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Jim Calhoun is the CEO/Founder of Popular Media and a Silicon Valley veteran. Before founding PopularMedia, Jim was a co-founder of CustomerClick LLC, a multi-million dollar direct marketing firm whose clients include Yahoo!, UnitedHealthGroup, and ABC Television. Previously, Jim served as Vice President of Products at NetObjects, Inc. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

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Adding Vitality to Viral: How to Better Manage Your Message in Word-of-Mouth

Written on
Sep 11, 2006 
Author
Jim Calhoun  |
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Adding Vitality to Viral: How to Better Manage Your Message in Word-of-Mouth

A major trick to creating a truly strategic viral marketing program is to craft a balance between these two competing factors, virality and monetization. This can really only be achieved through methodical message testing, through which you create a mix of messages that are paired like a nice Bordeaux with a great cut of beef: balanced, complimentary, and satisfying.

Messages that motivate people to take an action — sample a product, buy something, subscribe to a service, request information about a company — almost never inspire consumers to pass your message out to their social networks (clever exceptions to this rule definitely exist). Marketers are much more adept at creating these types of “action” messages than they are at creating messages that inspire distribution through social networks.

Factors including social stigmas, fear of revealing something about yourself, fear of insulting or annoying people, and other “mental math” issues all work against virality. Appealing to a consumer’s sense of fear may be successful at getting people to talk to their doctors — but not at getting them to tell their friends to do the same. On the other side, a funny or feel-good message might achieve greater distribution through social networks, but the downside is that your message isn’t as effective at shaping conversion behavior — i.e., getting people into the doctor’s office.

This is why it’s important to remember the endgame of viral marketing programs. What is your call to action? Brilliant creative may gratify the old ego, but getting buzz just for the sake of it usually misses the point.

The goal that really matters is getting people to take action, whether that means getting screened for cancer, getting vaccinated, changing their eating habits, trying a new product, requesting more information about an upcoming event, or anything else.
The takeaway? Test different messages to find out how they affect distribution, and how they affect consumer actions, then optimize your program for sustainable, overall effectiveness.

Technique #2: Understand message framing
Most word-of-mouth marketers don’t put enough structure, discipline, or emphasis on how they frame key messages. It’s an important concept, one that we’ve found critical to achieving viral success on a repeated basis. More often than marketers expect, the frame you use determines how consumers respond to your call to action.

Framing can refer to the way you describe the risks or benefits of a behavior, different ways of measuring the same outcome (such as “50% off” versus “two-for-one”), the use of morally or politically loaded terms (such as “pro-life” or “pro-choice”) to describe an issue, or reference to any other ideas that influence decision-making.

In a viral campaign, you get less than a second to compel someone to get personal with your brand, offer, issue, or cause. Framing helps you develop this intimacy in the blink of an eye. Carefully framed messages ensure that the recipient interprets the message exactly as you intended, giving you the ability to maximize your impact.

Framing can affect decisions in surprising ways. In one famous framing study, participants were asked to imagine that an outbreak of an unusual disease was expected to kill 600 people. They were then asked to choose between two treatment options: one of which guaranteed that 200 people would live and 400 would die, the other of which offered a 1/3 chance that all 600 would live and a 2/3 chance that all 600 would die.

When the options were described only in terms of the number of people who would be saved, people overwhelmingly chose the first option (72%). When the same scenarios were described only in terms of the number who would die, people reversed their choices, preferring the second option (78%). While the underlying data is the same in both examples, the frame (saving lives versus allowing people to die) makes certain choices much more appealing and acceptable than others.

The way you present an idea is as important as the information. Try framing your message different ways, and test them with your target audience — or you may be undermining your own efforts.

Putting it all together
With this in mind, improving success with your next viral campaign should be a bit easier. First, consider your conflicting campaign objectives (virality vs. monetization) and identify the balance point at which both viral growth and monetization rates are sustainable.

Then, try different framing techniques to identify messages which resonate instantly and motivate people to take the actions you desire. You may choose two messages — one that creates greater viral distribution, and another that drives monetizing actions — and place greater emphasis on one message or another as your campaign matures.

Finally, avoid putting the onus on the consumer to recraft your message. The easier it is to transmit your message, the more likely it is to remain intact. And if it’s a compelling message, you’ll get the distribution you’re looking for. There you go: you’ve got a more sustainable viral program that doesn’t sacrifice your message — all through the wonders of testing, listening, optimizing, and finally, scaling distribution through naturally occurring social networks.





Reader Comments.

Have any examples of health related viral campaigns that worked well?

Posted by Peter | 5:50 pm on September 11, 2006.

Cool…

Posted by Giannis | 12:45 am on June 7, 2007.

Cool.

Posted by Angelo | 7:21 am on June 8, 2007.

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