Viral Social Network Marketing - Make Passionate Consumers Your Marketers

The simplicity with which consumers can share information through social networks is helping business referrals take on a new shape. Businesses creating a fan site on Facebook is an example that can support the development of a self-selecting community of followers (or 'fans') of your business with the promise of a viral response. Just consider how you chose the last new restaurant you tried. Chances are good that someone you know told you about it, or you read about it online, or both. Perhaps you're even a fan of that restaurant on a social network. Further, the integration of online social networks like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and even blogs ease the process for businesses to reach consumers where they already spend time, and puts the marketing engine in the hands of the most passionate of followers that want to spread their message like it's their own.

It's likely that your initial community or fan base will be friends of your business and the most passionate of your current consumers. The key to tapping their passion is creating viral campaigns that trigger their urge to share what you offer. Provide them tools like video, special offers and incentives, compelling news, funny content. Think of them like the newest group of media you'd like to pitch. They want to share something different, something that represents why they love your business.

It doesn't matter if your business is big or small, local or global, viral online marketing can build business if you have a great product, service, message, and the right media. A great case study of this is a small fitness business working to start up a program and facility for athletes to improve their performance. Hammer Down CrossFit is still establishing its facility, and in the meantime has built a small but growing community of passionate consumers that are virally spreading the word about their experience, about the business and its offerings. How are they engaging them? By providing them the tools to spread the word through social media, including:

Viral Media

- Hammer Down CrossFit Interactive Blog including daily postings of the company's programs, and a commitment from participants to post results.

- Hammer Down CrossFit Facebook Fan Site fully integrated with blog to build community, and to reach people with blog content on their personal home pages. Also provides the ability for users to promote blog posts, pictures, video, and other viral messaging to friends in that space.

Viral/Sharable Message

Regular posting of viral videos, photographs and messaging featuring the participants and passionate consumers who like to spread the word. Tagging of material on social network platform attaches the participants to the activity and encourages them to share the content with their existing communities, triggering questions and promoting recruiting.

Special Offers - Hooks

Hammer Down combines these viral social marketing techniques with traditional special offers including offering regular free "entry" classes that give its passionate viral recruiters an open door to bring their friends into the fold to experience the business' services at no cost.

It's a simple but powerful example that demonstrates how basic social network marketing can build a strong community around your business and create advocates that serve as your marketing arm. Interested in learning more about how social network marketing can help your business? Contact Vivazu Communications today.

Check Out the Feds Leading the Way...

Three cheers for the Obama administration's open campaign and new approach to transparent, technology savvy outreach and now governance.  With the ease of social networks and the accessibility and low cost of emerging communication tools, businesses would be smart to follow suit, especially given the current economic climate.  This promise of transparency in government is no longer just a promise, but a reality.  We literally get emails direct to our in-boxes from the President now (if you don't, sign up!).  Messaging from the top - a practice we've advised businesses of for quite some time, gets attention and action.  We saw it with Obama's campaign outreach not only through email but through Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, text messaging and a whole host of other channels.  If government can make this kind of hyperleap into the digital age (surely you saw the boss is keeping his super secure blackberry), what are you and your organization waiting for?  Even if it's a baby step, consider increasing your organization's transparency and easing your messaging at the same time.  Creating a limited-audience blog to which your employees can subscribe is one easy way to get started.  Check out Blogger or Wordpress for ideas.

Salary Transparency Goes Market

Businesses have discussed and some even have tried on and off for years to share salary information with their workforce.  Most companies take the privatization approach, keeping salary info behind closed HR doors and strictly with management.  While this gives them the flexibility to make adjustments to stimulate an individual employee's work, in today's digital age, it will become harder to maximize the benefits on a case-by-case basis.  

With new digital offerings online like GlassDoor.com, Salary.com, PayScale.com, and SalaryScout.com, employees are taking it into their own hands and seeking negotiating information that was once once reserved for the Compensation specialists at big companies alone.  Now people are publishing their salaries in self-propelled salary surveys thatare slowly building steam and credibility, and could end up backfiring on companies who operate in a close-hold salary environment and might have major imbalances.  

Thinking about it, sharing salary information is prevalent at the executive levels, particularly in public companies where it's required by the SEC and shareholders, but what about the rest of the company, or in private business? Some companies, like Whole Foods Markets, share salary information at multiple levels and use the transparency to drive expectations and teamwork.  It does demand a high level of communication and authenticity in why changes are made.  Check out John Mackey's blog (CEO Whole Foods) as a great example of a CEO explaining changes to a salary cap.  This type of exposure and consistency in communication supports their policy, keeps employees in the know, and provides a sort of corporate social responsibility in declaring it to the public as well.  

Unstructured Play at Work

The Today Show this morning featured a segment about how kids are in too many structured activities, and that the brain actually develops best through unstructured play.  A guy from screamfree.com even talked about how kids learn to think and innovate by not having so much structure.

So what about in the workplace?  Is innovation drying up?  Is it because we have too much structure and scripted activity in our jobs?  When was the last moment you had an unscripted, unplanned, unstructured moment at work?  I'm not talking about a unexpected fire-drill.  Sometimes structure and process helps you get through those.  Have you had an impromptu brainstorming session with your staff, taken a siesta under your desk, or stood on your head in your office?  How about a lunch out where you don't talk about work?  

I'm one of those people that wakes up in the middle of the night to write down ideas that pop into my head.  Is it because my brain has a chance to rest in an unstructured way?  

Many companies are starting to extend their suggestion box programs into true innovation drivers by setting up unstructured idea-sharing systems.  It's a sort of social networking concept that gives people time and space to contribute ideas. Companies like Bright Idea are banking on the fact that we need more open idea sharing and time to network online. Are you using idea-sharing or types of unstructured play to drive innovation?