Effective Viral Marketing using Social Networks

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All of us are aware of how fast the H1N1 virus (commonly known as swine flu) has been spreading across the world, spreading fear and panic as well. Overall, it has affected everyday life of travelers, businesspersons, students. Now that is seriously viral. Similarly, viral marketing campaigns can spread from one consumer to another just as any physical virus can. Viral marketing is a marketing technique that uses social networking to lead to increased brand awareness as well as achieve marketing objectives such as sales through self-replicating viral processes.

As the number of people spending time online has increased, it has helped organizations grow their business by adopting viral marketing techniques to reach out to their customers. Most of these viral marketing campaigns are often humorous that people find interesting enough to share among their friends and family.

Social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have become common ground for businesses to target potential customers with advertising and promotional material. Video sites such as YouTube allow users to build a profile, upload videos, post comments, and even allow others to subscribe to a channel. Another way is to circulate it through email; people usually forward information to their peers if they find something informative and interesting.

Before going viral for your business, plan and choose social networking sites. Sometimes, to be more effective, the best way is to select social media sites that are widely used in your region as this will attract demographic groups. The map below gives a better understanding about sites that are popular in different countries:

The next important thing is to create a profile in the social media sites that you have chosen. Provide enough information about your business and yourself to show that you are a real person.

After you create the profiles, you need to add friends. Always keep in mind to add those who share common interests as well as business interests.  It is not a good idea to populate your friends list with those who are not interested in your products or services.

The main objective is to implement your marketing strategy on these sites.  Actively communicate with people who are in touch with you. Some of the ways you can go viral is by frequently putting up news, hosting new events or webinars, uploading a video or developing applications that might be of interest to your followers.

Organizations need to see that they do not hard sell their products to consumers. It is important to be creative while going viral on social networking sites. There are numerous ways to do it and all you need is to choose what is best for you.

Contributed by Shantanu Barman

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Tags: Social Media Marketing, viral marketing