So, what is viral marketing, anyway?
Chances are, you don’t ACTUALLY know how viral marketing works. Not the whole picture anyway – but very few truly do.
However, you probably believe you know more than most. After all, when somebody asks “what is viral marketing” your first thought is likely the latest and greatest thing you hear that’s “going viral” – whether it’s the newest hilarious cat video or the latest Kardashian ridiculousness.
In this post, we’re going to touch on three key areas:
WHAT makes this “viral” thing happen?
WHY does it happen?
And most importantly – what is viral marketing, and how can I create it for MY site?
If you’ve got a website, app or business you’re working on, chances are you’ve had this thought:
If only I could create something for MY site that spreads virally…
First off – this is EXACTLY what Viral Hero has been created to help you achieve.
Secondly, we’d better clear up a common misconception right now – which is that the word “viral” simply describes a piece of content that spreads like wildfire – like the latest funny video on Youtube.
This is false.
While this content is an important part of viral marketing, in this case it’s actually YOUTUBE that’s experiencing viral growth, not the video itself. The video is just the “viral media”, or what’s actually being shared to spread the site or app itself.
(I’ll dig a lot deeper into the mechanics of viral media in a later post).
What’s actually happening:
So what is viral marketing?1 This should sum it up:
When you see the latest Epic Mealtime video on Youtube, or a clip of some D-list celeb getting in a brawl at the club – and then you send it to a few friends, Youtube is what grows virally.
As this Youtube video spreads, more and more people are exposed or re-exposed to Youtube’s video player. They then get more users to their site, return dormant traffic, and likely suck you in via various “recommended for you” features to get you watching even more videos.
It’s not the content or media being shared that spreads virally – it’s the application that houses it. This media being displayed in Youtube’s player is just a tool to help their application spread, and it’s just a single piece of a much larger viral puzzle.
“It’s not the content being shared that spreads virally – it’s the application that houses it.”…
CLICK TO TWEET
On a user generated content site like Youtube, the content creator can see some added benefit themselves from taking a ride on Youtube’s “viral loop” (more on this later). However, usually the content creator is simply using Youtube as a medium of marketing more akin to PR and is not experiencing viral growth themselves.
(NOTE: Youtube is more unique these days as their user generated content model allows for “channels”, so content creators actually MAY see user growth in the form of channel subscribers, although this is still a feature on Youtube itself.)
Think you can answer the question “what is viral marketing” yet with certainty?
Hey now – don’t get cocky. Keep reading…