“If I can just make one video go viral…”
Many marketers make the mistake of thinking that viral content is good promotion. Sure, if you can make a viral video, then you’ll get a lot of eyeballs on your brand. If you stick a website link in there somewhere, then you might even notice a spike in traffic.
The issue with this traffic is that it’s not the traffic you want. Despite popular belief, social media marketing isn’t about quantity – it’s about quality.
Viral traffic isn’t quality… usually
If you just create any old video with the intention of getting views, then you might feel warm and fuzzy inside, but your bank balance won’t be any higher. Technology has made marketing exponentially easier, but you still have to use it in the right way.
If you don’t, it can have the opposite effect. Let’s assume that you’re a company that sells medical devices to hospitals. What do you want your brand name associated with? Creating a viral video that doesn’t promote that image you’re going for is risky. All of your content has to be in the medical field, or else it’s not helping you.
This meshes with your SEO marketing strategy, too. If people are linking to a video on your website with anything other than medical anchor text (different types of anchor text) then you’ll notice a drop in your website rankings.
How to promote your brand and get quality eyeballs
The trick here is creating viral content which both enhances your image and reaches the person you’re going after.
That might seem like an arduous task, depending on the type of company that you run. Taking the marketing strategy from the medical company again, you’ll probably need to reach higher-ups at each hospital. They’re the ones who make the purchasing the decisions, and they’re the ones who will be deciding to go with your company over a competitor.
These medical directors might not be watching a whole lot of viral videos. But the beautiful thing about viral content is that they don’t have to – the people they know have to.
If you were to create a video about the issues with sanitations in hospitals, then anyone who knew this hospital director would show him the video. Maybe they’d send an email, or maybe they’d post it on his Facebook wall that he checks once a week. He won’t be the one browsing YouTube aimlessly in search of viral videos, but the people he knows (who probably aren’t quite as busy) certainly will be.
Here’s the takeaway
The key to viral marketing isn’t getting as many eyeballs on it as possible – it’s about creating content related to the person you’re trying to reach. When that medical director is going to order new supplies and he sees your name pop up, he’s going to recognize it from the video.
If you’re running a company with a wider reach – maybe you sell iPhone cases – then you can cast a wider net. For example, a video pointing out a flaw in an iPhone would not only be seen directly by iPhone users, but it’d be shown to them by Android users who think their device is better.
Remember: there are only a certain amount of people who will actively seek out these viral videos. You need to create them in a way where when they are shared, they’re shared with the people who will be giving you money.
This guest post is written by Bart Panessa with Search Engine Groups. Bart is passionate about all things related to search, and when he discovers something, he likes to share it with the world!
