Tasha Harrison

There is a huge misconception that you can make a fun video, post it on Youtube and it will be watched by millions of people, possibly even making it onto a ‘Best Youtube Videos Ever’ programme. Sadly, it is extremely difficult to create a video that actually goes viral. There are an estimated 24 hours of video uploaded to Youtube every minute, so it’s incredibly easy for your video to get lost.

Creating a Viral Campaign

However, it is still possible to create a viral campaign if you have a greater plan. Volkswagen have created a viral campaign called ‘The Fun Theory’. Run in Sweden, the campaign sought to prove that you can change people’s behaviour by making things fun. It then invited people to submit their own ideas as part of a competition. The competition took place at the end of last year, but today I stumbled across one of the videos on Youtube, using StumbleUpon (a social bookmarking site).

Below is the video I stumbled:

I came across the campaign by accident, which is the result of a viral campaign. This campaign was paid for by a large business. They put money into the videos, they built a site and, no doubt, spent a great deal of money on advertising. This gave the campaign the impetus to become viral, it was given a huge shove in the right direction.

It also doesn’t seek to explicitly sell cars, it appears to be done simply for the sake of doing something fun. It associates ‘fun’ with ‘Volkswagen’. This is a very effective brand building campaign!

This fantastic video by vm-people, based in Berlin, is a great little animation showing how viral marketing works and explaining what it is.

With any social networking you’re doing it isn’t enough to just talk at your followers and fans. They’ll quickly turn off to your incessent stream of links. The reason people join social networks is to talk to their friends and make new ones, so the most effective social media strategy will look for ways to join in the conversation.

Tips for how to engage and become part of the conversation:

1. Talk to people - watch what your followers are saying by following them back. Then reply to comments, questions and articles.
2. Retweet people – if someone posts an interesting article that you think your followers will appreciate, retweet them. See Retweeting made easy for tips on how to retweet.
3. Monitor what people are saying about your brand using Twilert. Then follow them and talk to them. If their comments are positive you can thank them, if they’re negative it is an opportunity to respond.
4. Always follow people back – if someone follows you and you follow them back they will instantly feel more positive about your brand. Don’t become like the celebrities who follow a select 50 or so people, Twitter is not a one way stream. (The only occasion when I’d recommend you don’t follow someone back is if they are obviously a spammer or a bot.)
5. Use an application like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. These are both great services that help you organise your followers, making it possible to follow hundreds of people. By organising your followers into groups it is far easier to sort through the thousands of tweets in your Twitter stream.
6. Write a good description of your business and what you’re going to be tweeting about in your Bio. Try and identify the person who will be tweeting or the team, so that people know who they are talking to.
7. Always use an image, either your logo or a picture of the person who is tweeting. If there are a team of people tweeting from different accounts then each person should have a personal picture.

Something lovely and heartwarming came into my life today through Twitter, this wonderful video of a busker on the London Underground. Isn’t social media brilliant!

via @richardpeacock

1. Build a relationship with your customers

   If you walk into a shop and the shopkeeper sits you down, makes you a nice cup of tea and discusses exactly what product is best for you, you are more likely to return. By speaking with your fans and not just at them you can create the same warm fuzzy feeling.

2. Customer services

   There are instances where people may talk about your brand, make a complaint or be unable to sort out a problem through the normal channels. You can monitor social media sites and reply to these people. They may reveal problems you didn’t know where there.

3. Your fans can become your brand champions

   They share your content, they suggest your Facebook page to their friends, they promote your Twitter account through #followfriday. They do the hard work for you.

4. Show your brand’s personality

   What sort of person is your brand? What music do they listen to? What do they wear? This can all be communicated through talking and sharing stuff with your fans and followers.

5. Be consistent

   The way you speak to your fans across all your social media sites should be the same, your fans will expect you to act in a particular way.

6. Create guidelines for your staff

   If more than one person is writing your content, you need to make clear to them how they should conduct themselves and what they can and can’t talk about.