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When was the last time you created something online that went viral?Whether you're new to content marketing or are a viral content maven, you probably know that it can be nearly impossible to predict which tweet or video or meme might go viral. Often, it feels like virality is just completely random. We asked three content marketing experts to weigh in on what they think makes some content super-popular while other content goes straight to the internet graveyard.Drawing from their own knowledge and experience, they share their perspectives below. Learn what they think sets viral content apart....
Do you ever wonder why certain content and ideas become very popular while others fail to gain traction? Derek Thompson’s new book ‘Hit Makers: How Things Become Popular‘ takes an in-depth look at what makes a viral or popular product. The book doesn’t provide a secret formula for virality, however, Thompson provides a lot of detailed research on the key factors that cause content and products to become popular. Here is my take on the content marketing lessons from the book.
Throughout the recent U.S. presidential campaign, commentators of all political stripes urged Donald Trump to give his Twitter account a rest. He ignored them, bypassing mainstream media in favor of a technology that continued to deliver his provocative messages directly, frequently, at all hours, and without filters. While no hard proof exists that his tweets put him over the top in the election, they undeniably riveted the attention of a broad public, media included — and continue to do so. Here’s what business leaders can learn from the tweeter-in-chief about trying to win over large segments of consumers through social media. “Big-seed” marketing beats viral. Duncan Watts, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research, has been studying the sociology of networks for decades. His notion of big-seed marketing suggests that a message can spread faster and more systematically if it is “seeded” among many people. That differs sharply from the viral approach, which attempts to create an “epidemic” of interest through a few targeted influencers, who spread a message among the people to whom they are connected. If those connections fail to pass on the message, it soon peters out. Big-seed marketing is more reliable than designing content that mimics the qualities of cat videos in the hope of going viral. Companies like BuzzFeed have used the big-seed model to create successful news websites and advertising businesses....
Since James Surowiecki published his book “The Wisdom of Crowds,” the common wisdom is that we are commonly wise. In other words, if we average the knowledge of many people, we’ll be smarter than any of us would be individually. And that is true -- to an extent. But new research suggests that there are group decision dynamics at play where bigger (crowds) may not always be better.
A study by Iain Couzin and Albert Kao at Princeton suggests that in real-world situations, where information is more complex and spotty, the benefits of crowd wisdom peak in groups of 5 to 20 participants, and then decrease after that. The difference comes in how the group processes the information available to them.
In Surowiecki’s book, he uses the famous example of Sir Francis Galton’s 1907 observation of a contest where villagers were asked to guess the weight of an ox. While no individual correctly guessed the weight, the average of all the guesses came in just one pound short of the correct number....
Memes indeed have the ability to be an uplifting way to bring people together – and to pull them apart. Let's take a look at the history of the meme!
What matters most about WoM is the social system, the people involved and their desire to interact about something. Clearly endogenous or self-generating WoM is much more powerful than superficial marketing generated WoM that organisations initiate. This reflects the deep seated human characteristic of talking to each other about a topic which nourishes the interactions with other people.
People are highly motivated to share their passions and obsessions with others. We are drawn to identify with a cause. People will chat whatever you do, and sometimes it will be about you, but more often it won’t be. The real reason for WoM is the social interactions around the topic. The subject of discussion provides the oxygen to sustain interactions rather than the purpose of our conversations....
One in five consumers say reflecting their identity—who they are—is the most important reason they share content online, according to a recent report from Fractl.Overall, identity ranked as the third-most important reason for sharing content, after wanting to entertain (44% of respondents) and wanting to educate (25%)....
No, we're not talking about Apple or Amazon or Big Data or the Marketing Cloud or Programmatic Buying.
Chevy’s Rikk Wilde “looked down at his notes often, spoke haltingly and explained to the pitcher that he'd like the Colorado” —Marketing Daily’s Karl Greenberg has the skinny today on its new “inner truck guy” conventional campaign — “because it has ‘class-winning and leading, you know, technology and stuff,’” James R. Healey reports in USA Today.
“The nervous Wilde was assured this morning he still has a job,” Greg Gardner and Alisa Priddle reported in the Detroit Free Press last evening. “And in fact he appears to have garnered millions in free publicity for the Chevrolet brand, which has received at least $2.4 million in media exposure from the unconventional presentation, according to Front Row Analytics. Bloomberg reports that is six times more than the $392,000 it would have brought in with a more polished performance.
”It did not take long for #technologyandstuff to pop up on Twitter with GM president North America Mark Reuss (@GMdudeinNA posting, “It's what I've been saying for years.....#technologyandstuff,” Gardner and Priddle report....
After years of trying, I became an "overnight success." See the contradiction here?
“It’s expensive to be poor.” I heard the last words of my interview with CNN’s Don Lemon as if someone else were speaking them. July 9, 2014 was my 32nd birthday. I was supposed to be out with friends, having secured the rare babysitter for my twins. Instead, I was on national television.It wasn’t right; it wasn’t me. I was the mommy blogger, scraping by, who sometimes did funny things that garnered a few thousand hits to my blog or Facebook page. But the calls kept coming: NPR, Al Jazeera, CNN again, Sirius XM, UpWorthy, TIME Magazine. Now I had television and literary agents calling me. People were thinking this thing was worth money.
When my essay about driving to a food bank in my husband’s Mercedes went viral, people immediately started heralding me as an “overnight success.” It was true in its way. The success itself was overnight. What people don’t realize though is that the luck of going viral was based on a mountain of hard work, on years of effort. There’s a frustrating truth to success in the Internet age: in order for your work to reach an audience, someone with power has to give it a chance, and in order for someone in power to give it a chance, it has to have an audience....
There are dozens of techniques that can increase search traffic on a website, but only a few methods result in content reaching unseen levels of popularity. Sure, a merely informative or interesting piece can get a couple hundred social engagements, but viral isn’t just informative: It’s an emotional experience.
At Fractl, we’ve established some factors that can help a campaign idea morph into an online phenomenon, but knowing how to create great content is the foundation of any viral campaign. By educating yourself in a few theories of psychology, you can make the most of nuances that most content marketers don't know....
Go big or go home, right? Brands everywhere are going over the top to impress consumers and grab their attention. To do this, they’re coupling pranks with video advertising strategies to create compelling content that goes viral. While some marvel at the creativity, others argue that prankvertising goes too far. Regardless, the power of the latest trend in video advertising is undeniable. Here are some of our favorite prankvertisements.
There's a lot of buzz about viral marketing, and sometimes it stems from unexpected places.
...I've already mentioned that I wanted my idea to focus on the news events surrounding the demise of Google Reader as well as the potential demise of Google's Feedburner product. I think it was much better for me to pick one of these rather than try to get the message across about both.
You couldn't save Google Reader after it was announced to be shut down, but Feedburner still has some legs (for now) and that's the one I care about the most....
Creating viral marketing campaigns isn't easy, but seeing others that have succeeded helps. These are some of the best viral ads from small businesses.
Many small businesses who have enjoyed the excitement of a viral marketing campaign will actually tell you that, although they wish they had been clever enough to plan it, it was an accident. There are certainly things you can do to try and create viral marketing campaigns, but these methods never offer any guarantees.
As a small business owner trying to create the next big thing, it’s important to look at examples of successful viral marketing campaigns to see what you can learn. Then give it a try yourself, see what happens – and then try, try again if necessary....
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For many brands, the substance that’s all the rage with tweens is a recipe for revenue, with the likes of Michaels, Elmer’s and McCormick & Co. all benefiting from the trend.It started quietly last summer, when social media watchers began buzzing about it. Tweens had struck on a recipe for a mucilaginous, stomach-turning substance and were posting videos of themselves playing with it. The slime trend had hit.In fact, slime’s now bigger than ever. Devotees of the glutinous gunk—easy to make by combining glue, water and borax—have posted some 2.8 million images and videos of the stuff on Instagram. Search “slime” on YouTube, and you’ll get 11.9 million results. Which is (mostly) good fun for kids who, to many parents’ delight, have actually found something analog to do. But slime’s biggest impact isn’t on kids at all: It’s on the bottom lines of brands that sell or make the ingredients for it....
There are many new, intriguing data points, including Denny’s viral tweet, Snapchat and YouTube numbers, Facebook local and connected cars. It was a stellar week in digital marketing stats, and here are the nine that really stood out: 1. If one tweet can sell a thousand Moons Over My Hammy, this is itDenny’s tweet on Wednesday represents a historic Twitter marketing achievement. The following message has garnered 108,000 retweets and more than 152,000 likes in the last couple of days. The diner-style restaurant chain utilized a popular “zoom in” scavenger hunt meme to inspire such robust interest. How does it stack up compared to tweets of marketing lore? Well, it has surpassed the engagement seen by Arby’s iconic “Hey @Pharrell, can we have our hat back?” 2014 Grammys post....
Toronto's Spin Master has done it again. The toy company that brought kids to a fervour over Zoomer robotic pets has created the hottest toy of 2016: Hatchimals. But they're already sold out everywhere, leaving parents in a panic.
WTF is a Hatchimal? Good question.
Imagine a large, speckled egg that hatches as a result of touch and sound. Inside, your child will find a bright, fuzzy robotic creature. It could be a Draggle, Penguala, Owlicorn, Burtle or Bearakeet (don't worry if you can't tell the difference, they look pretty similar.) That's when the fun starts. Kids then teach it to walk, talk and play using specific phrases.
"Hatchimals incorporate the very best elements of nurturing play with the interactivity of robotics in a truly innovative and entertaining way," Ben Varadi, Spin Master's chief creative officer, said in a press release. "This is one of the most unique products Spin Master has ever launched and we're confident that the consumer response will be strong."
Well, that's putting it mildly. The toy retails between $60 and $90 and it has sold out online everywhere. Sears, Toys R Us, Mastermind, Chapters... no one has it....
You may have seen Boaty McBoatface in the news recently and it sparked you to do a bit of digging on Google to get the full story. After doing some research on Boaty McBoatface, you likely found yourself on the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) website. This is exactly what NERC wants you to do. This story started when NERC opened an internet poll for naming suggestions on their brand new $287 million polar research vessel. Quickly, Boaty McBoatface rose to prominence, fueled by viral posts on the potential name of the British government’s newest research ship. Despite many comments and stories surrounding the merits of naming the ship Boaty McBoatface over more traditional names, one cannot deny the publicity this has provided to the NERC. When James Hand offered his suggestion for the new ship’s name, he likely did not foresee the popularity it would soon garner. NERC has James, who is a public relations professional, to partially thank for their sudden popularity. Regardless of the final ship’s name, NERC has been given crucial and valuable publicity on a topic worthy of our attention....
We all know that in the past decade digital has been the big story in the marketing world, with traditional techniques either being side-lined or used alongside new technologies, such as social media.
To an extent, some of the more traditional marketing practices have transferred onto online platforms – for example, email newsletters instead of paper ones, and advertising on websites instead of magazines.
One area which seems to work better online than offline is reviewing. Whilst previously reviews could be seen in dedicated magazines or marketing literature, thanks to sites such as Trip Advisor and Amazon, reviews can now be written and published instantly for the world to see....
Are you curious about which type of social content gets the most shares?
Are social shares part of how you measure social marketing return on investment (ROI)?
Do you wonder which social channels’ users share most frequently?
In this article you’ll discover the most recent findings about what types of content get shared most, which channels seem to have the most users who share and what posting times result in the most shares....
... Instead of the usual advertising song and dance, Chevy decides to do something special that will garner more attention and create great PR. At game 7 of the World Series in Kansas City, MO the Kansas City zone manager, Rikk Wilde, presented the MVP winner Madison Bumgarner of the San Francisco Giants with his very own Chevy Colorado truck.And how does Wilde do?
He totally messes up! He stumbles right through, he looks like he’s going to have a nervous breakdown or a heart attack. The people on screen with him look nervous for him (with the exception of the guy fixing his hair). It’s a right mess. While trying to explain the virtues of the 2015 Chevy Colorado, he ditches his script and explains live on television at the championships of the World Series that this truck has “technology and stuff” such as wifi, etc.
Technlogy and stuff, huh? How exciting! #TechnologyNStuff And yet, Chevy takes it on and turns it around! The same night #TechnologyNStuff starts trending, they own it with this beautiful tweet...
The Emmys are on, and despite the prospect of sinking ratings due to the event being held on a Monday, brands are out in full force.
We run down the best and the worst real-time marketing, recognizing both off-the-cuff remarks as well as those, like Mercedes-Benz’s, that were days and maybe even months in the making....
We’ve all heard the term, “it went viral” when referring to heavily viewed YouTube videos, comedic memes and social media games. Businesses are now using this free technique to promote their products and services.We have compiled 5 examples of social media marketing campaigns that went viral to prove just how powerful it can be....
"When Jonah Berger was a graduate student at Stanford, in the early aughts, he would make a habit of reading page A2 of the Wall Street Journal, which included a list of the five most-read and the five most-shared articles of the day. “I’d go down to the library and surreptitiously cut out that page,” he recalls. “I noticed that what was read and what was shared was often different, and I wondered why that would be.”
What was it about a piece of content—an article, a picture, a video—that took it from simply interesting to interesting and shareable? What pushes someone not only to read a story but to pass it on?"...
Via Guillaume Decugis
In defining viral marketing, many creative descriptions have been put forward.
At its core, viral marketing is simply the “spread of an idea” that helps market your business or cause. It’s putting material out there that by its very nature attracts attention and discussion.
Perhaps the most objective way to look at the practice of viral marketing is to examine the research of some highly intelligent folks who have dedicated years to deciphering the common elements of viral content.
Below, I’ll dissect some of my favorite research from an associate professor at the Wharton School of Business, as well as examine some classic viral marketing examples to see what lessons can be had from campaigns that managed to spread far and wide....
...In the ad coffee shop customers witness a Carrie-style freak out (spoiler: it’s an ad for Carrie) in which a young actress “moves” books, chairs and a stuntman with her mind. Since being published Monday, it has racked up 19 million views.
The ad is the latest in a long line of marketing stunt videos. Popular recent hits include Pepsi getting NASCAR's Jeff Gordon to torment a car salesman and an unsuspecting beer drinker undergoing a terrible job interview that turns out to be a Heineken-crafted prank. In Canada, VMG Cinematic helped make a stunt-style video of a seemingly supernatural catch by pro baseball player Evan Longoria that turned out to be – surprise – an ad for Gillette.The reason each spread so successfully on social media is the element of surprise. Something unexpected or unbelievable happened, delightfully surprising the viewer before the reveal came that the video is an ad....
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What makes content go viral? We asked 3 experts to weigh in. It starts with emotion.