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02-09-10

Viral Marketing Ideas and Infographics for Valentines Day

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010


We have had tremendous success over the last couple years in creating and marketing viral articles and especially infographics for our clients. There is always a unique opportunity to do something viral when a holiday or major event is approaching and currently we don’t have any clients that would fit the bill of Valentines Day. So I wanted to outline some viral and infographic ideas that any of you can use if you have a site that is related to the Holiday.

Valentines FlowersThe Meaning Behind Flowers [Infgraphic] - This would be a graphically driven chart showing all the major types of flowers and roses and break down what each of them mean. How Red Roses means something completely different from White Roses etc… Something a guy could bookmark as a resource to rely on when getting flowers. Maybe an alternate title idea could be, “The Mans Cheat Sheet to Flowers.” Something like this would do extremely well for traffic due to the holiday approaching, but would also get a lot of links and bookmarks for future reference.

Bulk CandyCandy Consumption Statistics [Infographic] - this would be a graphic showing what percentages of women like what types of candy. Dark vs. Milk Chocolate, Sweets vs. Tart, etc… with some hard facts behind it. Also could list some specific candies that are favorites in each category.

TiffanyAge Old Meanings Behind Jewelry [Infographic] - This would be similar to the first example with flowers but about jewelry. Pearls vs. Diamonds, Platinum vs. Gold or Silver. Earrings vs. necklaces. All the information a man could want to be able to make the right decision for his women.
*there are many article (not infographic) spin offs to this one like, “Affordable Jewelry that will Blow Her Mind.”

Date Ideas - There is a million articles that would fit under this like “101 (Valentines) Dates on the Cheap” or “Calling all Ballers: Expensive Dates That Will Seal The Deal.” You can also do an article about creative dates that have been done or creative marriage proposals etc… A lot of this has been done before so get creative.

PresentGift ideas- This is the same as Date Ideas. Cheap, expensive, thoughtful etc… there are all kinds of opportunities here. But if you want to really get some solid viral legs you will have to be unique as these types of lists and articles have been done over and over. You can do Tech Gift ideas, or Sports or really anything. If you have a site that offers products to men or women you can spin them to fit this one.

statsValentines Day Stats That Will Hurt Your Heart - If you were more of the cynical blog or site and wanted to cause some controversy during Valentines Day you could create an infographic showing how much money is wasted spent on Valentines among children, adults, jewelry candy etc.. how much companies make, how much is wasted and so on. If you were a financial site you could take this and not run with the cynical angle but just do a piece about the stats behind the commercialism of Valentines Day and how much money is spent, on what and where and maybe some geo data too, like what cities states spend more.

If any of you have a site that could benefit from some viral traffic and links during Valentines Day take these and run with them. I would love to have you comment or email if you see positive results. Like I said we don’t have any clients right now that would fit this and I wanted to at least write em down and do something similar to our old Viral Marketing Friday Posts.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

07-15-09

5 Must Do’s After A Successful Viral Marketing Campaign

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

2010 SEMMY Winner
I have talked a lot about what to do to create and promote viral content. I wanted to give some tips that have helped me ensure that my future campaigns have equal success.

First and this should be obvious before any viral launch you should have a set of metrics and goals you are looking to achieve and track. Whether that is sales, traffic, leads or links. What is it that you are looking to achieve as a result of a viral campaign? I am going to manly talk about learning from your mistakes to make future virals better as well as links and traffic as that is the most common/general goal of successful viral marketing.

Back To The Future Amp Feedback1.) Feedback: Believe me there is very few things more painful then reading through hundreds of snarky comments left by the social media middle class, but beneath all the noise there may be some useful feedback. Look for repeating trends left in the comments regarding actual constructive criticism, these can be learning opportunities for you to better prepare your next piece. You will often see actual feedback about your site, regarding your design, layout or even how dumb your bio pic looks. Hopefully you can gather which feedback might have some merit and make some definitive decisions regarding your site or content. Again this will be “needle in a haystack” but if there are certain things on your domain that do not sit well with your audience you may want to change them before your next piece.

Magnifying Glass2.) Analysis: We will talk about referring domain data below but first you will want to pay attention to some things like what time of day the piece “went viral” or what day it did? How long did it take to reach critical mass on the social sites? How many Diggs, Thumbs Up/Reviews, Tweets/RT’s? Every piece is going to be different but it can help you plan and execute later if you know all of this. I know some people that only launch on Tuesdays or only start the process at a certain time of day. I like to plan things for Tues-Thurs and so they are aimed to reach critical mass for mid day. You need to find what works for you.

RSS Subscriber3.) Conversions: What type of conversions were you looking for if any? More RSS Subscribers? More Twitter Followers? Comments? Newsletters? Leads? Sales? All of these things can benefit from successful viral marketing. If you were looking to get one or more of the above, did you? If you did, why do you think you did? If you didn’t, why not? Maybe you need to make your call to action more prominent, or maybe less prominent? Maybe you need to make your RSS Button bigger or have a reminder at the bottom of the post instead of just relying on your Orange button on the side nav? Maybe your Twitter account info needs to be better located? What type of content brings more of the goal you are setting out for? Does a more specific list/tips type post get you more leads? Does an informational type post get you more Twitter followers or RSS subscribers? You need to test and test and pay attention and make note as to the answers to all these questions.

I have seen posts literally bring hundreds/thousands of new RSS subscribers or Twitter followers. I have seen virals bring hundreds of thousands of dollars in new business within days. I have seen them bring thousands of leads, and it is important that I know why, when and how. *Tip make sure you use analytics to track what referring sources brought these conversions. You can use BLVD Status to track out going clicks and other stuff more specific to viral success.

Traffic Jam4.) Referring Traffic: There are really two parts to this section; first, traffic counts from the different social sites/blogs that you targeted and second, traffic counts from sites/blogs you did not target and otherwise didn’t really expect. You may know how much potential traffic Digg can bring (just had one last week with more than 200k) StumbleUpon can get up into the 30-50k range now, Reddit is often 9-20k and I have seen Twitter do 10-20k, I know it can do more and on avg I see it do about 3-5k (*Twitter specific articles usually get the most traffic on Twitter). It is good to note how much each one does, but the gold nugget here is the second part, which is to watch for the traffic sources that surprise you. Did you know that a foreign site similar to Digg/Reddit can bring over 20k to your site without breaking a sweat.

There are numerous blogs and social sites you might not frequent that can do serious traffic and link damage. Make note of these and if your next viral does not get submitted there, then submit them yourself or find someone you know that uses those sites. Either way it is a quick way to build your arsenal.

Rolodex5.) Rolodex: This is saved for last cause it is so simple yet most people I talk to never do it. Generally speaking gaining high quality relevant links that you couldn’t otherwise get through any other means is the main reason for the majority of viral campaigns. This is a legit reason, I have gotten hundreds of thousands of links that you could never get any other way, no matter how big the link building team or how much money you had. If you want a link from WSJ or NY Post, Newsweek, USA Today etc. you gonna get those from a link broker (notice how I kept Forbes out of that list :)? Creating something truly viral and useful is the best way to get links from the big dogs. And getting links from the big dogs is what may be the difference between you out ranking your competitor.

One of the most important things you can take from this post is this; if you get a link from a big dog site, contact them and thank them. Put that author/editor on your radar, tweet their good stuff, comment on it, build a relationship and the next time you have a viral that is worthy of the big dog love send them a link. The only thing better than a link from the largest most trusted site in your industry is two links from the largest most trusted site in your industry. I am in no way suggesting you should spam and bug these people, I know how annoying it is to get asked to blog about stuff. What you are doing is finding someone that likes the content you create and you are establishing a relationship with them that can be beneficial to both parties. It is a business contact that you create, nourish etc. and it is so simple and it works well and the next time your piece gets buried and gets sub par traffic you can still come out on top with some killer relevant links. After all isn’t that the reason you started out building the content in the first place?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

12-13-08

What Happens In A Limo, Stays In A Limo

Saturday, December 13th, 2008

For today’s viral marketing idea Friday post I am answering a viral question from a reader. I think there is much potential with this one. Here is the question:

Hi Matt,
I’m opening a new company with a friend of mine, and I am pretty sure its the oldest and most boring business ever, plus its advertising is abused all the way… Limo services. Its based in Stamford CT, and I’m putting some ideas together along with a web site. Do you think this business deserves a post? Thanks

I am not sure about the abuse you are talking about (I have not seen any abuse in this industry in regards to viral marketing or social media). I have a good feeling that there is some huge viral marketing potential with the limo industry. My title should tell it all, and where I feel this industry would do very well.

Most people don’t get the opportunity to ride around in a limo many times in their life, but when we get that opportunity - watch out! People rent limos to feel rich, have a good time and feel a little bit powerful. All of this makes for good potential material for a viral campaign.

A quick search for “limo fun” on Google images brought back almost every image with people with their mouths as wide open as possible, and tongues sticking out. I instantly think of a fun link baited post title like this - “What Is It About Limos That Make People Act Like This? [10 Pics]” Then I would share 10 (of what I felt where the funniest pictures of people with their mouths wide open, or doing something silly inside limos) like this picture below:

mouth wide open

I also have some other ideas that would take a little more time and research to come up with, but I think would be amazing. If you go back to the title of this post, my first idea for a viral post would be “Drivers Tell All - 10 Unbelievable Things That Happen In Limos” or “The 10 Most Luxurious Limos On The Market” and find pictures or video, and detail some of the amazing features that limos nowadays have. One final one I think would do really well - “10 of the most unique limos ever built” and you could include pictures like the general lee limo.

I think that would be awesome to read a post like that, and see all those images. I really think these three ideas alone should give you hundreds of other ideas that you could run with.

I really don’t want to get into it on this blog, but you could go down a more risky route with this one, and come up with some amazing stories, images, videos and content based on the dirtier or darker side of limos.

I also just saw a video of two limos racing on YouTube and that would be awesome to compile a list of the coolest limo races ever. Again - so much potential in this industry, so to the person that asked this question I think you have some options. Thanks for asking the question, and as always please feel free to send us in your viral marketing idea questions?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

11-21-08

Viral Marketing Idea Friday - House Keeping Service

Friday, November 21st, 2008

I am sorry that its been a few Fridays since the last post, but things (as always) have been crazy hectic. I am sorry because that is no excuse, but its a real one. A few weeks ago I ran into a friend that just launched a chandler house cleaning business and we got to talking about different things she could do online to drive more traffic to her website and of course viral marketing came up!

I started to talk to her about what are some of the grossest things she has ever had to clean, or has seen inside someones house and her responses were pretty amazing. She listed things like poop on the floor (and they had no pets) - SERIOUSLY? WHO DOES THAT? She also mentioned finding “toys” in bed when she has gone to pull the sheets off to wash. Again - WHO DOES THAT? Who freaking leaves their toys around for just anyone to find? Especially the maid? In one house she went to for the very first time (to give a quote for a cleaning) she walked in and saw piles of trash bags that lined the floor leaving only a small path for walking. You could not even get into the kitchen, and every single pot and pan was dirty in the house. So what she later found out was that she was going to the dollar store and buying disposable plates and dinnerware, and cooking food in her living room on a camping stove because she could not get into the kitchen! I can’t make this stuff up! One last thing before I get on with it - Cat poop was found on a mini-blind towards the top - how does cat poop even get there? I am serious, the way she described it was there was no way the cat could of, and she is still stumped to this day. I would have loved to have seen how the cat managed to pull that off! I guess that would be a pretty cool viral marketing video and idea for a cat website huh?

All the above got me thinking of how a business like this that is promoting house cleaning services could ever do something that could go viral. I started to think about You Tube, and Google Videos, Flickr and some of the many videos and pictures I have seen in the past where houses were trashed, or kids were doing un-speakable things as pranks on other peoples houses, and I just kept thinking to myself - someone is going to have to clean that up. I just never thought it past that point. But someone eventually does have to clean up the messes made.

The story I told you about the trashed house above, she did not take the job and basically told the person to go to hell. I don’t blame her. I would not want to clean the toilet of a clean persons house, but that’s just me. I also think you could get some pretty good footage if you were lucky enough to be called to clean a foreclosed home. I have seen some pretty amazingly trashed ones, where they have been stripped of everything, and I mean everything - including dry way (so they could get the copper wire I guess and sell it)

trashed homes

If you did a post on trashed foreclosed homes, and titled it “You Will Never See Another Home As Trashed As These 5 I Found” or “The Number One Most Trashed House In America” or “You Will Never Believe How Trashed This Foreclosed Home Was”. Some other ideas would be: “Seriously, How Can You Live In That House?” [PICS] or “The 10 Dirtiest Houses In America” or “10 Houses You’re Glad You Don’t Live In” I think that gives you enough ideas, but you see how you can take this idea and run with it so many different ways. I think the best shot you have of making it go popular somewhere would be to share stories that are your own, and images and experiences that are your own. If you can even come up with something close to the examples I have given you above, then I think it will do ok!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

10-17-08

Viral Marketing Idea Friday - Text Message Reminders

Friday, October 17th, 2008

Last week, I got this viral marketing question in the form of a comment -

I am building a new web application that sends reminders in the form of text messages, emails and voice messages to subscribers. The idea originated from my wife’s situation, being a soccer mom and everything, and having four kids, its hard sometimes to keep track with all the practices and games… so she either carry a notebook with her all the time, or she checks her emails. To make a story short, i am thinking now of having this public service web site, and people can subscribe for a small amount of money. Do you think such an idea can be marketed some how?

Initially, I like the idea, (my wife struggles with the same problems) but I do see some problems with this service actually taking off (and making any money) and the main reasons is because of Cell Phones. Everyone has them, and everyone for the most part, carries them with all of the time. Most cell phones these days, like the Blackberry my wife carries has notifications that do just what your service is offering to do, and it would be for free. I know my iPhone does the same thing, and I use it all day long to remind me of what I need to be doing.

With that said, if you were going to go through with it, and market this kind of a service, I see you having no problems finding some pretty amazing viral marketing ideas that you could use to promote your site with. The first headline that sparks my interest right off the bat (because of all the Hockey Mom talk with Gov. Palin) would be “10 Things Soccer Moms Got That Hockey Moms Don’t” (or vice versa) - start some controversy right off the bad and get these “Moms” going back and forth with each other etc. It could be funny, and interesting all at the same time. I mean, what guys doesn’t like a good cat fight right? The service you are offering fits right in because these are the kind of people who you are targeting with your business model, so even though the service itself is pretty boring, you have lots of topics surrounding it that are not, that would make it very exciting.

After doing a quick search on Google Videos and You Tube, I also found some pretty interesting videos show casing some pretty angry and aggressive Soccer Moms during their kids games. (Side note - some of the stuff I saw was actually sad, and I can’t believe some Moms act this way during games.) Always thinking like a marketer though - This got me thinking of a pretty cool post where you could find 10 of the craziest outbursts from Soccer Moms during games, and title it “The 10 Angriest Soccer Moms Of All Time Caught On Video” or “Be Glad This Is Not Your Mom” or something similar that would make people want to click. Remember your link bait is the key here, we want to get people interested in clicking.

Speaking of making things interesting, and getting people to click - what about this post as an idea “The 10 Hottest Soccer Moms” or “The Top 10 Hottest Hockey Moms Of All Time” and then just research a little on Google, or any photo sharing site, and you will find what you are looking for - trust me …

soccer moms

In Conclusion:

I think there is no limits to the amount of viral marketing ideas and posts that this industry could bring, but as far as a business model itself, I really don’t think it will fly with all the technology out there already. If it were a free subscription based service, and you just collected a huge database of users, and drive massive amounts of traffic to the site, and sold sponsorships and advertising - it might work. I just don’t see people paying for a service like that right now, in this economy. At least you know that you won’t run out of viral marketing ideas though, and I hope this at least got you starting to think about what direction you want to go! Good Luck, and thanks for the question. As always, if anyone ever has an industry they want featured on these viral marketing idea Friday posts, just comment, or send us an email.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

10-10-08

Viral Marketing Idea Friday - Back Up Your Blog Company

Friday, October 10th, 2008

Luckily I have never lost any info inside any of my blogs, but I also credit my technology background and understanding that websites need to be backed up (and backing all mine up) to never losing any info. But what about the people who are less technical and using blogging software from websites like Blogger, or Wordpress for family blogs? If this is you, and you did lose your blog, or these companies go out of business, how much of your life would you be saying goodbye to? Could you get it back? Do you know the policies of these companies, or how often they back up your information?

I was made aware this week of Bloggled, a company (in beta, but you can still sign up) that offers a service to back up your blog with the push of one button, along with a few other pretty cool features. It got me wondering how could a company like this go viral, and that is what I want to get into with today’s post.

You might be surprised how many people don’t know about different blogging softwares that are out there (free or paid) or even what blogs are (no really its true I talk to these kind of people everyday). Many people think that setting up a company or personal family blog will be to expensive, when that is not even close to being true. So my first thoughts for a post would appeal to the new users, and be something like “The Top 5 Free Blogging Software Sites, And How Users Rate Them” or “The Easiest To Use Blogging Software Winner Is”. Now, your posts don’t have to always be for beginners either, you can do an amazing list of Wordpress plugins like - “101 Wordpress Plugins That Are A Must Have” or “10 Must Have Wordpress Plugins For A Family Blog”. Of course you have a never ending supply of “The Top 10 Blogs For Fishing” or “The Top 10 Internet Marketing Blogs” and so on (hopefully you get the point). Once you get big enough with a site like this you could even have your own badges and widgets for your users to place on their blogs that state “This Is A Bloggled Top 10 Featured Site” - Again, the ideas just keep flowing and flowing!!

With your business model you are trying to appeal to the “old dog” users of blogs, and convert new users as well and make them both aware of the services you offer. Coming up with, and executing these kind of viral ideas on your own blog would be an amazing place to start getting the word out. Normally (and I think you would agree) software that backs up a blog is a pretty boring industry, but I hope you can see with the viral ideas I have given you today how you can get past that.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

10-03-08

Viral Marketing Idea Friday - Step One, Make Your Site Social Media Friendly

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

This week it seems like I have had so many conversations with people about the simple things they can do to their website to make it social media optimized, and because of that I wanted to take that approach with today’s viral media post.

Has anyone (other Internet marketers) else noticed how good CNN is doing lately with embracing social media and trying to connect with the users of it? You can follow them on Twitter, Facebook and more. You can even create your own “widgets, profiles and badges” on the CNN site talking about your issues and who YOU are. When I give this as an example to people (that I am working with) they tell me that they hear them talking about this stuff on CNN but have no clue what a profile “badge” is? If you are an Internet business owner, you need to have a clue and embrace the world of social media.

Social media sites continue to gain a huge following, and if you are not allowing your site to grow the the changing Internet environment then you are going to be left behind. Let me explain it to you this way; Google does get the majority of the search traffic, yes that is a given. The people who understand SEO (I mean really get it and understand) will always be able to achieve high natural rankings by understanding what the algorithm is looking for. The users of social media, and sites like Delicious try to counteract that by giving results based on what users are recommending - In other words, your content ain’t going anywhere on sites like Delicious unless its good and other people are saving it. Let me go even further, it does not even have to be “good” for it to be embraced by these communities, you just have to make it more available (easier) to the users of these communities.

If I come across a site that I like, and I see they have a Delicious button on their homepage, then I am going to save them because its there (and easy), whereas if they didn’t I would probably just pass them by trying to remember the site next time I was in my Delicious account. The same is true with Stumble Upon, I will usually give a site that I like the benefit of the doubt and “stumble” them if they have the SU button on their site. This is the same respect I am giving CNN and the anchors I watch by following them on their social media accounts and interacting with them that way. I have no time to be watching news all day, but if Rick Sanchez puts out an update on Twitter - I know about it (instantly) and I can take the time to watch or read, but before (or if he wasn’t doing this) I would not have had a clue as to what was going on (on his program). I would have just kept in my own little Internet world, working away and only interacting with other users of social media that I am connected with.

The simple point here for Internet business owners (that have not embraced social media) is to make sure that they have these social media icons on their site, and they let people know what communities they are a part of. A huge part of that is also understanding what communities to put where on your site. Understand that having a Digg icon on the homepage of your website is pretty much useless, and it needs to be where articles, blog posts, or news is at on your site (more potential for being “Digg-worthy”). Also understand that having “social bookmarking” icons like Delicious and Stumble Upon on your homepage would be ok. Once you understand the community and what they are looking for, the better.

There are reasons these social communities give you the ability to make your own widgets and badges promoting your profiles and what communities you are a part of, and its not just for promoting them. I would suggest getting in to the social communities that you are a part of and learning all the tools and services they have to offer. I mean, really get in and learn what having a Twitter account can do for your blog. You might think its silly to have a “micro-blog” when you are already blogging, but this is a great way to let people know of new content, things on your mind, and especially a great way to connect with people who may have never found your blog.

I know there was not a whole lot of “how to” on this post (that will come later), but I hope this at least gets you thinking of how you need to be including social media into your “over all” Internet marketing plan, and especially be embracing it on the simplest of levels - your website!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

09-26-08

Viral Marketing Idea Friday - How To Tell if You’re A Geek?

Friday, September 26th, 2008

There are so many “geeky” technology (type) websites out there that provide some amazing information that people use everyday, but many of these blogs do not have the exposure they deserve. Many of the geeks I know that love to code and share about their world of technology have no clue about social media sites, let alone micro-blogging sites like Twitter or Plurk. They may have heard about Digg, used it once, got bored of it and moved on never understanding or unleashing the power of a social community.

I had a neighbor when I lived in Utah that was a top level-hard core programmer for Novell, and eventually even got bored there (see a pattern?) and is now working with a web based start up company and loving it. The reason I bring him up is because he use to be a hard core Digg user (got sick of it and the politics), and then eventually fell in love with Delicious and has never embraced anything else. A lot of these guys that (like my neighbor) have some amazing blogs providing good information on coding topics, Linux or general programming etc. do not realize who their audience is.

Why do they even have blogs in the first place? Is it to document their research? Are they doing it just because everyone else is doing it? After talking with many of them including my old neighbor, they want to make money with their blogs, they just don’t know how. They want to get the exposure they are looking for, but again - just don’t know how. These guys need to be taught how to make their websites social media friendly, and then start to create some viral content that would appeal to the masses of social media users.

I had a great idea come to me the other day in the form of a Plurk conversation I was having with a fellow Plurker. She was driving and saw a license plate that had just “CSS” on it. It made her smile she said, and it made such an impression on her that she wanted to share it with all her friends. Why would that make anyone smile? If you are web developer then you know why. I got to thinking about how something like this would make a great viral marketing idea. “10 Things You Saw Today That Prove Your A Geek” and then share all the pictures of the things in your day that made you smile that would just fly over the head of a normal average person. You could also use this as a title “10 Pictures I Took Today That Prove I Am A Geek” and do the same thing - sharing pictures that you took. Remember if you come across a license plate that says CSS on it, you better take a picture, you may need it!

I see stuff like this all the time - on the back of a car the other day I saw this bumper sticker < /bush > and I promise you that very few people understand that this obvious programmer was sharing his un-satisfaction with the current President. You have to be able to think like a marketer and take advantage of what is around you. If you run a technology blog or a programming blog where you give tricks or tips, think about the kind of content you could create that would appeal to the masses too. Once your blog is known, you will get more traffic, better rankings and more money from advertising etc. You may even get some programming jobs out of it! That wouldn’t be such a bad thing either - would it?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

09-12-08

Viral Marketing Idea Friday - Hearing Aid Clinic

Friday, September 12th, 2008

I got asked this question in the form of a comment today - if I had any viral marketing ideas for a hearing aid clinic? At first it stumped me, I have to admit. Had I finally found an industry that is to boring for viral marketing? I have not had a lot of time to think about this, but all of a sudden the first thing that popped into my head was this “The 10 Greatest Health Related Technology Advances” and research out, and find the (health related) devices over the last century that have changed peoples quality of life the most. My guess is the hearing aid would for sure be on the list, or at least it would be on my list.

The thing you must remember about viral marketing, and making good content for your site is that it does not have to be a perfect match (I know I sound like a broken record for those of you who read this blog often). I do not have to find something so “amazing” about the hearing aid itself, but rather find something closely enough related to its industry, like the example above.

Other titles to posts that I feel would do well would be, “10 Things That Make Getting Old Easier” or “The Totally Amazing Devices That Make Getting Old Not So Scary” and you can list out the health related advances that make aging easier like knee replacements, hip replacements and lasik surgery (as well as including the hearing aid) and I think what would really make the article do well is if you did some research and gave pictures and stories of the “first ones” and their inventors.

I also realize that just because you are using a hearing aid does not mean you are old (or getting old), there are many ages that use them for many different reasons. These are just ideas that are popping into my head so I wanted to share them. You could do a post about “10 Advances In Technology That Make Life Easier For Special Needs Children” and list out all the amazing new technologies that are helping kids (no matter what the situation) lives become better.

So you see, I hope this gives you some ideas as to where you can take your content, and answers the question of what can someone do for viral marketing even in a pretty boring industry. Figure out something that relates to your industry and create something around it. I know the examples above would do well if created with thought and research.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

09-05-08

Viral Marketing Idea Friday - Razer, The Most Amazing Rock Band You Have Never Heard Of

Friday, September 5th, 2008

As I downloaded yet more of Metallica yesterday from iTunes (the new stuff freaking rocks btw) it got me thinking of how some bands are embracing social communities and growing bigger because of them. Also, bands like Metallica are finally starting to figure out the power of the Internet, and embrace its users more to grow their fan base (and maybe win back some fans in their case).

What can a no name band do to get its name out there more with social media? What can be done with these kind of “rock band” websites or profiles to help them go viral? The more and more I think about this, the more amazing ideas keep coming to my mind what a band could do to get its name out there.

A good friend of mine, Chris Catero (far left in the picture below) is bass player for a little known band (except for the Phoenix area) called Razer, a band he started almost 15 years ago (that started off as Wardog and was pretty big in Europe, but never broke in the US) What can these guys do to get their names out there? Embrace social media sites like MySpace of course, but its going to take more then that.

razer band

Some ideas that came to my mind, thinking of how good Razer is, but yet nobody’s heard of them (to get the word out) could be “10 Of The Greatest Rock Bands You Have Never Heard Of” or “10 Of The Most Incredible Guitar Riffs You Have Never Heard” or “Ten Of The Craziest Rock Videos You Have Never Seen” and then of course on each give a link to the iTunes download page, or wherever you can get their music. In the list of the 10 bands do your research and find some pretty amazing local bands that you may know of (if this is your industry you will know) and include them, but of course include yourself as well, and yes … its ok if a post like this is on your bands website/blog - it will only do you good! Then everyone who is following you on your MySpace page - send them to one of the communities like Stumble Upon, or Digg and have them all push it up. You will be amazed at the response it gets.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers


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