Going viral is not easy! The odds of your content going viral is only ONE in a million of what is being posted online!
One example of going viral will be the “KiKi challenge” from Drake Song, ‘In my feelings’ that got so many people on their feet and dancing. Before we begin, we will watch a short clip on celebrities doing the KiKi challenge including Kevin Hart, Will Smith and Lala.
So, how did these viral videos break through the clutter of overwhelming content on the Internet and stand out? Are there any ways to increase the chances of achieving viral success?
Despite the many different ways to achieve viral success, one that really caught my eyes would be Jonah Berger’s Six steps in which are commonly found in viral content.
These six steps are what Jonah Berger believes causes certain thing to go viral. Let’s go through some of them so we understand how it works.
First we will talk about social currency, where people care on how they appear to others. Lets be honest, who do not want to look good in front of others ? There was glow up transition challenge on Tik Tok where everyone posted photos of themselves growing up, showing their change of appearance over many years, some of which were astounding and even admirable.
Due to their huge change in appearance, they receive many compliments in the comment section over the globe, letting them feel good about themselves. Thus causing more people wanting to jump on the bandwagon, causing this challenge to went viral.
Applying it to marketing, advertisements which lead to social approval are the ones that will be more of a hit as compared to those that contain no engagement.
Next we will talk about emotions. Most human are empathic and when they come across a post where evoke their feelings, they will share it with their friends and families. An example is this advertisement of anti-gambling where a father persuaded his daughter to give the piggybank to him, saying that he will return her when he win.
In marketing, brands that have inspiring backstories usually resonate well with the public as their stories inspire those who read them and be impacted by it. With emotions evoked, they will share the brand with others.
The last step we would be going through would be practical value, it would be things that are value for money and useful that would be largely spread around. This video shows the founder of the Dollar Shave Club advertising his product in a interesting way which make his video very entertaining to watch. This video has reached a total of 26 million views !! An advertisement of a product which reached that amount of views would be considered a huge success.
All men need shave to trim their facial hair thus whoever come across this advertisement would introduce to their male friends or family member. After watching this, who would want to spend $20 over bucks on a branded shaver when they can acquire it at only $1 ?????
Being contagious is the key to good online marketing. A good example would be dollar shave club, where with a good advertisement, even a mundane item like a shaver could reach out to many. With that, I have no doubts that thousands or even millions would be talking about it, sharing about its amazing features with one another.
Are you able to identify the STEPPS leveraged in video by the creator ? The next video that goes viral maybe yours ? WHO KNOWS ? Comment down below to share your thoughts.
Mark Blog 
Hi Mark, thank you for your informative post! Can traditional marketing spread virality too? What are your thoughts?
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Thank you for your comment! Personally i feel that traditional marketing will be unable to spread virality. Traditional marketing has geographical limitation thus it will be difficult to reach the same amount of audience. Digital marketing have a edge over traditional marketing due to the interaction digital marketing opens with customers.
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Hello there mark agree full that emotions play a big role when it comes to videos becoming viral. My question to you is what emotional factor is the most important that affect people to share their post or be it others?
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Thank You Brian ! Content of the post must be easily understandable to all consumers by using pictures to allow consumers to better picture the content. It must not be a nuisance to share it thus the sharing process must be easy.
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Hi Mark, this is a very informative post on viral marketing.
Quick question, is there any disadvantages to viral marketing?
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Hi Wei JIan ! Great Question! Viral marketing may go the other way where consumer can create a negative buzz, where some negative comments posted about the business can cause other consumer to easily believe instead of really investigating to it.
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Hello Mark, i agree with you that going viral is difficult because we have to evaluate the content that we are going to bring to our consumers and then choose the appropriate platform to market the product to our consumers. Have you heard of the 4 levels of influencers where marketers can take reference before making their content viral?
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Yes Ang Loh, there is 4 different kind of influencers, namely local influencers, micro-influencers, macro-influencers, and mega influencers. Companies of different social standing will need different need of influencers, for example high tier companies like Nike would be using mega influencers like NBA stars like Lebron James while blogshop will use local influencers as it will be costly for those mega influencers to promote your product.
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Hi Mark, that’s an informative post.
In your own opinion, are there any elements in the STEPPS models in which you think would be particularly important and can be widely applied to different types of marketing campaigns?
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Hi MunLing, thanks for your comment! In my opinion, the most versatile element in the STEPPS model would be the Practical Usage element. This is because all the other elements in the STEPPS model are subjective and can be perceived differently by different people. Let’s take Emotion for example. Different people have a different perception of what is emotional to them, so the campaign will be received by different people in different manners. However, for practical usage, there is constantly a need for something practical in someone’s life, hence the campaign would be more successful as people have a motivation to purchase said product or service.
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Thanks for the insightful tips! Just curious, in your opinion, what do you think is the most important step in STEPPS?
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Hi Jaslyn, I think the most important step in STEPPS is practical value. While something may catch your eye, you may rewatch the commercial or share the Instagram post many times. Ultimately if there is no incentive to purchase the product, no one will go and buy it. While you have the reach and engagement you are not generating any justifiable revenue if people do not buy it. Putting the dollar shave club as an example, it reached 26 million views at the same time generating revenue.
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