How To Go Viral

Going viral is the Holy Grail in regards to how to find a new audience for start-up ventures. Companies spend fortunes trying to achieve this heralded status. Entire books have been written on the topic. However, new information suggests it may be easier than you think.

Recent studies suggest its easier than ever to predict whether or not a start-up will go viral. It involves a simple test where you ask users on a sale of 1 to 10 how likely are you to recommend the product to a friend? If the aggregate score is above 9.0, your idea will likely achieve exponential growth. Fundamentally, the idea breaks down the idea of going viral into the simplest terms, will people recommend your product.

Creating a product or service that users would recommend to their friends is only part of the equation. The next step in going viral is to make the idea easy to share. A strong social media presence is key to sharing a product or idea. In order to fully optimize the power of social media, its important to coordinate messaging across all social media platforms. The fundamental message should be similar across all outlets. However, its important to acknowledge that different platforms appeal to different groups, so its important to tweak those messages according to the specific platform.

When dealing with specific social media platforms, understand the individual user base and type of content that is typical on the site. When using Twitter, messaging must be short and concise. Facebook, on the other hand, allows a more expanded dialogue and most often it is helpful to seek to engage the user base in conversation by asking questions, posting surveys, and related efforts. For media outlets such as Pinterest or Instagram, messaging should be image based.

Beyond merely sharing your message on social media, in an effort to spread awareness of your venture, you’ll need to show others the popularity of your idea. Successfully achieving this feat means displaying analytics showing the number of fans or the number of likes or followers your idea has generated. The psychology of followers is very much a virtuous circle, whereby users will be much more likely to follow your product or service if they know it is gaining popularity with their friends. After all, everybody wants to be part of the next big trend. Few want to be left out regarding an idea that is quickly gaining in popularity.

In addition to spreading the message about your venture, you must also make it relevant. When communicating with potential users, detail why the product or service is relevant to their lives. Don’t assume that your idea has universal appeal. Different user groups will utilize your product or service in different manners. It will be important to have focused messaging for different groups, highlight various attributes relevant to the end user.

Finally, in order to fully execute a viral campaign its necessary to create a sense of urgency. Highlight not only why the idea is important, but why it is important right now. Going viral is contingent on creating immediate demand. You can’t wait around for people to follow or support your product at their convenience. Get people to act as soon as possible via a call to action statement. Identify the specific behavior you are seeking from potential users and determine how to cultivate that behavior.

If possible, it may be important to give rewards in order to cultivate a certain behavior. This reward may be a cheaper price or other similar incentive. An incentive might cause the user to think that they are being given special treatment, which, in turn, will make them champions of your product or service, causing them to be more likely to recommend the product to their circle of friends.

Going viral may seem easy, but it’s the result of coordinated campaigns and hard work. These simple steps will make it easier for your venture to go viral, but ultimate success rests on the strength of the idea itself.

For more information on start-up strategies and topics related to entrepreneurial ventures, check out HowToLaunch.com.