Harnessing the Power of Viral Videos for Your Business

Pants on the Ground: What Makes a Video Go Viral Part II

In the last post I talked about the phenomenon Pants on the Ground and other successful viral videos. While he’s on minute 14 of his 15 minutes of fame, Larry Platt got so much press that he now has many more business opportunities. While you may not have the platform that launched Larry Platt’s viral video, you certainly have the same potential for your business.

So where do you start?

Start with actually creating videos!

The key is to produce videos on your products & services and on your area of expertise.  Ideas and concepts for viral videos start with your outcome. Your outcome should be to add value,  solve problems, and communicate your ideas and concepts. When you create something of value the marketplace will decide if it’s going to go viral or not.  But it starts with you creating the videos.  So focus less on making them go viral, and more on getting the experience creating videos that add value.

Here are a few more considerations to help you harness the power of viral videos to build and promote your business.

Create how-to videos that showcase your expertise. This will serve as a free teaser to how you can help people.  And, if you do a good job, you will turn prospects who found your video useful into potential customers who are willing to purchase your products or services.

Create a blog post and turn it into a video. Use your blog posting basically as a script to create a short 1-2 minute video. Often, it’s easier for people to watch a short video than spend time reading a blog posting. If it’s on a topic people find relevant, useful, and is something they haven’t heard a million times, they will forward it on to their friends. At the end of the video, mention your website or how people can get more information about you or your services.

Remember, a key component is to tie in a very subtle outro scene to the end of the video that includes your company name and website. This will not only get your name out there, but it will send traffic back to your company website. If  it’s too blatant of a promo then it won’t get forwarded and thus won’t go viral.

In the world of Web 2.0, when there are countless tools you can use to promote your business for virtually no cost, it is imperative that you start exploring new ways to get your name out to targeted prospects. Creating videos is a good start. Don’t think you can’t do this because you don’t have the American Idol exposure. Think about your target market. Viral within your market might only need a few thousand views to have the same impact.

Take action today: Go create videos.

My next post will focus on how to leverage your YouTube channel to get targeted exposure for your videos.  In the meantime… How else have  you seen videos used to successfully promote your business?