Three Rules of Viral

No one can guarantee you your "virual execution" will go virual. No one. That said, there are best practices that have come about that we can look to to increase our odds. My favorite is the 3 S's: simple, socialable, shareable.

Simple: Keep it simple stupid. How many times have you sent a cool gadget or website to your friend only to here, "I don't get it". The old saying in the Linux community is something to the effect of, "Linux will never experience wide spread distribution until my grandmother can figure out how to use it." If your target doesn't immediately understand what is going on with your execution in under 3 seconds, you are on the wrong track.

Socialable: This should also be thought of as (while we are making up words) 'personalizable'. You will increase your odds of going viral  by allowing the user(s) to personalize the experience. Nothing makes us laugh more than when you can turn 'it' into an inside joke, make it relevant to something funny that happened last night, or just straight up humiliate your friends in that pointed manner that only you can.

Shareable: If you can't share it, it can't be viral. Make it easy for them. Make sure there is a 'send-to-friend' feature. Make sure the links can be pasted into emails. Make sure the emails don't get trapped by spam filters (have your IT guys check his mail servers here).

The people at Oddcast get this to a 'T'. From Elf-Yourself to Age-o-Matic these guys exemplify the 3-S's perfectly. The most well known is probably Monk-e-Mail. It is as simple as 1-2-3-4-5. It is socialable: add your own message in Step 3. Finally, it's shareable: the send-to-a-friend feature is right there at Step 5.

If there was one last thing to add, it would be to make sure you have a seed strategy. You have got to raise awareness of your execution to a minimal level. IF it is going to go viral, it will only after it has hit a critical mass. If you have an email list, use it. You could also make some small media buys such as Google Adwords or Facebook Social Ads. You can also find some popular, on topic blog entries to comment on with a link.

Remember, no one can promise something will go viral but a good place to start is with the 3-S's and a good seed strategy.

Comments

[Elizabeth McDowell]

Great posting, Jason. I agree with your viral marketing lessons – simple, socialable and shareable – and simply wanted to provide you and your readers with more information about the 2007 “Elf Yourself” campaign. “Elf Yourself” was created for OfficeMax (www.OfficeMax.com) by agencies, EVB San Francisco (www.evb.com) and Toy NY (www.toyny.com), and I’ve included an overview of the campaign with results here:

Goals: To elevate brand perception and distinguish from major competitors through humor, entertainment and humanization as well as to establish OfficeMax as a holiday shopping destination.

Campaign: Elf Yourself allowed visitors to upload up to four photos and record a personal message through a toll-free number. The face or faces were then attached to an animated Elf body, the voice was processed to sound elf-like, and the result was a dancing and talking Elf that could be forwarded to friends or posted on a personal website or blog.

Results: After six weeks of being live, the holiday site attracted a booming number of visitors and hit the bull’s eye of viral success – it has seeped into popular culture. Broadcasters at several stations, The Today Show, Good Morning America and CNN American Morning, created their own dancing holiday greeting for viewers, and thousands of blogs, such as TBS Daily Flog, The Hills Blog & Rosie Chat, also added personalized versions. Final statistics for the 2007 “Elf Yourself” campaign includes:

Elf Yourself 2007 (six weeks, 11/20/07 to 1/2/08)

• Over 193 million site visits


• Over 123 million elves were created


• Over 210 million elf dances were viewed


• 60 elves were created per second


• Users spent a combined 2,600 years on the site


• One in 10 Americans visited ElfYourself.com (Nielsen Online Strategic Services)


• Ranked No. 51 most visited website on the web (HitWise Intelligence)


• Ranked No. 1 site on "Movers & Shakers" (Alexa Rankings)


• Ranked as top 1,000 website in 50 countries (Alexa Rankings)


• Featured on CNN American Morning, ABC World News, Good Morning America, TOADY Show, TNT Sports News, Fox News, NYT BITS Blog, Rosie Chat, & TBS The Daily Flog.

2007 ROI Statistics (survey conducted January 2008)

• 63% of participants that shop for office supplies 10+ times per year were aware of Elf Yourself.


• 95% of those who visited Elf Yourself claimed they would likely visit Elf Yourself again in 2008.


• 1/3 of those who visited Elf Yourself claim that Elf Yourself influenced their decision to visit OfficeMax.


• 1/3 of participants who were aware of Elf Yourself claimed that Elf Yourself improved their perception of OfficeMax.

Thanks, Elizabeth

(spokesperson for EVB)

[Jason Bedell]

Thank you so much for the great information. I agree, the "most well known is probably Monk-e-Mail" statement is certainly overstated.

And while I'm at it, I'd also like to clarify that according to a contact at OddCast, they had a hand in the 2006 version of Elf-Yourself, not the latest execution in 2007.