To me, the impact of a heartfelt viral video goes far beyond viewership, it truly hits consumers at an emotional level creating an extremely strong sense of brand affinity and connection.

My favorite branded viral campaign goes to (please watch!): “Sometimes you just want to say thank you #TDThanksYou”

On July 25th at 2 pm, TD Bank turned ATM’s into “Automated Thank-You Machines.” Loyal customers were dispensed personal gifts, branch walk-in clients were given $20 each, and phone channel clients received a $20 deposit. The premise was simple: we know our customers and what is important to them and we’d like to thank them. This tear-jerking marketing strategy became a runaway hit in the viral world because it prompted people to engage with the brand in a genuine fashion.

As a part-time employee of the bank, I personally felt extremely proud to work for the organization. I shared it online, and even showed my parents the incredible video. Curiously, after I open new bank accounts at TD’s flagship branch, I always ask, “What brought you to TD?”. Since the video launched, 1/10 new clients chose TD because of the video, which also demonstrates the impact on TD’s bottom line.

This infographic helps illustrate how content goes viral, but digital marketers should remember that a well-executed viral campaign goes beyond viewership numbers – it helps creates a branding impression that many consumers will remember.

The release of Queen Bee’s “visual album,” simply entitled Beyoncé, shocked the music world with a daring marketing strategy. With one post of a short Instagram video (caption: “Surprise!”), Beyoncé proved that the power of social media cannot be underestimated. The element of surprise and word of mouth was all it took to spread the news.

From a social marketing perspective, 3 simple facts helped sell a record-breaking 828,773 copies worldwide in just three days:

• A massive social media following: 18 million on Instagram and 65 million on Facebook
• Twitter reported 1.2 million tweets in twelve hours

These facts reflect multiple social platforms used to promote Beyoncé’s album; however, social media is not simply about the tools used, it’s about communication, connection, conversation, collaboration – engagement. Beyoncé is a smart marketer who leveraged the power of people and their social presence to get the word out on her new product. The immutable lesson for marketers is that in our advertising-and-promotion drenched world, word of mouth is still one of the most effective forms of marketing.

THE CONSUMER

Imagine a trust-barometer consisting of commercials, billboards, print ads, celebrities, and bloggers – which channel would consumers find most credible? Today, consumers trust blogs over advertising, and 61% of online consumers admit to having made a purchase based on a blog’s recommendation [Source].

THE COMPANY

For companies, blogging communities are essentially untapped customer acquisition potential. The theory is: bloggers have a niche audience. Big or small, the audience is primarily comprised of your target buyers. It’s like someone – the blogger – has hand picked a pool of customers and leads just waiting to hear about your brand.

Take a look at Janice’s post, a blogger for “5minutesformom.com,” who wrote a glowing review about how “Target is a Girls Best Back-to-School Friend – $300 #Giveaway.”

The blog post is a stripped down Target advertisement of Janice’s daughter who is happy, confident, and determined to do things her way – even down to what she wears and how she wears it. Target has hit on a couple key relationship-building factors with the blogger:

1) Offered a $300 discount for the blogger’s followers.

2) Offered the blogger free swag or products and services.

3) Ensured blogger used a high-engagement hashtag (#giveaway).

4) Only one #hashtag is used in order to appear “anti-spam like.”

5) Chose a blogger that gives continual praise and brand recognition.

6) Streamlined a blogger with a niche audience – the perfect brand ambassador.

Maximizing social business through bloggers is truly essential, and companies like Target who consider “blogger outreach etiquette” are definitely increasing sales and brand awareness.

As consumers, we are blinded by advertisements from the moment we wake up. Not surprisingly, marketers have jumped onto the bandwagon to blind us with more marketing messages on the digital front. Social sites are a gold mine for marketers to engage potential customers early on in the discovery phase, and track their journey to a conversion or purchase. So, how do companies pick which social sites drive the most revenue? Well, the answer is: it totally depends. Each social channel is unique and caters to a different audience.

Should companies use Facebook advertisements or Google adwords?

• Facebook: provides companies with super, hyper targeted ads whether it be through age, interests, language, etc
• Google: doesn’t have that data, but allows companies to target by location.

Recently, Pinterest has begun to dial in the commerce equation: pin, click, buy. For Pinterest, it’s critical for companies to focus on providing high-quality content in their social commerce posts to ensure their “product Pins” gets discovered by highly engaged consumers. Let’s look at another alternative: Snapchat. After wide-spread controversy of Snapchat CEO rejecting a $3 billion offer from Facebook, the company has added new forms of snaps. For instance, Victoria’s Secret can be added as a friend giving consumers the choice of whether or not they want to be included in the snaps taken by the Angels (see picture below) along with the occasional promotional material.

With so many different avenues to target consumers it’s no surprise that companies will do their best to monetize social channels.