Jason Bedell - Interactive Marketing & Technology Blog

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.

Social Meda and PR

If you are thinking about making your foray into social media, you need to be thinking PR.

That's right. Just because its on the Internet doesn't mean its all up to your interactive team. Social media is first and foremost about talking directly to your consumer. And the person on your side of the conversation better be responsive, on topic, and conversational (that means not a sales guy). When's the last time you put a programmer in front of a customer?

And it's not a copywriter from your creative staff either. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure there are plenty of great creative copywriters out there that can do the job. But this is really about public relations.

We talk about Interactive Public Relations with respect to social media in terms of three steps that all build on top of each other: Monitor, Analyze, Engage.

There are many great monitoring tools to help you get an idea of what conversations are happening out there with respect to your brand or product. Google Alerts, while very basic, is a free and effective way to get started. For those who are ready to take the next step in monitoring, I would suggest taking a look at Radian6 (check out my past post on Radian6 here).

While monitoring is mostly going to be handled by an automated service, you will have to handle the analysis yourself. This is where you take a look at the conversations taking place and derive your insights. Who and where are the most vocal communities? What are they saying? Do they like you? Are they looking for different offerings you are not providing?

Finally, engagement is your opportunity to get in the game and where your PR team comes front and center. They will help you respond to these conversations that would otherwise happen without you. They can address false rumor and accusation, provide insight into products or services, enlighten an interested community, and ultimately be the live ambassador to your brand.

Tell me what I want to hear...

I filled in my profile information on Facebook the other day. I sign up on so many social networks that I want to see how they work and what they have to offer before I invest time in such things.

Anyways, it was worth it. I immediately noticed a change in the ads delivered to me. I almost exclusively get Ads from Sandles now, you know the beach resort people. I don't have 'travel' in my profile but I must fit their age category or education profile. Who knows, but I dig it.

I also get adds for Hampton Inns, Citi Bank, Monster.com, and Tivo.

We have been talking about targeting ads based on self-maintained user profiles for years. It is just nice to see it finally here and working. And, it really is almost all I'd hoped for.

I actually care now. Yes, I'm in the biz and probably not typical about these matters but I do find myself checking the ads out much more. They are relevant to ME. It's not about some keyword I'm searching Google for. It's not about some demo or pyschographic data Nielsen or comScore said depicts the "typical" visitor to the site. IT IS ACTUALLY ME!

I told Facebook what I'm in to and Facebook listened and is hooking me up with people promoting stuff that makes since and that I care about.

And you have got to check out Facebook Insights. You can setup a completely targeted campaign in literally two minutes.