Lesson #3: Viral Marketing Could Be Vital For Your Business
Lesson #3: Viral Marketing Could Be Vital For Your Business
In the company’s early days, Hurley and Chen realized that they were just one among a myriad of other dot-coms trying to get noticed in the complex online world. And so, they knew they would have to do whatever they could to stand out.
The duo began to promote their new company by placing promotional advertisements on CraigsList.com, one of the most popular online networks of classifieds and user forums, divided by urban area. Hurley and Chen posted ads that requested aspiring female models in the Los Angeles area to upload their personal videos on YouTube. They believed this would be a win-win proposal; aspiring models would want to gain the attention from having people watch their videos, and conversely, people would actually want to watch videos of these women.
Hurley and Chen’s CraigsList strategy proved unsuccessful, and they were forced to come up with another means of promoting their site. After the company received funding from a venture capital firm, the two revamped both their site and their promotional tactics. They began giving away an iPod Nano each and every day for the next few months to people who uploaded videos. Unlike CraigsList, this promotion actually worked and helped YouTube turn around its tepid growth.
“Once traffic picked up, roughly every two weeks or so a video would become wildly popular,” said one YouTube employee. “Soon the time between these super-hit videos started shrinking. The site took off at a scorching pace.” Because of the rapid rate at which video content was distributed, YouTube became the number one go-to source for recent events. For instance, after the Southeast Asian tsunami, as well as Janet Jackson’s SuperBowl dressing malfunction, videos appeared on YouTube so quickly that the site experienced two of their largest traffic spikes ever.
YouTube’s viral growth was also a result of its ability to take advantage of the growing popularity of social networking. Because Hurley and Chen understood its importance to the online generation, they made it easy to embed and host YouTube videos on any webpage or blog. So, as the popularity of sites like MySpace took off, so inevitably did YouTube’s, since MySpace users were taking advantage of the ease of their online video technology. And, because of the embedded links back to YouTube that were contained in the videos, the company’s page rank on Google was rapidly increasing. Search traffic was thus being driven to YouTube in a seemingly natural way.
YouTube also tried to establish its own social networking community, by allowing such features as related video recommendations, video comments, and one-click emailing to recommend a video to a friend. It was by taking all of these steps that YouTube went from being just another dot-com to an Internet phenomenon almost overnight.
Lesson 3 Viral Marketing Could Be Vital For Your Business
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YouTube did not just grow to become the virtual monster that it is today simply because it made it easier for people to upload and watch videos, although it did that too. Instead, it was a carefully planned strategy on the parts of Hurley and Chen to engage in a campaign of viral marketing that helped take YouTube to the where it is today.
In the company’s early days, Hurley and Chen realized that they were just one among a myriad of other dot-coms trying to get noticed in the complex online world. And so, they knew they would have to do whatever they could to stand out.
The duo began to promote their new company by placing promotional advertisements on CraigsList.com, one of the most popular online networks of classifieds and user forums, divided by urban area. Hurley and Chen posted ads that requested aspiring female models in the Los Angeles area to upload their personal videos on YouTube. They believed this would be a win-win proposal; aspiring models would want to gain the attention from having people watch their videos, and conversely, people would actually want to watch videos of these women.
Hurley and Chen’s CraigsList strategy proved unsuccessful, and they were forced to come up with another means of promoting their site. After the company received funding from a venture capital firm, the two revamped both their site and their promotional tactics. They began giving away an iPod Nano each and every day for the next few months to people who uploaded videos. Unlike CraigsList, this promotion actually worked and helped YouTube turn around its tepid growth.
“Once traffic picked up, roughly every two weeks or so a video would become wildly popular,” said one YouTube employee. “Soon the time between these super-hit videos started shrinking. The site took off at a scorching pace.” Because of the rapid rate at which video content was distributed, YouTube became the number one go-to source for recent events. For instance, after the Southeast Asian tsunami, as well as Janet Jackson’s SuperBowl dressing malfunction, videos appeared on YouTube so quickly that the site experienced two of their largest traffic spikes ever.
YouTube’s viral growth was also a result of its ability to take advantage of the growing popularity of social networking. Because Hurley and Chen understood its importance to the online generation, they made it easy to embed and host YouTube videos on any webpage or blog. So, as the popularity of sites like MySpace took off, so inevitably did YouTube’s, since MySpace users were taking advantage of the ease of their online video technology. And, because of the embedded links back to YouTube that were contained in the videos, the company’s page rank on Google was rapidly increasing. Search traffic was thus being driven to YouTube in a seemingly natural way.
YouTube also tried to establish its own social networking community, by allowing such features as related video recommendations, video comments, and one-click emailing to recommend a video to a friend. It was by taking all of these steps that YouTube went from being just another dot-com to an Internet phenomenon almost overnight.
Lesson 3 Viral Marketing Could Be Vital For Your Business
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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