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Classic Viral Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

13 April 2009 3 Comments

Obscurity

Viral propulsion is spontaneous and impulse oriented. If it takes a day to figure it out, people won’t bother going back to the URL to repost it. Cleverness is great, when done right it can be something that sticks in people’s minds. Go too deep and it will puzzle and irritate.

Your product sucks – Will magnify your suckage.

If a viral campaign is allowed to gain its own traction, the people who launch it will be able to see it’s growth and what kind of message is evolving out of it. If product or service defects are coming out, it’s time to pull the plug. You can’t sell a poor product by spending more on marketing. Spend the money on improving the product instead.

Don’t try to create/prepackage a subculture

Subcultures and trends come about spontaneously, frequently as a response to The Man. If there is any inkling that The Man is behind a given viral trend, the whole thing will backfire and fizzle out. Fizzle out that is, if your lucky. What is more likely to happen is that the people who feel cheated will find ways to really mess with your intent by adding bad comments or portraying them selves as really disturbed people who can’t get enough of your product. If this happens your social media campaign has been hacked. Originally an attempt to create a good vibe around your name can degrade you into being associated with crackpots.

Don’t spend a ton of money – It’s not viral if you have to push it on people

Comment on a trend, don’t follow it. Viral videos blow up because people pass them around out of their own initiative. Being prompted to do so my a company takes the viral right out of it. Such an effort leaves the bitter taste of exploitation in the mouths of target customers.

Don’t be rude or disgusting

Just because it’s meant to travel on the internet doesn’t mean social etiquette changes. The internet has plenty of edgy viral stuff. Should you use it to sell a product? People expect professionalism from a company. Rudeness or debased humor are the opposite of that. Therefore, they purveyors of such a campaign are liable to lose trust.

Don’t encourage dangerous or rude behavior

There was a Sprite viral video in which some drunk college kids tried to fling their passed out mate into a swimming pool with an elastic cord. Instead, the kid flew into the neighbor’s yard. It was absolutely hilarious. Sprite had no official association with the ad. It’s a good thing to, because a lawsuit could have easily developed the first time someone tried it at home with tragic results.
For the last two points, if you do break those rules don’t endorse or take credit for it. See how Sprite handled it.

Make sure it is technically feasible and sustainable

You should have the technical and other resources to pull this thing off. If you don’t make plans to scale up, you may end up with a bottleneck that creates resentment.

Make sure the viral campaign can’t be socially hacked

If a plan has any vulnerabilities in this area, your best layed plans can blow up

Don’t have too many moving parts – keep it simple

If this campaign involves texting a long message, sending emails or collecting a bunch of different stuff people will lose interest

Don’t try to be cool/hip

I’ve for four words for you.
Get … a …f@#$ing…clue. Seriously, PR and advertising people can only get so close to the pulse of culture. They can comment on it or put a clever spin but they can’t actually create it and it’s quite sad when they try.

Don’t solicit opinions unless you’re really, really sure that people like your product.

Make sure you stand good odds of having happy customers. Otherwise, you are exposing yourself to a viral storm of negative publicity.

Have a way to pull the plug.

It doesn’t matter how well you plan things. Something unforeseen can happen. Make sure there is a way to back out quickly so that damage can be limited. Viral campaigns are social events made up of individuals who behave in unique ways. Expecting them to feel a certain way can lead to PR heartbreak. Telling them how their supposed to behave will most certainly backfire.

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3 Comments »

  • claudio alegre said:

    [ Don’t solicit opinions unless you’re really, really sure that people like your product.]

    I’m not sure I completely agree with that point. One of the vertebrae in the backbone of SM is precisely the ability to solicit input, in whatever form it may come. If anyone’s gonna be a douche bag about it, it’s their loss in my book. But solid well meant criticism should be a target of any campaign,that is if you really want to get people talking.

    Excellent post!

    Cheers :)

    # 17 April 2009 at 12:26 pm
  • admin (author) said:

    Point taken, perhaps this should have pertained to newer products and services that would like at least a little positive feedback before the criticism begins. Negative attention can snowball just like positive attention.

    # 17 April 2009 at 6:30 pm
  • claudio alegre said:

    I mean the product has to be pretty bad for an extreme negative effect that would wipe out of the game. Most product developers you figure would have done basic product testing…

    I agree with you though, neg attention can snowball just like positive..

    later

    claudio alegre’s last blog post..HOW TO SLASH 20-40% OFF THE COST OF YOUR DREAM LOG CABIN

    # 30 April 2009 at 1:43 pm

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