Viral Marketing Does Not Exist

Posted March 31st, 2010 in Branding, Getting Visitors, social media by Patrick

That’s according to Brian Solis, renowned public relations expert and digital thought leader. In a recent blog post, Solis explains why most viral marketing attempts fail, through analysis social scientist Dan Zarrella’s work on why ideas spread and the seven types of “sharing motives.”

A few key takeaways:

  • Identify and pre-seed your message with appropriate key influencers
  • Some of the top emotions that motivate sharing are: Personal, Relevant, Timely, and Humor
  • Define the action you are trying to provoke
  • The ability to share with one-click essential to spreading your content/message
  • Videos are much easier to spread on Facebook compared to Twitter

It’s not a short read, but definitely great food for thought as you market your small business. Read it once, chew on it awhile, then read it again!