SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Marketing initiatives are the soul of a marketing plan~A marketing plan must have thoughtful planned out initiatives with engaging content to be effective in promoting your business products or services. It is not only crucial to ensure that your initiatives are engaging, you must also develop a plan to execute these initiatives.
With Social Media on the rise, viral marketing has become the go to vehicle in spreading the information about a product of service from person to person. The goal is to inspire individuals to share a marketing message with friends, family and other individuals to create exponential growth in numbers. So what makes marketing initiative go Viral….Let’s take a look at an initiative that took social media hostage!
ALS ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association (ALS), is the only national non-profit organization fighting ALS. The Association builds hope and enhances quality of life while aggressively searching for new treatments and a cure. Finding new treatments and cures, require research and research require donations. Which birth the Ice Bucket Challenge as a means to raise research funds.
This ALS Ice Bucket Challenge started in 2014 and generated more than $100 million in donations in a single month and get this…The Ice Bucket Challenge went virial raising millions without spending a penny on marketing! Can you say VIRIAL SUCCESS!!!
What characteristics made this initiative such a success?
Good Content – Your initiative must have good content~ content the grabs your audience attention that entices them to want to share it with someone. The Ice Bucket challenge, was intriguing, speaks to the audience and employed a call-to-action.
Creativity – What says creativity, like pouring a bucket of ice water over your head? Your content must catch the attention of your audience, with something they have never seen before. I would say the Ice Bucket Challenged nailed this one! With its creativity, this campaign not only raised money, it created competition ~ no one wants to be left out!
Social Currency – The Ice Bucket Challenge benefits a worthy cause – which make is hard to say “No”. The content of the campaign was so outstanding that people were willing to share on their social media platforms.
Relevant – Your audience must feel your content is relevant. I would say raising funds for research and treatment cures for a neurodegenerative disease qualifies as relevant. ALS affects as many as 30,000 in the United States, with 5,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Without a cure, ALS can eventually lead to death.
Play on Emotion – People share content that makes them feel a certain kind of way~usually spark positive emotions, such as amusement, joy, hope, surprise, nostalgia, affection, or excitement. It feels to good to give, especially to a worthy cause, where you know you are helping someone and giving them hope. The ALS Association builds hope and enhances the quality of life while aggressively searching for new treatments and a cure.
Many business moguls and celebrities also got in on this challenge – with his well-designed DIY, ice bucket contraption, business magnate and philanthropist, Bill Gates accepted the challenge – Take a look!
There is no doubt that ALS Ice Bucket Challenged was done right. Just between June 1- August 13, 2014, the campaign was mentioned on Twitter 2.2 million times, viewed on Facebook 1.2 million times, and was commented or liked 15 million times~ can you say cha-ching!
In conclusion, viral marketing is an invaluable marketing strategy, if used correctly to create viral success.
Please follow ALS:
A Change Is Needed!!! 