Who This Article Is For
- Owners expanding awareness with less advertising spend
- Teams whose social posts rarely get shared
- People building brands that generate word of mouth
Give People a Reason to Share Through Viral Marketing
Understand sharing motives, create useful and memorable content, and connect word of mouth with a clear audience and genuine brand value.
Published
Decide Who Would Share With Whom and Make It Easy
Viral marketing designs information people want to spread themselves. Understand what they want to tell someone and create content suited to that motive instead of waiting for accidental attention.
Good information also needs a reason to share: usefulness, humor, surprise, empathy, or self-expression. Sharing can be encouraged through design.
What Is Viral Marketing?
Customers and viewers voluntarily spread information, increasing awareness through their own choices.
It can involve:
- Social posts
- Videos
- Articles
- Campaigns
- Product experiences
- Word of mouth itself
The central work is creating a reason to share, alongside considering distribution costs.
A good product alone may not spread. People share for their own reasons, so understand those motives.
Why People Share
Psychological rewards include how people appear and how they connect with others.
Motives include:
- Looking knowledgeable
- Being seen as entertaining
- Helping someone
- Sharing a feeling
- Being part of a conversation
Sharing combines information and self-expression.
Someone sharing a work tip may want to help and appear well informed. Sending a moving video can share emotion and strengthen a relationship. These human motives are the starting point.
Three Conditions for Shareable Content
Emotion, a reason to talk, and easy transmission work together.
It Moves Feelings
Surprise, being moved, laughter, and empathy can encourage sharing. Accurate information alone may feel unremarkable.
Examples include:
- Something that makes people laugh
- An unexpected surprise
- Something impressive
- Something personally relatable
Emotion helps the content remain memorable enough to discuss later.
It Gives a Reason to Tell Someone
Useful, timely, or personally relevant information lowers the barrier to sharing.
Examples include:
- Know-how useful to colleagues
- A topic a friend would enjoy
- Savings information for family
- New developments worth discussing in an industry
Consider the sender and recipient together.
It Is Easy to Pass On
Complex content is difficult to share. Make it brief to explain, easy to understand, and easy to send.
Useful qualities include:
- A one-sentence explanation
- A meaningful title
- An understandable image or video
- A clear sharing route
Transmission matters alongside the content's value.
Six Angles for Encouraging Sharing
Social currency, triggers, emotion, visibility, practical value, and stories provide useful approaches.
1. Social Currency
Insider knowledge, surprising facts, and useful information can make someone look well informed. People share content that reflects well on them.
2. Triggers
Links with weekdays, seasons, work problems, or weather create everyday reminders. More reminders provide more opportunities to talk.
3. Emotion
Surprise, laughter, empathy, and positive excitement encourage passing the experience on.
4. Visibility
A product that prompts conversation, a photogenic space, or an appearance worth posting gives others a visible starting point.
5. Practical Value
Advice that can be used or tried immediately is shared out of helpfulness.
6. Stories
Who faced which problem and what changed can be more memorable than a product explanation. A story gives people something to retell.
Applying It in a Small Business
Small companies can use distinctive stories and expertise. Clarify whom to reach and why someone would share.
Identify the People Who Will Spread It
Consider customers, existing fans, industry contacts, and employees. Different senders respond to different content.
Explore Your Own Story
The founding background, product development struggles, and customer relationships contain material for connection.
For structuring those stories, see Using Emotional Arcs in Owners' Communications. It covers factual accounts of confronting difficulties.
Make the Format Shareable
Length, complexity, and poor readability can block even good content. Consider the title, image, short summary, and sharing route.
SpreadSite, which I developed to create websites from spreadsheets, lets you publish articles, examples, and practical knowledge promptly. Try it for a publishing foundation that supports consistent, shareable content! SpreadSite
Why Chasing Buzz Fails
Treating attention as the goal can produce novelty disconnected from the brand. Deliberately provoking controversy is especially damaging.
Attention Alone Does Not Produce Sales
Views and likes mean little if the audience remembers no relevant value. Connect the content to the brand and product.
Controversy Can Destroy Trust
Anger and conflict spread too, but short-term attention can cost long-term credibility.
A One-Off Event Is Hard to Repeat
Understand what customers want to share and keep publishing. Consistent work creates opportunities beyond a single unusual success.
SpreadSite is a no-code website builder that lets you create, publish, and update a website from Google Sheets using ready-made templates.
To publish useful stories and practical information in a form visitors can share, give SpreadSite a try!
Build a website with SpreadSite →
About the Author
Thank you for reading!
I develop and operate SpreadSite, a service for creating websites from spreadsheets.
It helps people with limited time and money communicate what makes their work appealing. Consider it if you need a website! SpreadSite
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is viral marketing in simple terms?
A: Creating information people want to spread through sharing and word of mouth. The reason to share is central.
Q: Will a good product spread naturally?
A: Quality alone may not be enough. People also need a talking point, emotional response, and an easy way to communicate it.
Q: Does it work in B2B?
A: Yes. Useful industry knowledge, original research, and cases can spread through relevant relationships without mass attention.
Q: Should we aim for buzz?
A: Treat buzz as a result. Focus on value the intended audience wants to tell someone about.
