Viral marketing involves creating something people will talk about, tweet, text, link to, or post on their Facebook page.
People share content that has one or more of the following nine criteria:
1. Funny
Content that makes people laugh is the most likely to be shared. Funny videos spread like wildfire on YouTube. Funny e-mails get forwarded around endlessly these days.
2. Shocking
If you can really shock a person, they'll share it with others. Add some shocking statistics or images into your content.
3. Controversial
This is a risky one, but it works. Insert yourself into an already heated debate with a unique position nobody else has suggested yet, or take one side's argument to the absolute extreme.
4. Fun
People share things they find fun. Some ideas include games, quizzes, or unique experiences people can try themselves. (TIP: Make your business fun, and it too could go viral)
5. Difficult / Challenging
People also share things that are challenging. The World's Hardest Game is not fun at all. But it sure is challenging, and that's why it has enjoyed viral success.
At the end of your content always challenge people to accomplish a certain goal in a fixed period of time using a specific method. Offer a reward to those who accomplish it (even if it is just a mention on a "Wall of Fame" page). These builds an aspect of involvement into your content.
6. Unique
People love to talk about things that are unique. Do not copy previous viral marketing successes. Viral marketing is about creativity and doing things in a way that is vastly different from anything people have seen before.
7. Useful
People share things their friends and family will find useful. If you run a restaurant, make the bottom half of every advertisement you print a recipe that appeals to your target market.
8. Mysterious / Intriguing
If you can rouse people's curiosity, they will share your content. One way to do this is by showing people the result of something, but leaving the details of how it was done to speculation so they have to guess. Another way is to have people speculate whether a piece of content is real or fake.
9. If Shared, Has the Ability to Change the World in a Positive Way
Campaigns to change the world in a positive way often go viral. It does not have to be a major revolution. For example, a health store could run a campaign to reduce their town's weight by 1,000 pounds.
Challenge: Try to make a viral campaign for your business that incorporates all nine of these ideas into one piece of content. It could have been a video, e-mail, article, website, or whatever.