Fundamentals of Viral Social Media Marketing. Viral Marketing Viral Effect

When did the epidemic start? viral marketing? It happened more than 20 years ago, in 1994, when the American media scholar and writer Douglas Rushkoff wrote a book about advertising called Media Virus. It tells about easily suggestible people who not only become infected with the right idea, but also spread it among their friends, relatives and acquaintances. Then in 1996, Jeffrey Rayport published The Virus of marketing, the title of which translates as "The Virus of Marketing." This term, having been slightly transformed, has become commonly used. And so the foundation of viral marketing was laid.

What is Viral Marketing?

Viral marketing is the use of "flying ideas" to push them to the masses. This is a controlled rumor, a kind of material that by its nature attracts attention, causes discussion, and thereby helps the business in sales. At the heart of such marketing is the need for people to communicate, exchange information. And if the marketing message is really worthwhile, interesting and unusual, then it, like a virus, will quickly spread among the desired audience through itself (without the involvement of extraneous resources like the media).

Key Elements of Viral Marketing According to Yona Berger

He described the basics of viral marketing in his book “Contagious. Psychology word of mouth. How products and ideas become popular, by Professor Yona Berger of the Wharton School of Business. In his book, he formulated the main elements and methods of viral marketing:

social currency. The public loves to share information that shows its desire for development, education, and new knowledge. Such links to useful articles on a social network, blog or website improve the image of the resource owner in the eyes of the target audience;

emotions. Users love to share information that evokes strong emotions. A significant part of the viral content refers to such human emotions as anxiety, anger, delight. But the sadness caused by the content is unlikely to contribute to its further promotion;

publicity. If users see that someone they know has already taken some action, it becomes easier for them to repeat it;

practical value. As noted above, the practical use of an advertising message has a significant viral potential. Such content is rapidly spreading, as it not only helps to solve life's problems, but also increases the importance of the person who distributes it;

stories. People love good stories, they like to retell them and pass them on to each other. Tell your audience an interesting tale with your product in the lead role, intrigue the audience, make them wait for the continuation of the story.

Four Reasons to Use Viral Marketing Techniques to Advertise Online

How to create a viral marketing campaign?

There is no magic way to make an ad go viral. Marketers don't have an arsenal of proven technologies, and they never will, because spreading information is too unpredictable. But successful experience viral marketing in Russia shows that there are several conditions that increase the likelihood that content will go viral.

Eight Viral Social Media Marketing Tools + Examples

1. Images.

These are photoshops, demotivators, memes. You can create your own viral image based on the product or adapt popular memes. Also in marketing, humor, children and cats are still viral topics.

More than 48 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. Only 1 million videos get 1 million views, and only 50 - 100 million views. So not every video goes viral. But if they want to share the video, it quickly spreads beyond the social network.

3. Applications.

The most famous example of a viral application is Instagram. The application appeared in the App Store on October 6, 2010, and six months later it was downloaded by 70 million users. Today, the number of registered users exceeds 1 billion.

Here's another successful examples viral marketing in apps:

4. Infographics.

It should contain valuable information that is visualized and therefore well remembered. Instructions and life hacks work great here.

5. Articles.

AT in social networks marketers recommend writing stories in the genre of storytelling. These can be accusatory articles, sentimental stories about the fate of a person, the destruction of common truths and texts, after reading which you want to say: “He literally expressed my thoughts!”. Viral articles should either provide unique information that is not found anywhere else, or speculate on hot trending news. Relevant and useful content in the spirit of "The most complete instructions for a stroke."

To create a viral article in the social. networks, use topics that have a high potential for controversy. The issue at hand should be easy to discuss. People prefer to discuss sensitive topics. Moreover, social networks are more willing to give out posts with a large number of comments in the feed. However, it should be taken into account that the willingness to start discussions that hurt feelings depends on the specifics of the brand. For example, you can discuss female driving in car groups, feeding animals vegetarian food in a vegetarian group, etc.

6. Incentivized viral: promotions, contests.

This is a way of viral marketing on the Internet, when users are promised a bonus for reposting or some other action. It helps not only to advertise the product, but also to increase the loyalty of the target audience.

You can run a selfie contest on Instagram. For example, let's take the fictional coffee shop "Coffee", which plays a liter of cappuccino. What conditions? Take a picture of yourself against the background of a coffee shop sign, post the photo on your page, mention @kofeek, put the hashtag #coffeegiftlitrcappuccino and try your luck in the draw.

7. A series of viruses in marketing.

How to get people talking about a product and waiting for a new release? Make a TV series about him, like Blendtec, which sells blenders, did. In every issue of Will It Blend? users were shown a new experiment in which they tried to grind a product using the device. In the end, it came to the iPad - it turned into powder.

A great viral marketing technique because it demonstrates the power of a blender. It is immediately clear that he will definitely cope with nuts and ice.

8. Interactive.

When developing viral marketing strategies, marketers use people's love of interaction. Invite users to take part in the campaign, as Sberbank did. First, he launched the “What kind of cat are you?” test, and then an online housewarming cat delivery service. Sberbank's digital campaign quickly spread across the Internet and became one of the most popular in Russia in 2015.

The true reason for the success of a viral campaign is extremely difficult to determine. And it is all the more difficult to repeat this success, even using the same methods.

But the basis of viral marketing is content. Make it as awesome as you can. Even if your content does not get a million views, it will win the love of the public. The more cool content, the more loyal users you will get.

Use viral marketing techniques and you will see the effect!

We have released a new book, "Social Media Content Marketing: How to get into the head of subscribers and make them fall in love with your brand."

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Main distinctive features viral advertising is the naturalness of the message, which contains information about the product / service, as well as a unique and extraordinary idea that is sure to attract the attention of the audience. This type of advertising got its name "viral" due to the fact that it is transmitted from person to person.

How and by whom is viral advertising used?

Today, the viral campaign is actively used by large and medium-sized companies. It is especially relevant for global corporations, whose products are known almost all over the world. These companies have already reached high level skill in conducting such advertising campaigns.

The main forms used in viral advertising are: audio recordings, videos, photographs, original newsbreaks and rumors, short informative texts and news, flash mobs. Content is written in such a way as to evoke emotions in the audience. Preferably positive.

Pros and cons of viral advertising on the Internet

First, let's look at the advantages of viral marketing:

If we talk about the advantages for advertising customers, we can note the absence of any restrictions, even there is no special censorship. This opens up opportunities even to promote specific categories of products, such as adult products/alcohol/tobacco and so on. And again, it is worth emphasizing the duration life cycle which is three years or more.

Of the minuses, the following can be noted:

• It is not easy to plan and predict a campaign. Today, it is almost impossible to determine whether the campaign will be successful and whether the "virus" will spread, it is impossible to calculate at least the approximate speed of its spread. This is due to the fact that the main role in the distribution is played by a live audience, users. It is difficult to predict their behavior.
• The cost of a good idea and the preparation of a viral product can be high. It is not enough to come up with a great idea, it must also be implemented with high quality, otherwise the whole effect will be lost and will not make sense.
• Audience limitation. Unfortunately, viral advertising on the Internet covers only Internet users. If you are promoting goods/companies/services that are more aimed at users who rarely visit the network, it is better to abandon viral marketing.

Viral Advertising Examples

• Such advertising is designed for a male network user, he will obviously be interested in such a “motorcycle” and he will pass it on to his friends.

• Here's another one good example. The pizza is so hot that even the cat lay down on it to warm up. Well, how can you not be touched and send to a friend.

• And here is an interesting Hugo Boss banner. It is clear that this is a montage. However, many take it at face value and share with friends.

• Speaking of videos, you should definitely check out Android's "Friends Furever" video. It was shared 6,432,921 times in 2015 alone, when it first appeared. This speaks of a huge success.

How to run viral ads

• First you need to analyze the target audience, on which Internet resources they spend most of their time. Perhaps these are social networks or video hosting, etc. Then a viral marketing strategy is drawn up, since the matter is not limited to the publication of one material. In this case, you need to take into account all the features of potential customers.
• Content development. This is the most difficult stage: you need to work out the material in detail and create a high-quality advertising product that can boast of high potential.
• Spreading. After the advertising message is ready, it is necessary to distribute it on the network. If the ad is really interesting, it will be viewed by thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of users world wide web. Advertising of this type allows not only to attract new customers, but also to force existing customers to make a new order.
• Monitoring. As you know, we do not control what we do not consider. It is necessary to constantly monitor the process and monitor the availability feedback. You need to get statistics on the prevalence of the virus in order to see the picture and draw conclusions about the effectiveness.
• Grade. It is necessary to calculate indicators such as demographic data, the number of unique views, activity peaks, feedback tone, comment volume.

It will be useful to use the principles of compiling viral advertising. This tool is designed to attract the attention of the audience and transfer it to the product / product.

You can do this through:

• Scandals. Incredibly, but fights and scandals are spreading on the Internet at breakneck speed.
• Shock. The public needs to be shocked, to break the current rules, to do crazy antics.
• Laughter and humor. Advertising messages with a touch of humor spread much faster, as we all love to laugh and want our acquaintances to smile more often.
• "Mimicry". These are our beloved kittens, puppies, small children. All this cannot but cause emotion, along with it, the desire to share.

With the development of the Internet, a large number of new promotion tools have appeared. Basically, all of them require constant support from the advertiser for their distribution: the search for new sites, the collection of information about the target audience, additional payments for additional impressions. But there is also such a tool that spreads itself, regardless of the efforts of the advertiser. This tool is viral marketing.

What is Viral Marketing and Viral Content

Each of us can characterize the term "virus": it is transmitted from person to person through their contact, spreading exponentially. The same is true with the virus.

Viral Marketing - a tool to attract consumers, independently distributed on the network between users with the help of "reposts", "likes", downloads and more.

Viral content - a specific channel for the spread of the virus: video, image, news, that is, the informative part of the page.

Thus, the marketing virus is transmitted to one potential consumer which infects everyone else.

Let's highlight the advantages and disadvantages of viral content.

Benefits of Viral Marketing	Disadvantages of Viral Marketing
Rapid self-distribution on the Internet	You Can't Be Sure You've Created Viral Content
Genuine user interest	There is a possibility that users will not see behind the plot of the product. Ads will not sell or remind you of your company
Wide coverage	Incorrect interpretation of the meaning of the “virus” and, as a result, deterioration of the organization’s image
	Lack of control
No distribution fees

As you can see, viral content carries a lot of threats that can negatively affect .

Goals and objectives of viral marketing

Viral marketing carries all the same goals and objectives as any other marketing communications tool.

Let's arrange them sequentially, depending on the effectiveness of achieving a particular goal through viral content:

The entire process of creating viral content can be summarized in five main steps.

Stage 1. Identification of the target audience. This is the most important step in creating viral content. You must identify not only the target audience of the product you want to sell, but also the target audience of your ad. For example, if you show butterflies in an advertisement for men's socks, then most likely the target audience product will not match the target audience of the advertisement. Such content will not turn into a “virus”.

Stage 2. Determining the budget for viral content. You can create a "virus" for 100 rubles, or you can deploy advertising campaign per million. It all depends on your financial capabilities and imagination.

Stage 3. Selecting the type of viral content. It can be a video, image, news, article.

Stage 4. Creation creative idea viral content.

Here you can go one of four ways:

• Humorous content direction;
• Focus on feelings and emotions;
• Current topic;
• Outrageous, shocking content content.

Stage 5. Choice of distribution channels for viral content. First of all, the type of “virus” influences the choice of one or another distribution channel. For example, images are best distributed on the social network Vkontakte or Instagram. Videos do best on the YouTube network.

Stage 6. Content creation.

Stage 7. Posting content online.

Secrets of creating a "virus"

The main advantage of viral content is that it does not require a huge marketing budget. If you have imagination, see current topics, then you can create good content for 500 rubles.

But there are a few mistakes to be aware of here:

• The plot of the commercial, the subject of the picture, news or article is not associated with your company, product, brand. In this case, you can create a very interesting idea, which will become a "virus", but will not become an advertisement. The recognition of your company will not increase, sales will not grow, and all because the target audience will not notice you in your own content.

An example one such advertisement would be an advertisement for Cadbury chocolate. AT commercial a huge gorilla plays drums, and chocolate appears at the very end of the video. The product is in no way related to the storyline of the video, which was the reason for the failure of this advertising campaign. By the way, this video cost the company almost a million rubles.

• Viral content causes a negative reaction from consumers. Before putting content online, test it on a small group of target consumers. Otherwise, you risk getting a negative result from the advertising campaign.

An ambiguous reaction from Internet users was caused by an advertisement for a Burger King restaurant with the words: “Hot sauce right in the bun. Look, don't get upset."

• Open advertising. This case is the opposite of the first, where users immediately realize that the content is an advertisement. It will never become a virus.

And finally, the secrets of successful viral content:

• Come up with a catchy, eye-catching title for your video, news, or article. The user must want to view the content;
• Always test your viral content before posting;
• Remember that the center of your content is the product (company or brand), but don't get carried away with "advertising". The product must participate in storyline"virus", to be part of it.

Example of viral content

Recently The Coca-Cola Company conducted a New Year's advertising campaign in the social network "Vkontakte". The culmination of the campaign was a video in which the Russian pop singer Dima Bilan individually congratulated the users participating in the action and their friends. Videos quickly went viral on the social network, and Coca-Cola sales increased several times.

A budget version of viral advertising can be called a video from CYAN in 2016. The central character of the plot is a villain cat, who, to the ominous music, convinces the viewers not to leave Khrushchev, huddle with their parents, never get their own housing, because life is already complicated and it won’t get better, it’s better to give up beauty and comfort. At the end of the video, the CYAN symbolism appears and the inscription “Don't listen to the cat. Find a decent place to live." The speed of distribution of this video was very high, and the influx of customers to CYAN was recorded.

Unlike the classical website viral promotion can give almost lightning-fast results and quickly attract a large stream of traffic to the site.

Moreover, you only need to correctly launch the viral promotion mechanism once, and you can no longer waste your time and energy on maintaining this mechanism!

We use viral marketing

What is the essence of the idea of ​​viral marketing. At the very beginning, the idea was to create content that a large number of users would like and that everyone would voluntarily share with the rest, but at the same time that this content would indirectly or not really advertise your product or service. It is quite difficult to create such a product because it is difficult to predict what everyone might really like if this is something that does not concern entertainment topics.

The idea of ​​viral promotion of a site of any subject has been continued in next direction. It is much easier to create some necessary and interesting content for a narrower circle of users and offer it to users of this particular circle for free or at a good discount. The product you create will act as a so-called "carrot". To get the gingerbread, the user leaves you his email, to which a special link is sent to him. Through this link, he should invite you to a number of people who will also be interested in your gingerbread.

That is, if your gingerbread is really tasty, new users will come to your site according to each other's natural recommendations without your additional physical and financial costs!

An interested user can use his/her individual link place anywhere- in profiles or on the walls of their social networks, in blog comments, on forums or in any other place. Can simply send in a message to your friends who are interested in the subject of your product. In turn, new invitees invited by recommendation will also leave their email addresses to get your copy of the gingerbread. As soon as the required number of invitees specified by you in the rules is reached, each user who has fulfilled the conditions will automatically receive their gingerbread.

Website viral promotion tools

Naturally, it is unrealistic to perform the described process manually! Therefore, specially created scripts and services come to our aid, which I will talk about in an article dedicated specifically (follow the link to familiarize yourself with them).

Additional motivation

Quite often, "gingerbread" is distributed in exchange for a regular subscription which, in my opinion, is not entirely correct. The user by and large did not make any effort, did not spend money to get it. Hence, the majority will have a similar attitude towards him. Let's say they download your educational useful video, but then they don't even watch it. When the user makes an effort to get something, he will definitely eat your gingerbread!

Additional motivation for action. If the user who has just arrived does not immediately begin to take measures to get your gingerbread, then later he will not take them for sure. That's why immediately limit users in time! In addition, you can put on the page countdown timer and inform that, for example, in a day this product will be paid and you have such privileged conditions only during the day! The presence of such timers on average increases the efficiency of pages by 3 times!

Conclusions on the viral promotion of the site

For good result prepare from such promotion of the site delicious gingerbread. After all, it is not in vain that sometimes many manufacturers, developers, etc. free products are sometimes no worse in quality than paid ones. This is a tool for gaining trust and increasing reputation. So take it seriously.

The first pancake is lumpy. Do not think that you will be able to launch a super successful viral company right the first time. As in any other business, here you need to gain experience and fill cones. I can say with confidence that only by constantly preparing "gingerbread" will you become an excellent pastry chef! ;)