Whether you are a nonprofit organization, a four-year university or a new law firm, your company can benefit from a viral video. The advantages are endless, and it’s free publicity for you. These videos can change previous attitudes, generate sales, recruit volunteers or whatever your goal is for your company.
So how do you do it? What goes into creating a video so unique that it gets the attention of millions?
Have a marketing plan.
Viral videos do not take off out of luck. They are the outcome of a strategic marketing plan and excellent content. Before releasing your video to the Web, you need to develop a plan on how you will bridge the gap between your video and influencers.
Know the timeline.
On the video’s release day, you need to spend as much time as possible spreading it in all ways possible. This means going beyond asking friends on Facebook to share it on their wall. You need to pitch your video to appropriate bloggers who may cover your video. Bloggers are a major marketing power. Through bloggers, your video has potential to reach hundreds of thousands, or even millions. Pitch to as many as possible, but only if it seems appropriate to pitch to the specific blogger. If he or she covers technology topics, do not pitch a heart-warming video about your nonprofit cause. Also make sure to pitch to any potential stakeholders who could benefit from your video going viral.
Day two is generally when traffic and speed picks up. Blogs start to cover and publish articles about your blog, publicity picks up, Facebook shares increase and marketing really takes off.
Inflict an emotional response.
The most successful viral videos are viral because the viewers felt an emotion after watching. Some of the best emotions to inflict include:
- Excitement
- Anger
- Amusement
- Fear
- Sadness
Whatever the emotion may be, viewers need to have a strong response, which is what makes viral videos different from the millions of other videos hiding in corners of YouTube.