A strategy for success, funnelled by best practices

Create a strategy for content development:

In the previous post we discussed the notion of separating users into groups and deriving common data pertaining to all of the groups. Let's expand on this:

1. Mine for relevant data on as many channels as possible. 

2. See what's out there that's important and relevant to the people. 

3. Integrate the findings into the viral content. 

4. Include found buzzwords in the content. 

5. Invoke the means for emotional engagement and attachment into the content. 

Key: Capitalize on emotions that are common ground for all human beings: the desire to be loved, the need to be accepted, the thirst to thrive, and the impetuosity to become an overnight celebrity. 

6. Make it real. People like what they can relate to. Make it as real as possible. 

Attempt to spread it:

1. Spread the content initially by seeding it through a network of strong influencers. 

In the background: Observe the impact and the success of the campaign from the initial spread throughout the influencer network. Tweak the campaign as needed. 

2. Seed and spread the content within secondary influencer networks (less strong but still good networks of digital influence). 

In the background: Observe the impact and the success of the campaign from the secondary spread throughout the influencer network. Tweak the campaign as needed. 

3. Seed the campaign randomly. (We have already established that lucks plays an important part in the success of viral marketing). 

In the background: Observe the impact and the success of the campaign from the random spread. Tweak the campaign as needed. 

Tip:

Complex contagion theory tells us that the impact of a message is not truly realized until the message comes through to the user from several different sources. It is not enough to rely on one or two shares that reach someone to truly impact the individual. With this being said, the best way to go about a viral marketing campaign would be to employ as many online marketing channels as possible in the process. 

Online marketing channels may include:

- Social networking websites

- Emails

- Ads (banner, text, etc)

- Corporate portals (if possible)

- Mobile messaging 

Ensure that the efforts are fully scalable, by being ready for access on all internet accessible devices: desktop, mobile, tablets, etc. 

Observe best practices:

1. Ensure that the content is emotionally engaging: a high level of affective attachment and commitment from the end user is correlated with the likelihood of sharing. 

2. Keep the message in the content simple enough for anyone to understand. Comprehension is key. 

3. Include a free gift or a promotion in the sharing mechanism. 

4. Ensure that the act of sharing the content or the message is quite trivial in itself, does not require very much work on the user's part. 

5. Make sure that the technology behind the content's scalability is up and running, and that the message will not be killed in transit, i.e. growth limited by server capacity that could potentially shutdown the campaign during its growth phase. 

Appeal to the masses

Virality is all about thinking big. We want to appeal to as many people, in as many places as possible. Viral marketing is about spreading the message as far and as wide as possible. Whereas, marketing in the digital age has provided us with the opportunity to market intimately to consumers, viral marketing is all about appealing to the masses.

There are certainly an extensive amount of tools available on the internet to collect data on "the masses". Some of the most powerful and useful tools for marketers have been those falling under the category of social networking technologies. 

Social networking sites have not only done the job of changing the way that consumers behave, but they have also become a powerful tool in providing insight to marketers on consumers interests, needs, behaviours, locations, family life, future projections, etc. Social networking sites grant marketers almost instant access to models of consumer social behaviour.

The websites have done the job of mapping out social interactions and making them readily available through online portals. The information retrieved by observing the patterns and interactions of consumers online is paramount to marketers. What better source of information on consumer behaviour existed prior to the internet? None. 

With all of the readily available information pooling around the internet, marketers have had the opportunity to strategically shift their business models and create new ones. With this, comes the potential for viral marketing campaigns. Marketers are able to target groups of differing sizes of consumers, and target them intimately.

But we're not trying to target groups of differing sizes by appealing to their intimate needs uniquely. In viral marketing, we are aiming to address and appeal to the entire set of these groups. How can we go about this? By identifying trends and patterns among the different groups that we can capitalize on in our viral marketing efforts.

Contagion theory argues that consumers act as a group, differently than they would as individual consumers. The anonymity of group inclusion (similarly to existing as an unseen entity on the internet) enables individuals to act irrationally, irresponsibly and emotionally; actions and emotions that would not otherwise be exhibited by consumers individually or without the group relation.

As marketers, we can capitalize on this...

Luck be a virality... tonight

In terms of virality in marketing, is "viral marketing":

1. A strategy for creating spread-worthy content? In other words, a heuristic gathered from widely consumed content that informs the creation of content that we'd like to spread?

2. A paid syndication approach to ensure that at least a minimum of attention/engagement in content is achieved?

3. A descriptive term to distinguish content that spreads farther and wider at a faster pace than typical content?

Viral marketing indeed, is a strategy used in ambition of creating spread-worthy content. Virality engineering does involve the use of heuristics, which are applied to massive amounts of data, derived from users on all sorts of application and platforms on the internet. The heuristics used in creation of viral content may or may not include heuristics gathered from widely consumed content. 

Why not?

Beliefs, attitudes and social memes change at the speed of uploads, downloads, and data transfers. Applying heuristics derived from historically successful viral content to new content creation, may not serve as an efficient means for virality engineering. This is due to the fact that the speed of information sharing over the internet is so swift, that the popular, loved content of today or even of this very minute, may or may not be seen in the same light at any future moment in time. 

How can we counter this? Can we create a predictive-heuristic mechanism to engineering the utmost viral content?

Perhaps. But, to the extent of my knowledge in this current moment in time, the only method that has been proven without a doubt to be successful in the creation of viral content is: pure luck and intuition. This is not to say though, that the many techniques and tactics available in engineering virality should be ignored. It is these very techniques and tactics that increase our chances of luck and success in the virality of content. 

Luck in itself can be engineered, and it should be. 

Infect me, infect me not

Got the bug yet?

Some people go to lengths to avoid technology and the use of the internet, especially when it comes to using social networking platforms, or any type of website that involves the exchange of personal information. Are they afraid of catching the bug? Are they easily susceptible to memes, beliefs, and catching on to any type of content that they are exposed to?

These would be the ideal people to market to over the digital spaces!

Even though the internet is any and everywhere these days, we can still observe a significant amount of individuals in avoidance of it. Are they afraid of catching the bug?

The core purpose of the majority of social networking websites, in the minds and hearts of many people, is not to "connect" people. It is to "collect" people. Social networking technologies, and many other websites collect vast amounts of personal data from their users. This data is then compiled, organized and analyzed to provide a unique means for marketers to target individuals as well as the masses. The internet has provided a new means for personal, intimate marketing, that was unseen or unheard of prior to the digital era. Virality is in constant motion over the digital spaces, enabling and creating massive change to our social structures and our ways of existence.

Catching a virus nowadays takes on a whole new meaning. You can become targeted and infected over the internet quite easily, even without knowing how, when, where, or why...

Which brings us to our next point: is virality constructible? Can it be engineering or created? Or is it a naturally occurring phenomena derived by luck and chances, rather than through deliberate efforts?

Luck be a virality.

To be or not to be viral...

First things first. Let's define what it actually means to be "viral", before we divulge into the world of viral marketing. 

The term "viral" is quite common in the current lingo of today's society, but what does it actually mean to be "viral"? Is it a unique phenomena? Is it easily obtainable?

The term "viral" in itself traces back to biology. The term was used to describe the phenomena of a virus spreading and replicating within an organism. With the advent of computer technology and then the coming of the internet age, the term was transposed to the digital spaces and is now used to describe ideas, behaviours, attitudes, content, styles, words, images etc. that spread all over the internet, similarly to how a virus would spread biologically. 

What is the purpose of being viral in the digital spaces? How does this bring value to our daily lives? The purpose of virality is to spread and share information. Similarly to how biological viruses have the potential to spread infectious agents within our bodies, viral phenomena among the digital spaces have the potential to spread and infect as well. 

Is the infection good or bad? This is to be determined...