Is going viral good for business?

Viral has been hijacked by the internet and social media. For many, it now means an image or post that gets shared rapidly.

But the primary definition is related to viruses:

As we all know from Covid, viruses can be nasty. Electronic viruses can destroy businesses.

So do we really want our posts to go viral?

Viral can be good...

If you are an influencer, you want your posts to go viral. The more people that see and share your posts, the more you can charge people to post about their stuff.

If you have a mass-market product it could be good for getting your product out there.

The reality for most small businesses...

The reality is that most small businesses don't have a mass-market product or service.

You might have a product or service that could benefit many different customers. But, one single message can rarely appeal to all of them at once.

A real example...

I run a business support group ( The Guildford Business Hub ). Early each year I run a session called "Your Target Market". It's about getting specific about your target customer.

The first time I ran the session an attendee came up to me at the end to thank me. Their marketing wasn't working. They suspected it was because they hadn't done enough work to understand their ideal customer.

They were right! As a result of the session they identified they had SEVEN different target customers. Their marketing had been trying to appeal to all of them at once.

It didn't work!

The elusive viral post for their business didn't exist.

When viral goes bad...

I listened to a LinkedIn Audio event where the speaker was relating a story from a client.

They usually had good reach on their LinkedIn posts - high hundreds of impressions. But one post, on a more personal subject not related to their business went viral.

I think they said impressions reached 7 figures ??.

The post had thousands of reactions and comments. They got lots of connection requests.

But virtually all of them were from outside their target market.

It took weeks to sift through and for the noise to subside.

They didn;t intend to go viral.

It just happened.

But so did the consequences.

Let the algorithm take care of itself

I hear so much noise about lower reach, algorithm changes and how LinkedIn is becoming harder to get business from.

Aside from one or two basic principles, I don't focus on the algorithm.

Most people's problems with LinkedIn are of their own making, not the algorithm's.

They don't THINK!

• They don't think about tightly defining their target market.
• They don't think about how that target market is using LinkedIn.
• They don't think about posting useful, interesting, and relevant content targeted at that market.
• They don't think about how they want to engage with their prospects.
• They don't think about the journey they need to take them on

Let me help you think

I'm relaunching my Mastermind Group today. With it comes access to the Linked Business Mastery online programme where we cover:

• Your target market (just like the workshop mentioned above)
• Your objectives and strategy for using LinkedIn (including that customer journey)
• How to resonate and build trust with your target market
• How to grow your network
• How to create great content that is easy to consume.
• How to build Trust through engagement
• How to develop the habits to generate opportunities for less effort.

With Mastermind, you get weekly group clinics to help you make sense of it all. You ask, we'll provide the answers. All for a low monthly fee.

Head over to Linked Business Mastermind to find out more.