Seeding online content – how and why.
January 20th, 2010 by Tim WintleSo what is “viral seeding”? To those in the industry it’s a very common term, but if you’re new to viral marketing, here’s a quick overview:
A piece of content is said to “go viral” if it is spread around by those who see it – via word of mouth, Facebook, email, twitter or any other method of communication. (Actually, I personally prefer to use a more mathematical definition, but I’ll leave that out for your sanity).
So the desired result is that someone (let’s call him Hector) gets sent your content from a friend (let’s call her Janice).
Since this is a first-hand recommendation – Hector’s far more likely to appreciate your content than someone who sees it in an ad placement on the side of a page (or “Sponsored Links” on a search page) – and far more likely to convert to a sale/lead.
But how did Janice get your content in the first place? Well, Janice may have been sent the content by another friend (we don’t really need a name for this one, but you can call him Laurence if you want) – but then we can ask the same question about how Laurence got the content – giving us the social media equivalent of the chicken and the egg problem.
Clearly someone (Janice / Laurence / someone else) must have seen this through some other means – and that’s where viral seeding comes in.
Just as you plant a seed and watch it grow into a plant, with viral seeding you plant your content on the web and watch it grow into viral content.
Of course you can’t just drop a seed randomly and expect it to grow – you need to nurture it, make sure the soil is fertile, and bring nutrients and water to help it thrive. The same goes for seeding online content – you need to bring it viewers before it can start to thrive in the viral garden .
So how do viral seeding companies achieve that? We bring your content to viewers with placements on sites over the web – scattering it far and wide to fertile communities who are more likely to watch (and, in turn, share) your content. We upload videos to the top video sharing sites, flash games to the top game sites, and we provide bought online media placements – charging only when someone views your content, so it’s always in our interest to place your content where people will choose to watch it.
So if you’re sitting on a great viral asset, why not give us a call – or use our campaign estimator to see the kind of sites we can place your content on.
