Viral Marketing Comes From A Smart Social Media Plan

If you own a brick and mortar business that still relies on traditional methods for gaining new and repeat business, who should really consider implementing a social media plan for your company. We all see stories on the internet (and in our email inbox) that have “gone viral” due to the connectivity that social media provides, so why aren’t any of those stories about your business?

A social media plan provides the linkages that a company needs to reach out to not only its customers and website visitors, but more importantly to the friends of their customers and visitors. The viral marketing effect is produced when something funny, shocking, amazing, incredible or cool occurs, and everybody feels compelled to tell their friends.

Take yesterday’s blog post for example, it demonstrates the opposite of a positive viral marketing effect for a company. IcelandAir treated a customer poorly, and now the message has spread to over 100 countries and hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people because the message went just moderately viral. If the story (how IcelandAir treated a disabled school teacher) really goes viral, it will be seen by tens of millions of people! How’s that for marketing?

Starting A Social Media Plan For Your Business

You do not need to be an expert in social media to get a plan started. Sit down with your most “technically-unchallenged” employee and ask what she or he is doing in social media. Get on the internet and find out what sites are most active. You should try to gain exposure with three or four social media applications to begin, and I would recommend that you consider Google (+1), Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter as your first accounts.

Do some research on how to use each social media site for business, then establish company and personal accounts on each service. Have your Chief Marketing Officer or ask some one like The Marketing Heaven to establish a company use plan so that you can grow your relationships and start spreading the word. Make it a company policy that no great act goes unpublished, and soon your social media plan will start helping drive more traffic to your company website, and you will grow your reach.

Who knows, maybe you can even enjoy a viral affect with some spectacular event or story. It only takes a little imagination and daily diligence to make this happen. A social media plan for your company is something you should start right away, so don’t be tempted to shove this off to your “to do” list for tomorrow!

Tagged as: brick and mortar business, chief marketing officer, company website, facebook, Google, icelandair, LinkedIn, repeat business, shopping mall analogy, social media, twitter, viral marketing