Traditional advertising such as radio, TV and newpaper ads are expensive. And their results are limited.

Social media is inexpensive and has great potential.

One advantage of social media is that it can create viral marketing.

Viral marketing is getting other people to share your message.

Think of a viral video.

How is it that one video can get millions of views in a matter of days?

It’s because one person shares. Then, 2 people share, then 4 more people share. It has an exponential effect.

Here are 5 tips to create viral marketing through social media:

1. Create a viral video

When you think of viral marketing, you might first think about viral videos. And the reason is that people love to watch videos.

People share videos on social media. And people watch videos that people share.

What videos can you create that people will watch and share?

2. Create a quote image

A really simple viral marketing strategy is to create a quote graphic with your website address.

Keep your website address small, but make it readable.

Include a short quote and a beautiful image in the graphic. People love to like and share quote graphics, especially on Facebook. And, of course, images are what Pinterest is all about. Make sure you leverage your images on multiple platforms.

You can even post images on Twitter. And Twitter now displays images directly in the Tweet Stream (Newsfeed).

3. Share a heart felt message

Les Brown uses a great message format that causes his posts to create a lot of interaction on Facebook.

He posts 2 paragraphs of about 150 to 200 words.

Facebook allows you to write messages up to 5,000 characters. In most cases, that is way too long. But, a 2 paragraph post will often display in full in the Newsfeed. People will like, comment and share those kind of posts.

4. Invite people to a Facebook event

Years ago, LinkedIn had a feature which allowed you to share events. They eliminated it. So, today, Facebook is one of the best tools to share events.

When someone joins an event, Facebook will automatically let their friends know they are attending the event. This creates viral marketing. This is powerful and this strategy is often overlooked.

5. Write a really good blog post

Before social media sites became popular, people were blogging. Blog posts can go viral.

Social media can amplify the viral marketing effect and make it easy for a lot of people to learn about your blog posts and visit your site.

What can you do to create viral marketing?

Pick one strategy and implement it in the next 30 days.

Rick Cooper
Online Marketing and Social Media Trainer