Another Day, Another Mahalo Answer

My addiction continues unabated. Your helpless marketing podcast host has been sucked into the vortex of Mahalo Answers once again.

Now you might be saying, "Why are you doing this to yourself, oh glorious voice of The BeanCast?"

And my answer is, "Positive reinforcement!"

"Positive reinforcement," you ask?

Yes. They have made it a game. And I'm doing quite well.

Here are my latest stats:

More than 50% of my answers have been chosen as Best Answers. Can you say "validation?"

This is an important marketing lesson. Never underestimate the power of a game. And no I'm not talking about putting online games into play. We've been down that road!

No, this is more about game theory. The idea that people make decisions based on how to win an outcome that is the best possible given the circumstances. And the sweeter you make the outcome, the more they want to come back and do the same thing.

Notice that dollar figure? That's what I've earned so far. Yes, that's real money and yes, Mahalo is buying my loyalty. But that aside, they made this "game" fun, challenging and rewarding. And that's something that every loyalty program should be aiming to achieve. It's the juice that turns page views into ravingly positive reviews and advocacy like this one I'm writing now.

An Example of Me in Action

Now all this is well and good. But I also thought I'd share with you the answer to a question I answered today, since it's relevant to what we talk about here.

The question was: "What's are some of the differences between a commercial and a viral video?"

My answer:

This question really gets to the heart of an ongoing debate within the advertising community. I run a weekly marketing podcast, called The BeanCast, that has discussed this issue many times. I'll link to one of our more recently discussions below.

But essentially a viral video is "good content." Period. End of story.

There are a lot of people who claim to be in the "viral video" business. And time and time again they achieve middling success. Meanwhile, (as you say) some broadcast TV commercial efforts like the Outpost.com or even the recent McDs Filet o Fish work consistently garner viral popularity.

So really there is no clear line separating viral video from commercial video. the only line is commercial vs. non-commercial (usually defined by quality) or broadcast vs. internet (which is simply a media issue). Anything can go viral, though. All it takes is for the video to be posted online eventually and lots of people to go out of their way to send their friends to the content.

So to answer you question, the only thing that needs to happen to make something go viral is to create amazing content. Whether it's intensely silly ( like the Jib Jab stuff), Touching (like the Susan Boyle video) or thought-provoking (like the Dove Evolution video), just make it the best you can.

One last thing, though. Very few intentional viral efforts succeed without some kind of help. That takes careful seeding and asking friends and family to pass the link along. It also takes consideration for keyword optimization in the video metadata and throughout the hosting pages, as well as a well-executed SEO plan. Sometimes viral just happens. Most of the time it doesn't. So make sure you execute on all fronts.