Social media marketing has been making waves for a while but there’s another level to it. It is called “social media viral marketing.” If you fall into the category of people that think viral marketing is impossible, you should think again. It is very possible and you don’t have to break the bank to achieve it.
In this post, we will share a few marketing tactics that you can employ for viral success. No, they won’t cost you so much money, time, or effort. They are only simply strategies that will give your business an advantage on social media from now on. Here how to start a project.
Defining viral marketing
The best way to begin this foray into a new level of social media marketing is by defining viral marketing. Every one of us has heard or used this famous phrase “it went viral” at least once. Ever wondered what that phrase means?
Viral marketing involves creating marketing pieces or buzzwords that grab attention and stay memorable. To popularize these pieces or words, marketers employ the use of social media and other channels. This way, they can spread the word about specific products, services, or articles.
This sort of marketing goes beyond putting up ads on TV or radio or even in print media. In a world ruled by social media, you make your products go viral with far less cost or effort. The idea behind viral marketing is to push others to market on your behalf without them knowing it. Hence, you have Facebook viral marketing, Twitter, Instagram etc. Interesting, right?
Best Social Media Marketing Tactics For Viral Success
Now that you understand the idea behind viral marketing let’s show you how to apply it to social media marketing. Here are some simple tactics you can employ to attain viral success.
Target the right audience using the right channels
When thinking of making anything go viral, you must answer this question first, “who is your target audience?” The next question to answer after this is, “what channels does your audience use the most?”
Just so you know, nothing will go viral without external help. It is your audience, not you, that makes your ideas go viral. As such, you must create messages that will attract their attention by using their lingo.
After doing this, you must put the message where they can see it. If the message drops in the wrong channel, your target audience won’t see it. This means that your aim of making that message viral is defeated.
Here’s a simple example to buttress this point. If you want to promote a music video posted on YouTube, a good channel will be Instagram or Twitter. Putting the video up on LinkedIn will just be a waste of time because your target audience isn’t there.
Create videos
Many people wonder what making videos have to do with making anything go viral. Here’s the secret. Videos are more engaging than virtually any other kind of content. People are more intrigued by moving pictures and it is easier for them to relate to a product this way.
When you create a video about your products simply share it with your followers online. It is easier for them to like such videos and even share them with their online friends as well. When people begin to share the video outside of your circle, it’s only a matter of time, it will go viral.
To get it to go viral faster, create some very interesting content in your videos. You’d be shocked to see people embed the video on their blogs and websites. What’s the benefit of this?
The video will go beyond just social media to websites giving it more views. This means that the video can spread to other parts of the world far easily. Isn’t this what social media marketing hopes to achieve?
Offer your audience freebies
We all love freebies, no matter how affordable the product or service is in reality. You’d hardly find any person rejecting products or services when they can get them for free. Now imagine when such products or services are actually valuable to the recipients.
Do you know one of the most potent words in the dictionary of a marketer? If you just said “free” then you are very right. The secret behind giveaways is that when you give something of value away, you end up selling something. It seems contrasting, right? Here’s what we mean.
The idea of the product being free attracts so many people. But when they come, they don’t see just the free products, they see other things that you sell. This brings you more opportunities to sell, advertise, and increase your email bank.
Work with emotional appeal
Ever tried social media marketing by promoting products with an emotional appeal? It works like magic and it is one of the foundation stones of viral marketing. Let’s be honest with you, to get viral marketing right, you must use emotions 100 percent.
Most marketers will tell you that using emotional appeal is the easiest way to make a product go viral. If this is the case, how can you create emotions strong enough to attain viral success?
Here are some useful clues:
- Create a message that is filled with so much love or hate.
- Be a genius or a complete idiot.
- Create a message that will spur insane anger or lots of happiness.
When your marketing campaign is driven by emotions, it is bound to make your products or services viral. Try using this tool in your next campaign.
Enable embedding, sharing, and downloading
Have you tried to consider why we say an idea goes viral? It’s simple, it spreads like a virus. Think of COVID-19, for example, you are advised to stay home and avoid touching certain parts of your body. Why? You’d make it easy for the virus to spread.
Employ this same technique, just the opposite for your social media marketing. Make your content easy to embed, share, and download. This means that you are making it easy for that content to spread like a virus.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Allow your target audience to share the content with ease.
- Make it easy for others to embed the content on their websites.
- Put it on platforms where people can download the content easily.
Additionally, you need to ensure that it is easy for your target audience to understand the message in your content. This way, they can share it easily with people in their circle. The easier it is for your content to spread, the better it is for your marketing campaign.
Don’t stick to traditional marketing methods alone
By traditional marketing, we mean making use of analytics and insights to push marketing campaigns. This is great but it is not enough to make your products or services go viral.
Your audience expects you to meet their needs and while doing so, fascinate them with great content. If you can create an exciting story to back up your traditional marketing methods, it is easier to attain viral success.
Wrap Up
You can take social media marketing to the next level with the tactics above. Once your campaign goes viral, there’s no limit to how much patronage you will attract. What other viral marketing ideas do you know? Share them in the comments section.
Maria De La Pena
Maria is a content writer for the unlimited graphic design service Delesign with a keen interest in eCommerce and internet marketing. She is a communications graduate and understands what it takes to write persuasive copy and blog posts. Outside of work, you can find her mini-blogging about her life on social media.