Viral Marketing: Go Viral On Social Media

Viral Marketing: Go Viral On Social Media

There is no doubt that word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective form of marketing. And, since social media allows users to not only connect with each other but also easily exchange information, it’s not surprise that social media has been described as “word-of-mouth on steroids”.

So what does going viral on social media mean?

Viral marketing is simply a marketing strategy where information about a brand is shared many times electronically, from one internet user to another user. And, the results of a viral marketing campaign can be extraordinary in terms of increase in brand awareness, leads and sales.

The question is, how to use social media effectively to experience viral marketing?

The key is to publish content that gets a lot of shares (also known as retweets on Twitter and repins on Pinterest). Although posting content that receives a lot of comments and likes is still valuable for a brand in terms of social proof, social media sharing is very powerful in terms of marketing. Indeed, every time a user shares content, that content can potentially be seen by all their contacts. When considering the fact that a social media user has on average 140 contacts, each share represents the opportunity to be seen by a large group of people for free. In addition, it has been proved that shared content has more impact than paid advertising. Therefore, focusing on how to make something go viral is potentially more important than any other form of paid advertising.

In order to experience more shares, repins or retweets when publishing content on social media is to simply follow the principles below:

  • Your posts should be either entertaining or highly informative (the funnier the content or the more eye opening the information published is, the higher the chances it will get shared)
  • Be the first to report news in your industry (should you find out useful information prior to anyone else, publishing it on social media could lead to serious engagement)
  • Publish content that allows people to share more about themselves (social media users enjoy having the ability to reveal more about themselves, therefore personality quizzes tend to receive a higher level of interest)
  • Craft posts that invite people to interact with one another (posts that openly invite people to engage with their friends and contacts in a fun way have shown to get shared more than other types of posts)
  • Put together content that people will have wished they had said themselves (it’s been proven that people tend to share posts instead of simply liking them or commenting on them when the content published is something they wish they had said themselves)

Since information being passed on from one user to another is more effective than paid advertising, it is crucial to master how to use social media to experience viral marketing.

To find out more about how to make something go viral and how to use the power of social media sharing effectively, make sure to watch the video above.

If you’ve enjoyed this post, make sure to share it, like it and feel free to leave a comment below.

About the Author

4 Comments

  1. Stone Gye

    Thank you for the video. It has been insightful and I have shared it with my team. Can you provide an example of point 5? The other points were easy to figure out. Thank you 🙂

    Reply
    • Corinna Essa

      Hi Stone,

      Concerning point 5, it’s usually posts that depict people who have done
      a selfless act of generosity or have shown incredible courage. Since people
      like being perceived as kind, caring, generous or brave, they will tend
      to share these types of posts.
      For example, one of the most shared post on Facebook was of a soldier crying
      holding his new born baby because he had to go to war. Since it showed
      courage and bravery, a lot of people shared it.

      Hope it makes sense!

      Reply
  2. Siobhan

    Great video blog thanks Corrina:)

    Reply
    • Corinna Essa

      Thanks Siobhan! Glad you found it useful 🙂

      Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Pin It on Pinterest