Stephen Nold

Five Tips on Viral Marketing in your Organization

Dave Lutz with Velvet Chainsaw and I spoke about Facebook and LinkedIn groups in a Hands-On session at the MTO Summit.  These short workshops gave us a chance to focus on the value of these tools in creating communities.

After establishing the value of viral marketing, we outlined tips in for these New Media solutions:

Do something unexpected - This challenge has been underlined by several great thought leaders including Seth Godin's The Purple Cow and The Big Moo business books along with David Meerman Scott's challenge to create your own worldwide rave.  The concept is simple, you can replicate what the rest of your industry is doing and swim with the pack or you can seek a way to stand out; differentiate from the competition.  Same hold true with your community.  If you expect them to survive the fire hose of information and become loyal participants, give them a unique reason that catches attention and generates stickiness.

Generate Emotion – Whether it is based on love, hate or even anger, stir the passions within your community.  Give them a cause and they will keep coming back.

Add value - Encourage your members to tell a story, provide advice or share a warning.  Find a way to give your members something they can't get elsewhere.  Whatever you do, don't let suppliers overwhelm the conversations by plugging products or services.  We understand suppliers want to earn business, but don't let them waste time with unsolicited advertisements.  If they can't add value to the conversations, get them out of the community.   

Keep the content fresh - Find ways to keep new ideas, new information and interesting thoughts in front of your community.  Stale communities reduce member returns.

Perpetuate the Viral Effect
Give ways for your community to extend invitations to others by providing links to join the group.  Don't forget the value of 'email a friend' references also.

So, what are we missing?  Let me know if you have some advice on implementing viral marketing into events and exhibitions.

Posted by Stephen Nold on March 27, 2009 | Comments (0)