Much of the promise of social media marketing lies in the ability for your business to go “viral”. However, unlike an actual virus, which spreads no matter what, people actually have to choose to share content to make it spread.

Before you make you business promotion, advertising, or messaging go “viral” you first need to understand why people share online content.

To elaborate on this chart, let’s work with an example:

Let’s say that you own a dive bar and have created a humorous 15 second video that promotes your bar. At the end of the video there is a coupon “password” that will get people a free pitcher of beer on a Monday night. Beyond questions like “is the video entertaining” or ” is the coupon effective” you need dig a little deeper and get at the motivations for online sharing.

Where are people going to share this information?  How will sharing impact their percieved value among their digital networks? To make matters more complicated, everyone utilizes their online networks differently, and shares accordingly.

When you share a piece of content it means something. We all know that “sharing is caring”, but with online content sharing is usually more about caring about yourself and your image than anything else.

So next time you’re looking to make a branded piece of media and you want people to share it, make something that will make the sharers look and feel cool, intelligent, and in the know. Don’t worry, you don’t have to come up with it all on your own, The Ocean Agency can help you out.

For more great discussions of “viral” campaigns check out these other posts from The Lost Jacket, and  Big Spaceship.

This post is part of the Guest Blog Grand Tour over at Life Without Pants – an epic journey of over 75 guest posts. Want to learn more about Matt Cheuvront & see how far the rabbit hole goes? Subscribe to the Life Without Pants RSS feed & follow him on Twitter to keep in touch!

Remember a couple years ago when the term “Social Media” was foreign to all of us. Now, everyone and their mother (literally – my mom friended me on Facebook last week) is on the bandwagon trying to get the hang of this Social Media thing.

It’s become much more than a tool to stay connected with your old high school buddies, or to update your friends on what you ate for dinner last night. Social Media has become a regular part of our daily lives, and for businesses, an integral part of their marketing and PR strategies.

So with everyone on board – how does a business stand out from the rest? At the end of the day – Social Media is about forging, nurturing, and promoting relationships. The one on one connection Social Media allows between businesses and their consumers are allowing small businesses to not only compete with larger corporations, but thrive and succeed where the competition falls short.

Here in Chicago – there are a lot of businesses who “get” Social Media –
Threadless
Foiled Cupcakes,
GroupOn and
Grubhub to name a few.

Our generation is wise to the corporate act – and very rarely do we buy into a straight up sales pitch. This is why, when it comes to online advertising, we’re seeing more affiliate geo-targeted campaigns rather than pure Google ads. Businesses that get it focus on building a relationship first, helping us realize that there is a need or want there, and then acting on it.

Mari Luangrath, founder of Chicago-based Foiled Cupcakes, connected with me as a friend. She followed me several months ago and since then, we’ve become good friends both on and offline. Not once did she sell me on her product – not once did she throw a sales pitch my way. She focused solely on building a genuine relationship and friendship with me. Now I’m days away from signing a contract to have Foiled Cupcakes cater my wedding.

So what can business learn from this? What’s the take away? Here are some basic takeaways to implement into your Social Media marketing strategy:

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