What are some EFFECTIVE options for viral marketing?

[KateD]

Hi....

I know that viral marketing exists, but I have never been able to put an effective viral marketing campaign together.

My last attempt was trying to use Mike Filaime's Viral product (ViralGenerator? can't recall the name at the moment). I could not get the script to work the way its suppose to and the support forum was.....well...not very supportive.

Can anyone with personal experience recommend a product that I should look into?

Thanks.

KateD

P.S. I know that there is some controversy about whether tell a friend scripts work as spam. I don't want this thread to go over the ethics of viral/tell a friend products.

If you have and success with one, I'd be thrilled to hear about it.

[travlinguy]

Write (or outsource) a valuable eBook or Special Report with great content. Be selective with a few well-chosen and related affiliate links. Also, if you have your own products or services you could include an offer for those as well.

Once you have such a book, offer it for free and give away distribution rights to everyone who downloads the book. This is also a great way to build a mailing list. The key is to make it really valuable so people actually want it and it creates some buzz.

[HenryFuentes]

going viral is very profitable but extremely hard to go viral,

its basically is a friend tells a friend tells a friend and so on so forth till you look and you have 100k list of people getting your book aday.

the best thing to make anything viral is the entrainment value it it doesnt entertain then your just making it harder for it to go viral. ( how many people have seen that "numa numa" video or those Chinese kids that sing to backstreet boys)

another key point is the ease of spread like how easy is it to copy and past to a friend instantly

give them a reason to tell someone and it the reward is great enough for the work they will do it.

[Michael Taylor]

Henry, absolutely right. Viral doesn't mean "tell a friend script". It's something that people spread to other people because it contains something irresistible.

Here are some viral videos for you...

Numa Numa

Numa Numa: Just a bit under 22 million views at this moment

Star Wars Kid

Star Wars Kid: Over 10 million views

Star Wars Kid Drunken Jedi

Star Wars Kid Drunken Jedi: A mere 5.6 million views

Also consider the viral spreadability of whole sites like Home Star Runner.

These all have a giggle factor...and though the YouTube videos I've listed were spur of the moment goof offs, they're hits because they emotionally connect with us in some way. We've all acted silly at times...we've all laughed at others we've caught acting silly. And the addition of the special effects to an already goofy moment in Drunken Jedi is just enough unexpected spice to send it even farther over the top.

Viral isn't something you can just wake up one day and manufacture. To purposefully put something together like Numa Numa or Home Star Runner or (somehow) a hit ebook...and THEN (somehow) weave it into and link it back to a monetization device...man, you've really got to have some magic on your side. (And it CAN be done...the Home Star Runner guys make their money off of merchandising.)

The most realistic way to get a viral effect for our purposes is probably to become a known factor ourselves...WE become the virus...and anything we produce is raised in value to the point people want to pass it around to like minded people. And if any one video or report or ebook or whatever else gets passed around like wildfire, it will be an accident...just like all the other truly viral moments in Internet history.

For example, that's why I watch videos by Ed Dale. I like him. He's the virus. Any given video by him isn't viral, not necessarily. But HE is viral. I like his ideas, his manner of speaking, his coolness factor. And that leads me to gravitate toward his informational materials and further makes me inclined to tell others about what he's said.

Or take posts here by Steven Wagenheim. Sure, his posts have value, but it goes farther than that...the payload is really him. It's a personal connection to the producer of information. And unless you have a super cool payload carrier like Home Star Runner or an accidental epidemic like Numa Numa, or a truckload of cash, ordinary people like you and me won't be going viral UNLESS it's through a personal connection with people who trust us and want to consume what we cook up. I believe this is what Ed Dale and Steve Wagenheim does. And this is what you can do, too.

BE the virus.

[Here's a bonus for you...not a smash hit like Numa Numa, but I just love these silly mashups!]

Star Wars Kid - You Should Be Dancing