Just Being Viral

There are plenty of things you can do, simple fun things anyway, to build awesome content, then drive traffic there and reap some rewards. There are important SEO basics to cover, so that search traffic flows smoothly to you, too. But even sites that do everything right can fall flat. What is this elusive ‘viral’ quality?

The Unfortunate Metaphor

In a weird twist of linguistic and technological history (which has its own ‘bug’ metaphor), the concept of virus and something virulent now means being sort of irresistibly interesting or amusing or shocking, which tends to spread fastest through word of mouth and of Facebook post. But of course, nothing is great to everybody — no video that ‘goes viral’ is universally liked, but it is intensely liked along certain social pathways.

It’s kind of like how ‘bad’ meant great back in Michael Jackson’s hay day. It’s basically the holy grail of social marketing now for something to go viral. It’s free and powerful marketing, much like word of mouth. To go viral in many ways is the ultimate Web-powered word-of-mouth.

But you know this concept of viral, or ‘killer’, content should be better understood, not only in order to reach people with better results but because it could enrich your business’s entire outlook and personality.

Being Viral

You know, if everything you posted or published hit the Web burning, and your every peep online goes off the hook with people, then you probably wouldn’t need SEO. But having decent, useful content with superb SEO could only be like having a mildly contagious effect overall.

So, the question is, how to be at least more viral? If you break it down it’s a bit like asking oneself how to be more charismatic, or more cool, or more popular. It’s not that hopeless! But the point is that producing viral media may simply be about understanding the social pathways, and, actually allowing one’s brand to be more viral.

Interest Is Simple

There is one basic quality of viral content, if you’ve noticed. It may be based upon the perennial psychological pattern you see when ‘boy meets girl’, when he likes her more in proportion to how much she rejects him or acts indifferent! We’re attracted to things that don’t need us to be attracted to them.

That is the essence of the concept of being cool, too: one who is cool does not need anybody’s approval and seems self-content (but perhaps slightly dry, or loopy, from having so few expectations). This is a rare quality; cool people are often eccentric.

Viral content is also usually eccentric in a way that is blindingly honest or graphic and yet does not demand your attention. It just is. But its honesty, whatever the subject matter, is disarming in a world otherwise saturated with hype, inflated language, self-promotion and fakes.

How to Catch It

Do you think it’s possible to just become viral, as a creative habit?

·       It means being honest, more honest than you thought possible.

·       It means looking at normal things in new ways, like an artist.

·       It means valuing the audience’s time and attention by never pushing something forgettable and unshareable on them.

·       It means never boasting about the content — simply make it available, humbly.

So you see, it just boils down to being honest with your audience. You don’t have to seem cool — just be authentic, and without apologies. Stand for your brand. Share your enthusiasm in a way that doesn’t need approval yet responds to people’s real interests, without another word about it.

You know, it may seem odd, but one place where you can sometimes find this sort of genuine and honest enthusiasm is in the realm of online gaming, and particularly casino entertainment. For example, it seems that much of what a site about online casinos puts on the wire goes viral simply because it knows its social pathways, and what those people want to learn about the best games and offers.

Salons Can Be Effectively Marketed With Certain Internet Tools

Image by infomatique

Let’s face it, the salon business is tough. In the world of nail salons, if you’ll pardon the pun, you’ve got to claw your way to the top. If you’re going to make it, you’ve got to do many things that make you stand out from the crowd – the crowd being your competition. As you’re well aware, competition is keen and getting more challenging every week. There always seem to be new salons opening, and some of them will gain a foothold while others wither on the vine. You’ve got to consider new ways to attract new customers while keeping your faithful clientele coming back regularly.

You may place coupon advertisements in local newspapers or in direct mail promotional materials, and for many years, that sort of advertising was enough to keep a salon in business, and repeat customers would return week after week. But with the arrivals of new media, a salon like yours can afford to present colorful, animated advertisements that had been previously available only to those businesses that could afford to produce television commercials. If you wanted animated text and images, you’d have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in production and broadcast costs. But with the power of the Internet, and in particular, the World Wide Web, you can create and benefit from electronic media that costs a mere fraction of what you’d have to spend on TV or radio commercials.

Marketing for nail salons has come a long way since the days when you could only use printed ads. Today’s websites can be billboards on which you can post coupons and offers that will help attract customers, and will also persuade them to return to your storefront time and time again. Best of all, you can change the content of your site quickly and easily, so if you’re suddenly inspired to present a new offering to the public, you can change your Web page almost instantly and inform people about the new offering quickly. Say you want to offer a half-off coupon targeted at first-time customers. You can design and place a coupon quickly, and you’ll likely get an instant response in many cases.

Part of the Internet’s power is that it allows you to create advertisements that will be targeted toward a particular segment of the public. If your salon is located in Los Angeles, say, it won’t likely help you if readers in Spokane, Washington, see your advertisements. Websites for salons can be constructed in a way that will make people in your area searching the Internet more likely to see your page. That way, you won’t waste time on people who are unlikely to come to your salon, and you’ll see more likely prospects at your front door. Isn’t that what you really want?