The Why, Where and How of Viral Marketing

One of my favorite blogs for the latest news and trends in social media comes from Flowtown, a San Francisco-based social media consultation company. Last week, they published a new entry focused on how to make viral marketing work for your organization. While the healthcare industry is typically a bit slower than most to adapt to new technology and trends, this has definitely not been the case with viral marketing. Think about it, how many versions of the Pink Glove dance have we all seen in the past 3 years? The reason that so many healthcare marketers have jumped on the viral marketing train is because of the perception that it is a quick, cost-efficient and fairly foolproof way to make a splash in your market. That’s not exactly true. A successful viral marketing campaign takes time to plan, and sometimes a healthy budget to produce.

There is some great, big picture thinking in this particular blog entry entitled Viral Marketing: Creating Content That “Pops” on Social Media, which can impact this way we, as healthcare marketers, view, and use, this medium.

Why Use Viral Marketing?

Those of us who have used viral marketing know that it can be tough to sell to leadership because it rarely results in significant ROI. So why should we invest any of our limited budgets in to this medium?

• New and extended branding opportunities
  • A great way to introduce or remind people who you are and what your organization stands for
• Improving your SEO organically
  • Search engines like Google and Bing now take inbound links associated with viral and social marketing into account when developing search rankings
• Analytica
   
  • A steady stream of viral marketing efforts can go a long way in driving unique and sustained traffic to your website

Where to Use Viral Marketing

With all of the new social media sites that have popped up just in the past several years, its understandably imitimidating and confusing to know which are the best use of your precious time and resources. Here’s a quick cheat-sheet of the 5 major social media networks:

• Twitter
  • Because of the huge number of people now on Twitter, there is a lot of noise to break through. The good news? If you post the right content, and have the right followers, the quality of your re-tweets, and in turn the impact of your message, will be fantastic.
• Facebook
  • Facing the same clutter issues as Twitter, Facebook viral marketing can result in even fewer re-posts than Twitter. However, posts to Facebook have a longer life span than Twitter meaning you typically do not need to post as often to get your message noticed.
• Digg
  • Rebounding from a poor launch of its 4th version last year, Digg may soon be a great tool for viral marketers if you are able to get your organization on to the front page.
• StumbleUpon
  • A great opportunity for healthcare marketers because StumbleUpon members select the topics that they are interested in learning about, so your content is presented to an already-engaged audience.
• Reddit
  • Committed to providing its users with relevant, robust content, Reddit does not tolerate spam. So while it may not be the place for the Pink Glove Dances of the world, Reddit would be a great place to post information on the latest clinical trials and research coming out of your organization.

You’ve probably noticed by now that YouTube is absent from this list. The reason? Because contrary to what many believe, YouTube is not a social media tool and it very rarely sends any substantial traffic to an organization’s website. In short, people who visit YouTube tend to stay there.

Finally, How to Go Viral

The Flowtown blog outlined three key components to keep in mind while developing viral content:

• Build strong content
  • Not only should content be relevant, but it should also be easily and quickly digested by your audience. Visual aids, such as a well-designed infographic, can make a huge impact.
• Make your titles stand out
  • You have a matter of seconds to break through all the clutter and connect with your audience. Be original. Be unexpected. Be relevant.
• Engage with the community
  • Most hospitals have a good grasp on the unique needs and issues facing their local communities, viral marketing is the perfect outlet to use this knowledge to build that relationship.

I recommend reading the full entry from Flowtown, if you have a moment, and would love to hear from you. What successes have you had in your organization with viral marketing? What are your favorite viral campaigns?