What Does Going Viral Mean?

If you have been listening to online marketing folks I bet you have heard the phrase, “viral” or “going viral.”  But do you really know what that means?  Some people might think of a virus, the thing you get for 24 or 48 hours that makes you feel yucky and you are supposed to stay away for other people so they don’t catch it.  We that’s sort of the same as viral for your marketing.  But you want to give it to people and have them give it to other people!

According to Wikipedia viral means, an object or pattern that is able to induce some agents to replicate it, resulting in many copies being produced and spread around.  So basically if you have something (like a video) and you share (or give) it to your online friends, there’s two ways to make something go viral.  You can ask your friends to share it with their online community, or your video can be so good that they automatically share it and those people share it, and so forth.  The latter would be a perfect example of something “going viral.”

Here’s an example of how quickly things can go viral. (and a shameless promotion of my newest grandchild, Connor) 

My 5th grandchild was born on October 11th.  I was privileged to be in the room for his birth along with his other grandmother, my daughter-in-law’s sister and of course my son, the Daddy.  Connor was born at 5:10 pm and by 5:15 pm most of our relatives on both sides had a picture of him, along with how much he weighed, his length and that everyone was doing great.

Also, I posted a sweet, sweet picture of my son, holding his son for the first time (you can see it here) on my Facebook profile and I received more comments on that picture than anything else I have ever posted.  Plus all my Facebook buddies saw it and other people tagged the picture and shared it with their friends.

So we had the birth of Connor “going viral” before he had his first bottle!   With smart phones it makes it very easy to snap a picture or video and push it out to your social media sites.  Give it a try and see how fast your information goes viral.

About the author

Terri Brooks helps entrepreneurs “overcome the overwhelm” of using online and social media marketing for their business. She understands their fears and feelings of confusion when it comes to marketing on Facebook, Twitter and blogs and shows them ways of Tasting The Internet…One Byte at a Time.

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