Summary of Tips on How to go Viral

Authors Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein provide fascinating insights into the modern phenomenon most young people with a cellphone wish would happen to them in their article "Two hearts in three-quarter time: How to waltz the social media/viral marketing dance." It begins with an explanation of a tried and true strategy: Word of Mouth marketing. Essentially this is telling people you know about products you've used, who may go on to heed your suggestion and tell others. Information, especially hot goss, can spread fast through the grapevine. An interesting point that is brought up about WoM is that it "is not a purely altruistic behavior: it offers advantages to the sender, as well as the receiver. For senders, WoM is an opportunity to help others and to improve their self-confidence in doing so. For receivers, it reduces decision-making time as well as risk." This means that people often receive a significant amount of value from hearing opinions of those in their network. As we transition to the digital era and the internet plays an ever increasing part of people's daily lives, WoM has found its place on the web as well. It has awesome advantages too like having the potential to spread a message to an exponentially larger audience than ever before. Another advantage is the ability to monitor and measure the results compared to the relatively tedious process involved with tracking traditional WoM (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2011).  

The next part of the article discusses the three basic criteria that must be met in order to go viral: "the right people need to get the right message under the right circumstances." The right people are categorized as market mavens, social hubs, and salespeople. Market mavens are individuals that are well read and attuned to the pulse of information and trends. They spend a lot of time engaging online with various communities and "are typically among the first to receive the message and transmit it to their immediate social network." Social hubs are influencers with an exceptionally large number of  connections. Salespeople amplify messages by making them more relevant and persuasive. All three types of people are necessary for a campaign to get viral distribution. Getting the right message is absolutely essential as well. It has to be memorable and shareable, while hopefully toeing the line of appropriate. The authors note that "messages with viral potential must trigger an emotional response in the receiver," such as surprise "combined with other emotions that can be either positive (e.g., joy) or negative (e.g., disgust, fear)." Finally, context and circumstances matter. Posting on the right platforms at the right time makes a difference. It's suggested that spreading the initial message too broadly can actually backfire because people don't want to share yesterday's news. They want to share something that is current and trending. So, "firms should instead focus on having an infectious message (leading to a high reproduction rate) and seeding it to many disconnected subcultures." These can be found in abundance on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2011).

The last part of the article describes five case studies of viral marketing campaigns that they deem: nightmares, strokes-of luck, homemade issues, and triumphs. It also gives five very important pieces of advice:

• Viral marketing is only as good as the remaining marketing mix
• Viral marketing needs to be backed up by traditional forms of communication
• Excessive planning and intervention kills any viral marketing campaign
• Highly provocative and edgy messages are a double edged sword
•  Successful viral marketing requires a little bit of luck and gut feeling

Photo Reference:

SproutSocial. (2022). How to go viral on Instagram: Proven strategies for your brand. https://media.sproutsocial.com/uploads/2022/10/sprout-social-how-to-go-viral-on-instagram.svg

Scholarly Reference:

Kaplan, Andreas M. and Haenlein, Michael. (2011). Two Hearts in Three-Quarter Time: How To Waltz The Social Media/Viral Marketing Dance. Harvard Business Publishing. https://store.hbr.org/product/two-hearts-in-three-quarter-time-how-to-waltz-the-social-media-viral-marketing-dance/BH434