Viral Campaigns Explained Through Medical Terms at Social Media Week
This week is Social Media Week where the digital gurus come out to share the latest and greatest in social media insight – even the free snacks came with QR codes! I had the opportunity yesterday to attend a presentation on Consumer Engagement in the Reuters building in Times Square.
In the early years of the Internet consumers kept an anonymous identity–I was personally known as ColaBear85. We used the Internet for research, keeping up with the news and checking email. Nowadays it’s all about real identity and exposing your world to anyone who is willing to listen.
The presentation focused on this opportunity of social promotion to convert consumers into brand advocates. By developing the right campaign we can use consumers as broadcasters and have the ability to create and sustain an online community.
The number one goal as PR professionals is to have our campaign go viral, meaning when someone who is influenced then influences others. What better way to really understand this than to break it down to a 4-step approached compared to how an actual virus spreads.
- How many people are sneezing? — How many people promote your brand?
- There are four types of brands that consumers like to promote:
- Cool brands (Apple),
- Funny (Old Spice),
- Niche brands (Stumptown Coffee),
- Good brands (Toms)
- There are four types of brands that consumers like to promote:
- How many people get sneezed on? — How many people do they promote it to?
- Leveraging the right/influential consumer
- How many people get the virus? — How many people respond to it (Conversion)
- How many people then sneeze? — How long before those people promote it?
Now that the campaign was a success, the work has just begun. The real challenge is to move the consumers who just participated in the campaign into the community.
Engagement is the new content, focus on re-engaging with your community and providing them with opportunities to participate on a regular basis.
Even though it’s a new game, the old rules still apply. Grassroots organizing still works for building engagement. If you find and equip people that love your brands with the rights tools, the right content and conversation will naturally build and sustain.
For more information about Social Media Week and how to get involved visit SocialMediaWeek.org or follow the conversation on Twitter with #smw12.
How are you identifying and engaging your most influential consumers?
