In my last two blog posts, “Part One: Viral Marketing the Beast“, and “Part Two: Sightings of Viral Marketing Campaigns”, I explored the theory behind whether or not viral marketing is attainable and then showcased some very fruitful campaigns as well as a few examples of viral backlash. Now that we know viral marketing is a tool being used by successful companies, it is time to explore how to put your own viral marketing campaign into action.

Keep Production Simple

Producing content intended to go viral is very different from producing content for television. While the idea behind the latter media is to provide an escape for the viewer from their surroundings, online media is intended to connect with the viewer on a personal level. User experience cannot be heightened if the user is reminded of the production team behind the content. So keep production simple.

Take for instance Samsung’s “Master of Business Card Throwing”, production is straight forward as well as the message — this camcorder can capture cool stuff. Had Samsung chosen to dress the video with elaborate costumes and effects, it would not have been as successful online.

Target A Niche Audience

Internet users are bombarded by new content with every click. In order to make your content go viral you need a strategy for making certain it stands out. If your content is meant to appeal to everyone it will not be personal enough for users to pass it on. But, by igniting a common interest in a niche group, individuals are more likely to pick up the content. Try creating an emotional appeal in order to make content resonate with the target group.

It is also a great idea to research influencers in your target audience. For a better understanding of who influencers are and why they are important check out this great documentary by R+I creative.

Be Honest

As I mentioned in “Part Two”, Internet users are savvy and informed. Not only do they follow what their friends say about online content, but they are also literally seconds away from millions of online resources. This means if you try to fake them out by hiring an advertising firm to create fake content and then deny any relation to this firm the truth will always come to light.

The good news is being honest does not necessarily mean giving all the details. Many companies have accomplished creating an air of mystery by omitting their brand. For example, the new Back to the Future short uploaded this week featuring the original Doc Brown character from the series of films. No brand is mentioned in the short and viewers don’t know who created it or why. They mystery is propelling the video and eliciting buzz from fans of the film series.

Protect Your Brand

Not every stab at a viral marketing campaign will go well so be sure you think through all the possible ways the content could be misconstrued. In the event your campaign does backfire it will likely be a highly visible blunder. By planning ahead for possible disasters you can respond quickly and gracefully without loosing too much credit.

During your campaign make sure you stay on top of buzz so you can act quickly if things start to turn south. There are many tools for setting up alerts every time your company’s name is mentioned online.

Run with Success

There is a fine balance between beating a joke into the ground and keeping it going based on demand. If you have a successful viral campaign you should respond quickly but don’t take the success for granted. Try to bring a fresh angle to the campaign giving it its own identity. That way you keep users engaged with fresh content, but pleased they’re in on the old joke as well.

By following these simple tips for running a viral marketing campaign you ensure you are prepared for whatever kind of buzz the campaign receives. If your first campaign doesn’t take off, don’t get discouraged. Just use these guides to evaluate which areas of your viral marketing campaign need strengthening.

What is it?

CSS Sprites are an interesting method to cut down on both a website’s initial construction phase and the bulkiness of excessive loading time. Instead of creating a separate image file for each graphic used on a website, several can be combined in one with only the appropriate element showing based on specific positions defined in the CSS.

Why Is It Important?

Websites with lots of graphic elements can benefit from the use of sprites on both the developers’ end and the users’ end. It’s definitely a win-win situation when the developer can cut back on the tedious work of image slicing and the users have a faster web page load time. The old train of thought was that by cutting up the images into a bunch of smaller pieces that it would be faster and easier to load. Unfortunately, that was not the case. By creating more files than necessary for a browser to retrieve from the server, it actually creates a longer loading time. CSS sprites also replaces the need for JavaScript rollovers and image preloading – all in all, a very helpful solution.

The Basic Theory

Let’s say that you have a menu of 5 image links that when you hover over each individual button you want the respective image to swap out. The old way would be to create 10 separate images and link to each one. While nothing is technically wrong with this method, that’s 10 separate server requests and lots of image slicing. Let’s see an example button.

In Action

See it in action.

Since this sprite only has two states for one button, when used it is far easier to define the CSS. Something along the lines of the following would work just fine:

More Explanation

With a more complicated sprite, the theory is just the same. Instead of using the “top” and “bottom” attribute to define the correct positions of the on/off states, you simply have to use more precise positioning. If you’re using a sprite with four images, using “top left”, ” top right”, “bottom left” and “bottom right” will suffice. However, the larger the sprite grows, the more specifics the dimensions will have to be — usually in pixels — to define the position of a sprite that holds more than 4 images. For the example button, using pixels to define the position looks something like the following:

The first positioning attribute defines the x-axis coordinates of the image and the second defines the y-axis coordinates, both from the top left corner. Since both images are 49 pixels tall stacked on top of each other, the second image’s definitions are the same x-axis position but pushed 49 pixels down to call the rollover image in exactly the right spot.

And that’s it! A brief explanation that can take you onto the road of CSS sprite creation so long as your graphing and plotting skills are good.

At this stage in the game, most companies are well aware that social networking websites are an essential part of marketing. It is practically expected for a company to not only have Twitter and Facebook accounts but to also provide quick access to their profiles via the company website. But when it comes down to actually networking with a company, whether in the pursuit of a potential job, investment or project coordination, users turn to LinkedIn.

As the authority for business profiles, job posting and professional networking it is surprising more companies don’t implement the website into their online marketing strategies. Until recently marketing on LinkedIn has been nearly unexplored territory only going so far as the company profile and careers pages. Recently, however, several companies have started to delve into the unknown and it turns out marketing on the website may be a bit more covert than its social networking cousins. Companies that have created successful marketing campaigns via LinkedIn have focused less on vamping their profile pages and more on the real asset of LinkedIn: the network.

Easy LinkedIn Network Marketing Strategies:

Word of Mouth–Goshido

In 2010, Irish start-up Goshido raised over $350,000 in 8 days all through LinkedIn. Chairman Frank Hannigan simply contacted 10 people in his network and requested they spread the word. Hannigan saw an opportunity in his network of over 700 people and took a simple approach to marketing his start-up. Word of mouth, especially via a reputable contacts, can be a great way to get information out about your company. Thirty percent of Goshiod’s overall investment ended up stemming from those contacted through LinkedIn.

Niche Groups–Dell

The 2011 Social Marketing Awards was given to Dell this year for their focus on marketing through LinkedIn. Dell chose to target niche groups by focusing on the networking site’s sub-groups feature. The groups targeted IT professionals and organized them by geography and specialty. Managers were assigned to each group to answer member questions quickly and in full. This kind of personal response is ideal for building a positive reputation for your company and the sub-groups are an excellent feature for promoting that reputation to influencers in your company’s speciality area.

While most social marketing campaigns are designed to endorse viewer interaction with a company, sometimes making the first connection is all that is needed to let your network spread the word for you.

Impelling a marketing campaign to go viral can simultaneously create an instant brand and establish an online identity to an ever-expanding audience. But, as I discussed in “Part One: Viral Marketing the Beast”, viral campaigns can be unpredictable and difficult to control. That is not to say they are impossible. Successful viral marketing campaigns are numerous it is just a matter of breaking it down and comparing the do’s and don’t’s of viral marketing paradigms.

Viral Marketing Conquests

Many acknowledged viral marketing campaigns produced content that was simple and inexpensive in production–a factor that often builds trust in viewers. Over-produced content can point to the production team behind the curtain and detract attention away from the campaign’s message. The following are some examples of marketing campaigns that went viral and transcended their media by focusing on one simple, honest angle at a time.

Exposal–Dove Evolution

To date this short has over 13 million views. The video films a model arriving on the set of a photo-shoot with no make up, then shows her being transformed with make-up, lighting, and eventually digital manipulation. What made this video such a success was how it seemed as if Dove was exposing an insiders secret. Digital manipulation of models was something that in 2006 was beginning to come to light, Dove confirmed the suspicion and even took the campaign a step further by creating the Dove Self Esteem Fund–an awareness campaign against the falsification of beauty. Dove took a simple idea and execution and created a seemingly sincere message that audience appreciate and wanted to share with their friends.

Ingenuity–Bike Hero

Bike Hero is an example of how creativity and ingenuity are two driving factors of whether or not content goes viral. The video consists of a bicycle rider recreating the video game Guitar Hero using chalk marks on the road as his screen and his bike as his guitar. He then plays out the song matching the ride perfectly with the route and song. This video captivated an audience of over 2 million views mostly because of its impressive ingenuity. The brand is clear and recognizable without ever being mentioned.

Interactivity–The Old Spice Guy

Unlike the previous examples, Old Spice chose to put their brand all over their viral marketing campaign. They started with a few TV commercials staring a character known as “The Old Spice Guy”, then built a highly interactive online presence for the character through combining Twitter and YouTube accounts. Tweets to @OldSpice were quickly answered by the character in a way of a personal video.

Although these videos and the commercial gained a lot of attention, the campaign did not stop there. Old Spice ran with the popularity of the viral marketing project, creating a the “Old Spice Guy vs Fabio” campaign in late July of 2011. In this series, tweets were answered with videos by both Fabio and the Old Spice Guy via YouTube, as they dueled for the title of New Old Spice Guy. Viewers were requested to follow their preferred contender on twitter. By staying on top of their viral marketing campaign and keeping their brand as part of a long running joke Old Spice was able to keep fans engaged for nearly two years. Overall views on the Old Spice YouTube Channel amount to more than 234 million to date.

Backlash in Viral Marketing

It is important to note that not all viral buzz surrounding a company ends in good exposure. Internet users are quick to make judgements for or against a company and they cannot easily be fooled. Keeping an online presence can include just as much defensive as offensive strategy. The following are examples of failed marketing campaigns or harmful online brand exposure.

Dishonesty–Wal-Mart’s Sponsored Blog

Dishonesty is a major deterrent with online users and the success of your viral marketing campaign. For instance, Wal-Mart hired an advertising agency to create a viral campaign. That campaign ended up entailing a couple traveling in an RV, staying in Wal-Mart parking lots and blogging about products and experiences. While the couple traveling was real, their trip was fully sponsored by Wal-Mart, and they were being paid to do the blogging. Once exposed, real followers felt betrayed and word spread of Wal-Mart’s attempt to trick audiences with a false blog. Read more about the Wal-Mart blog.

Awareness–Domino’s

Being aware of your online presences is just as important as having one. Domino’s Pizza befell a major blow to their brand in 2009 when a couple of employees recorded themselves at work defiling pizzas and posted the video on YouTube. The video went viral and it took the company 48 hours to gain knowledge of the exposure and react–a response time that could have made the difference between a few million to several million viewers. However, the best solution for Domino’s would have been ready for the attack before it happened. There are many tools offered to companies for this purpose such as Google Alerts a free system that alerts you whenever your Company’s name pops-up online. Learn from Domino’s mistake and invest time into protecting your company’s online presence. Read more about Domino’s Blunder

After reviewing the examples of some successful campaigns and a few catastrophes in viral marketing it’s easy to see viral marketing takes a lot of planning. In my next blog I’ll be discussing a few tips for getting a marketing campaign to take off faster than a zombie infestation.

Google announced Wednesday a new way to submit individual URLs for Google search indexing. Submitting links through google’s Webmaster Tools allows links to be crawled by Googlebot and submitted for inclusion into Google searches. This can help your site increase search engine rankings and is a must for any new website.

The Fetch as Googlebot Feature is a simple process in which you can submit a single URL or a URL and all its included links. Submission can now be done easily and up to 50 URLs a week.

The following video demonstrates how easy it is too add links to Google with the Fetch as Googlebot feature.

Need to set up a site for use Google Webmaster Tools? Start with this video on how to add a site.