Viral Strategy, Social Media Optimization...

Without objectives, a plan is merely tactics without goals, reaction without measurables, impulsive ideas without accountability. Viral marketing is no different. It is necessary to flush-out the clients' objectives, as those objectives will set the tone for the campaign, and the objectives can help all those involved to visualize what has to happen.

Once we understand how the viral tactics function - why there were created - we can begin to bring the puzzle pieces together to create the picture that is the overall marketing plan: website(s), social presences, Blogs, photos, video, and customer contact. This Viral-Social Relationship Chart demonstrates how all the individual viral and social pieces can be engineered to drive and push traffic to the company website...their relationship to one another.

This is a strategic plan whose purpose is to meet the goals and objectives of the company. Whether it would be sales growth, increased website traffic, or higher pageviews, each of the viral-social vehicles (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr) can play a crucial role in facilitating the objectives, whether directly or indirectly.

One company that I have spent over 8 years with is T.H. Properties (THP). I have worked with improving their "web presence" for more than 3 of the most recent years. Increasing the number of informative websites, enhancing the video content, and improving consumer communications were only a few of the long-term projects we had embarked on when we decided to greatly develop THP's brand and story. THPTV is a great example of our establishing a video presence and storybook from scratch. We went from having no videos about THP to having thirty plus (30+) videos and how-to's overnight. The newest project is utilizing Twitter to help spread the word about THP's home sales and weekend specials.