All About That...Audience

Often times when people run a campaign of any sort their thoughts first gravitate towards "how do we make this go viral?"

"Viral" content doesn't come by simply tagging your content online as "viral", it comes with careful consideration of your target audience; the relevance of your content to your target audience is what makes them want to share your content. 

Sure you can add a call to action asking for people to share your content in return for a prize, but then that would defeat the purpose of creating so-called viral content wouldn't it? Truly valuable content with "viral" potential does not need an extra incentive for you to share it. How many cute animal videos have you shared on social media this year? Yes. We all have. The animals didn't need to ask you to "please tag your friends" - you simply hit the like and/or share button and instantly your friends see your activity on their feeds, resulting in a group awwwweeeeeeeeee.

Here's a list of what people are likely to share:

• BRAND ASSOCIATION: New product launches of their favorite brands - fashion, beauty, cars, restaurants.

• LIMITED TIME OFFERS: Limited time offers them and their friends can take advantage of - Groupons, festival tickets.

• JUST FOR LAUGHS: Humorous videos - who doesn't want a good laugh together? Remember the video featuring the guy with the incredibly long name? Yes - we have all watched it.

• TEACH ME SOMETHING: Useful News - teach me something - QUICK. Those one minute cooking videos from Tasty? Been there done that.

So before you embark on your journey to create a campaign or even regular content for your brand, think about how it's relevant to your audience - why should they care? Don't share just for the sake of having activity, make every conversation with your audience a value add and you will develop a loyal following with ease.