Viral Marketing
Let us try to understand keyword Viral in context of social media.
Viral?
In simple terms, keyword viral means social media content which spreads like anything.
Where does it spreads?
It will spread amongst the social media users connected over the internet.
Total number of Internet users in the world is 3.49 billion. Considering the total population on the Earth to be 8.5 billion, the percentage of population on the Earth using the Internet on the Earth turns out to be 41% which is big count!
And marketing means advertisement of the products and services with the primary intension of selling products and services to gain business.
Thus, looking at the number of users using internet, it can be understood that Internet is in use by massive population on the Earth and So, this huge potential communication opportunity can be utilized to have business gain by doing related Viral marketing over it.
Who will spread the content?
Users will themselves spread the content with other users over social media platform.
Why does some content become viral?
The content becomes viral because of the distinct curiosity that arouses amongst the users to know that content. The content itself is either so interesting, or so much informative, or so much unique, or having distinct advantages, etc; that users who have come across such content are so much influenced by it that they themselves forward it to the other users and share them across the social network.
Let us try to understand this by some example scenario:
Assume that someone has posted video showing trick to buy 1000$ branded mobile phone with distinct features, in just 300$ and had worked for many users.
This kind of videos has the quality to become viral. It has the attention seeking content, which can spread throughout the social media. It can make the phone brand even more popular. Users might have the curiosity to know such content. Those who had been through such video, would feel to share it with their family, friends and other groups on the social media platform. That is how it will spread drastically! Those viewers, who had no plan to buy this product, would also may plan to buy it out considering the benefit it is offering. Thus, just normal viewers may also turn out to be the potential customer by getting influenced through such video, so called viral content. It will also lead to more hit on the Mobile Phone website. This is called Viral Marketing, Practically!
Let us try to understand how does Viral Marketing Content spreads?
Viral Marketing content spreads through the users of social media. One user who has been influenced by the content will spread it to other users and they will share it further. Thus, Viral Marketing content campaign can be commenced by sharing the content to just few users. From there, users will be playing the role of sharing it further. The potential inherent in Viral Marketing is to the extent that without any action from the marketer, it can spread among millions of users and can even be popular globally!
Advantages of Viral Marketing:-
Initially, advertisement campaign may need little push like paid promotion on social media. But after it is taken up by the audience, they will spread the content on the social media and then advertisement expenses can be pulled back. At this stage, the brand awareness is already getting established. Thus, further initiatives are more likely to naturally reach larger audience.
Additional products also had benefit from this Viral Marketing.
Viral Marketing is one of the few entities, that has the potential to create explosive Growth. This is because of the massive exposure of the Marketing content to the audience and is not just restricted to small area, but instead, to the complete Globe.
The probable advantage of the Viral Marketing is that Media will cover the brand without paying any expense to them. Further, having Media covering the brand, it makes the content even more viral. Having it covered in small Media, it will be pushed across most of other Medias and thereby making the content even more popular.
- Increased Trustworthiness
The simple fact is that with recognition, there comes trust and acceptance.
When brand goes viral and thereby grabs the attention of new audience, more people will be willing to have it as a chance. People may buy the products / Services not because they have need, but since it being the viral content on the social media. They may trust your brand because of it being recognized by massive audience and thereby buy the product.
- Quick Lead Generation
Lead Generation is process under which strangers and prospects to the brand are attracted and are converted to become loyal members of the brand.
People may not have any need to buy soon after the content being viral, but they, because of the prevalent virality of the content attracting enough attention, will keep the brand in mind when they are having the need of that product / services. They will be having loyalty in their mind towards the brand and hence they can be the potential customers.
Important Key factors to have business beneficial Viral Marketing:
Know the audience:
Understanding what audience cares, will help to create efficient Viral Marketing Content. Chances of sharing of the content between users will be more, if content is of their Interest. Thus, during production of content for Viral Marketing, key focus of the content should be on knowing the audience.
Engage viewer Emotions: Emotion plays an important role on how users will get associated with the content of the Marketing targeted to be viral. Users will easily and quickly share the content with emotionally attached content. Thus, content targeted to go viral should have emotionally sound content.
Content should be easy to share:
One of the key factors to measure the Viral Marketing efficiency is how easily the content can be shared. This is because of the action of sharing being considered the primary factor as to how massive audience gets the targeted content. Action of sharing can be easy and massive, if sharing of the content is easy without any complexity.
Thus, we have understood the meaning of keyword Viral in context of social media, learnt how the viral content spreads with an example scenario and had thereby realised the advantages of Viral Marketing and Key factors to conduct business beneficial Viral Marketing.
