trendy, low-cost way of getting a message out, but it definitely isn’t easy to come up with content that is infectious and hype-worthy.
At the last Viral Media Meetup in New York City, Jonah Peretti, CEO of BuzzFeed, dropped a few hints on how this might work:
Peretti mentioned a large conglomerate he termed the “bored-at-work network” (BWN), which according to him, was “bigger than the BBC, CNN or any traditional media network” and is made up of “millions of bored office workers [who] blog, Tweet, Facebook and IM all day.”
Media goes viral if these ordinary people enjoy sharing it, and broadcasters and advertisers no longer dictate its popularity. According to Peretti, such content should be “easy to understand, easy to share and includes a social imperative”.
Interesting enough, Peretti encourages marketers to learn from the Mormons (vs the Jews). Now I’m not too sure how accurate this analogy might be, but his premise was that Judaism might be a high quality religion, but they were not seeing growth in believers – this meant that quality was not a growth strategy. On the other hand, Mormons were actively evangelising and there has been a significant growth in followers over the past few years. To put it succinctly, Peretti advises us to “focus on the mechanics of how an idea spreads, not just the idea itself”.
Jonah Peretti Viral Meetup Talk
In addition to Peretti’s points, I would like to add that before you plan on a viral strategy, ask yourself (and others, if possible) what content you feel is worth sharing. It’s got to strike an emotional reaction within people – the stronger this emotion, the higher the chances are that they’d be talking about it. Otherwise, post content that people might find useful sharing with their friends. If the simple click of the button would help to inform others of the latest promotions going on, or entertain others with humorous or interesting content, they might just do so.
Once you’ve settled on the content, determine the major influencers on such platforms and make it your goal to have them talk about your message. (As the people behind the Old Spice campaign did.) Moreover, leverage on the Internet in all its glory – don’t just focus on common platforms such as Twitter and Facebook; get its presence up on Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, Delicious. Don’t forget about optimizing content to improve its search ranking.
It’s also easy to overlook a simple fact – that making it effortless for others to share your content is half the battle won. Thus, remember to include sharing buttons in your content.
Peretti included a disclaimer in slide 14, warning us that most things are not viral. We’ve heard many instances of clients demanding viral videos or content that will draw many retweets or shares on Facebook – is that something that can be promised? Peretti mentions that the best way to increase chances of success is to “try lots of things and bring the best forward”. Truth is, it does take a lot of trial and error to find a gem that works.
Let us know if you have any additional insights, or successful viral marketing campaigns to share.
