Friday, July 25, 2014

Tips on How to Go Viral

Many of us have had the opportunity to witness or partake in the #icebucketchallenge, primarily benefiting ALS. This phenomenon is being witnessed all around the world with people seeing on their Facebook news feed, YouTube and in the news people donating to charity, pouring ice water on their heads, or both.If you Google "Ice Bucket Challenge", you will get over 182 million results. According to a presentation compiled by CROWD Companies, YouTube has stated they had over 2 million videos related to the challenge on their site. Facebook has had over 28 million people participating in the challenge by liking, sharing or uploading videos. ALS continues to raise money and to date has raised over $85 million, which is 34 times as much as they raised during the same period last year.Today, everyone wants to have the same success in having their own content or initiative going viral. There are some definite tips that you should consider with regard to making your material go viral:* Be positive - The experts agree. You want to have positive content for a greater likelihood of going viral. The Ice Bucket Challenge is positive, sharable and it is meant to help support a good cause - in addition to being fun.* Hit an emotional trigger - This is something that marketers have been trying to do since time immemorial. You want to make sure your content hits some emotion. The challenge is clever and funny. Seeing videos of your friends and celebrities having a good time is great to share. The best advertisements and commercials similarly touch upon an emotional driver that elicits a response.


* Easy to share - To me, this is one of the most important aspects of having content go viral. People need to be able to find your content. In today's world, social media and social networking is everything. With the Challenge, people have been able to use Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, for example, to easily share video with their followers and beyond.* Make it simple - The Ice Bucket Challenge is very straightforward and easy to understand, although there are some variations. In order to complete the challenge, you need to video yourself within 24 hours, it only takes approximately two minutes of your time and you need to either pour ice water over your head, donate to charity or both. It's not complicated.* Call to action - If you look at the best advertisements, commercials or the Challenge, there is a call to action. Some sense of urgency is built into the viral content. In the instance of the Ice Bucket Challenge, you need to complete the Challenge within 24 hours, take a video and challenge three other people.Many marketers and organizations have been speaking to me about being able to do something similar to the Ice Bucket Challenge. It is important to remember that there have been winning viral campaigns prior to the Challenge, which means there will be others once the Ice Bucket Challenge fades. All it takes is a little ingenuity and thinking out of the box to do something that is fun and will help raise awareness for your organization.© 2014 Not Your Father's Charity. All rights reserved.

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