4 replies to this topic

[pdstein]

Four weeks about I launched a viral campaign to help raise money for a home for AIDS-orphaned children in Africa. The AIDS Clickathon is like an online walkathon. You click... the sponsors donate to this orphanage. No donation required, no registration, no strings attached.

Seemed like a good concept, but with this being my first attempt at viral marketing I made a lot of mistakes and it hasn't been as successful as I had hoped so far. (Too bad since it's a great cause). So, I thought I'd share some things I learned along the way...

Viral marketing is like a fat midget with a wig on a unicycle. With all due respect to little people and carnival workers, if you can get people to look, that's half the battle.

Viral marketing is like free iPod spam. Most people assume it's too good to be true so they don't even bother to check it out. We learned some people would not go to AIDSclickathon.com and click the link because they thought either it would cost them something or they would have to give out personal information.

Viral marketing is like Sanjaya's hair. Sometimes things are popular because they stand out not because they're good.

Viral marketing is like a shampoo commercial. "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." If you screw up the launch you put a huge dent in the chances the viral will ever catch on. That's because the people most likely to be your biggest evangelists are the people you know personally and contact first. If your viral is confusing at the launch (as mine was) or lame or has broken links, it's not likely you can get those people to enthusiastically spread the word even after you've fixed those things.

Viral marketing is like a bad haircut. Get a great new do and people will compliment you. Get a terrible haircut nobody will tell you about it to your face. I found the same is true with viral marketing. Good feedback is easy to come by. But when something's not right and things aren't taking off, nobody will tell you why it didn't click with them.

Viral marketing is like cooking burgers on a campfire. Done right you simply light a single match, which ignites the kindling, which gets the big logs burning long and hot enough to cook up a great meal. But if the wood is wet, it's too windy, or you don't use enough kindling it the fire goes out and you end up scrambling and scrounging for anything that will get the fire going again just long enough so you don't get food poisoning from eating raw beef. When viral marketing works it's easy and things take off on their own. When it doesn't work you can end up spending a lot of time scrambling to contact new people in the hopes that some of them will get the viral going on its own.

Viral marketing is like running for president. Sometimes it's not what you do but who you know that matters most. If you have relationships with popular bloggers or other people who have a large audience and are willing to mention your viral, that can make all the difference.

Viral marketing is like a caged monkey at the zoo. After a while it's easy to get frustrated and start throwing anything against the wall to see what will stick.

So, I'd like to know from you viral marketing veterans, what have you learned through experience about viral marketing? What would you say it's like?

[Alex Choo]

Hello,

You have learnt a lot. May you tell us how you went about that viral campaign.

I'd like to start one too, but have no idea.

[bluenote]

I have not launched such a campaign either but just wanted to thank you for the entertaining post. This post about viral marketing alone could be viral. I'm going to check out your AIDS clickathon now, so perhaps your post was successful :-)


Edit: I just went to your clickathon page and it seems that it's ended (I probably should have gleaned that from your post, but I saw the link so I clicked anyway).

Thanks again

Edited by bluenote, 16 July 2007 - 09:55 AM.

[lifetalk]

Thanks for all of those tips. Guess it is not just you, but also us who can learn a lot from your mistakes.

[nethy]

Well as with anything, you get most people screwing up at first I guess. Then the ones who keep it up will eventually get good. Charity is a good place to start, I guess.
BTW,was this 30dchallenge inspkred campaign?