Hello!!!
Here’s the thing about going viral:
It’s hard to do.
BUT…being ready is good for your business anyway, even if you never do go viral. An impression is an impression. A web hit is a web hit.
Whether you suddenly find yourself in front of millions of people or get your traffic gradually over time, there are some steps you can take to make the most of it.
In this issue, we’ll dive into three things:
What you need to do to be ready to go viral
Why it’s a good idea even if you don’t go viral
What you can do to increase the chances you do hit the viral lottery.
Mike
When I had something go viral
It’s not uncommon for people to say something like, “How can we get this thing to go viral?“
The truth is, this is very hard to do. Occasionally lightning strikes and it often happens when people least expect it.
Here’s the story about a time this happened for me.
I was working as the Marketing Director for the World Adult Kickball Association (WAKA) and though we often talked about how we might be able to create viral content, we found ourselves in a viral situation unexpectedly.
During one of our kickball games, the show “Cheaters” was shooting an episode nearby. An argument took place between two people featured on the show, as one confronted the other for cheating on them.
Their spat spilled over onto our kickball field and one of the players caught it on video, showing the fight and the production crew in the middle of the home plate area.
The player uploaded it to YouTube and then I sent that link out to several websites, including Deadspin, who published it the next day, sending a whole bunch of web traffic our way. The video got thousands of views.
I recall a conversation the next day, where one of the founders of the company said, “Well, we got our viral video.” It happened when we weren’t even trying.
I’ve talked to many people over the years who’ve had something similar happen, where thousands of impressions were generated by something they didn’t plan.
That’s why you need to be ready.
You need to ready to be the main character on the internet at any given moment. That way, when a traffic spike comes your way, you’re positioned to take advantage of it.
These things are good to do even if you never go viral. Some may seem obvious but I run into people not doing these things all the time.
Today, I clicked on a web address in an email signature for a business and it came up as “This domain is parked at GoDaddy.” That’s a missed opportunity.
Here are things you can do to be ready for viral fame or just a single web click:
Have an email sign up form visible on your website. Nothing is more powerful when it comes to marketing than getting someone’s email address. Social media platforms may come and go, but a person tends to hang onto an email account for life.
Make sure you have something on the front page of your website above the fold saying exactly what you do and how people can pay you for it. “Order here” or some call-to-action should be obvious.
Don’t leave your social media channels looking like a ghost town. If you have a lot of people (or even a small number of people) stopping by your accounts when you go viral, you want them to know you’re posting often enough that you’re worth following.
Be consistent in the way you describe your brand and with the logo you use across the internet. If someone finds you on one channel, you want to make sure you look like the same company on another channel. Don’t make them have to guess about whether an account belongs to you.
Have contact information visible on your website and social media, either through a link in your bio or by having your DMs open. If you have media attention coming your way, you want to be reachable.
Do these things and you’ll be ahead of many companies.
Sometimes you can give things a push toward viral
Have you heard of fabricated virality? It’s the idea of “Doing everything possible in order to maximize the success of a piece of content,” according to Ish Verduzco.
Click out Ish’s tweet below to read more about the idea of taking your content as viral as you can.
A concept I haven't been able to get out of my head the past few months is this idea I've had around "Fabricated Virality".
I can write an essay-long post on it and probably will at some point to get all of the thoughts fleshed out, but it essentially boils down to...
Doing… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— #Ish Verduzco (#@ishverduzco)
11:13 PM • Jan 10, 2024
More marketing reading on Medium
A final thought
Do you remember who won last year's Super Bowl?
Most people outside of the serious fans probably don't, but they'll remember several of the commercials.
That's the power of marketing and advertising. But the point here isn't that your brand needs a Super Bowl ad; there are… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…— #Mike Holden (#@mikeholden)
12:45 AM • Jan 4, 2024
Thanks for reading! See you next week.
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