Social Media Giveaways for Viral Marketing
Social media giveaways have helped launch Viral Marketing Campaigns.
Viral marketing encourages consumers to share the marketing message and spread the word about a brand’s product or service.
There are few successful case studies where a viral marketing campaign went “according to plan”. Most viral campaigns happen without planning or purpose. However, if you own a company or have a business idea or product to sell, you can try your luck with viral marketing.
All viral marketing campaigns have one thing in common. They all reach a broad group of consumers on an emotional level. The emotions that power the campaign vary but humor (laughter) or anger (sadness) are strong emotions. Consumers will remember something that makes them laugh or cry and will be more likely to share it with their friends on social media.
Just like any marketing campaign, viral marketing needs to start with something to help it gain traction and momentum before reaching “viral” status. These various ways below can help get the fires started.
Use press releases
A well written press release about a newsworthy story, product, invention, or business event that can be picked up by major media outlets. If the 6 o’clock news picks up that press release and wants to run a story in your local area. You will likely have free publicity and will be able to start a viral campaign around your cause.
Press releases should be around 300 words and have the who, what, where, when, why, how of your campaign. Press releases can then be submitted online and electronically distributed to a variety of media outlets.
Use social bookmarking sites
Remember these? Social bookmarking websites were at their peak from 2008 – 2012. But they’re still around and can be a popular way to spread the word about your products or services. If you’ve been around online for a while then you’ll recognize websites like Digg.com and StumbleUpon.com.
Get the word out about what is important to you by posting URLs and also by encouraging others to vote for your article or website by giving it a Digg or some other vote. Social bookmarking sites are easy to use and are a great place to link to your article, press release, or product.
Use social networking sites
Social networking sites are one of the best tools for viral marketing. Viral marketing is all about getting others to spread the word about your product or idea so it makes sense to use social networks such as FaceBook and Twitter to spread the word. You can have a page and even post links to your site on your page for your friends to see. You can also post your links to your own profiles and ask your friends to post to their own as well.
Use social blogging sites
Blogging and social media is all about connecting with the influencers. Influencers are those that people follow and “Like”. Bloggers in a particular niche are influencers over their readers. Oprah Winfrey is one of the most well-known influencer.
The blogging world is filled with people that can help you connect to the ideal consumer in your industry. A few examples include:
Craft and DIY Blogs — Useful for home improvement stores/products.
Food Blogs — Helpful for recipe creators, chefs, and restaurants.
Running Blogs — Good for personal trainers, running clubs, fitness retail products.
Blogging is very closely related to social networking websites as most blog posts are also shared on social media to help them gain traction. If you own a business, you should have your own blog to share company news, new products, and even current events in your area.
Use Social Media Giveaways & Contests
Social media giveaways and a great way to build up a following on Facebook and Twitter. There are a variety of ways to run giveaways. Before you begin, you should plan out the details. Here are the details to consider:
- The Start Date
- The End Date
- How to Enter “Like to Enter”, Share, Enter with Your Name and Email
- The Number of Winners
- When winners will be announced
- What you are giving away
It is a great idea to use software to keep track of the entrants, giveaway rules, and the winners. By requiring entrants to use their name and email address, you will also build up a database of names and emails to use for future email promotions.
Use Email Marketing
Combine social media giveaways with email marketing as described above to create a database of email consumers that are potential customers.
A complete social media giveaway should use third-party software to enhance the usability of the campaign. What this means is that there are no long term benefits to running a social media giveaway without collecting email addresses.
“The Skinny”
Shout! Creative has launched a service called Viralocity that helps small business owners run powerful social media giveaways that are effective and easy to setup. We are offering a free online course about viral marketing and social media giveaways. You can access it here: https://getviralocity.com/webclass
