Truth is there is much more to creating a viral video than just shooting a few images or mashing together a few snippets of songs and cartoons. Viral videos can be powerhouse marketing tools. Before you even begin the process of making a video, here are some vital things to consider.

Who is the Target of This Video?

The short answer to this question is, of course, the internet viewer. But, like most targeted marketing campaigns, painted with such broad strokes can lead to potential problems. For example, if your product is specifically geared towards the working mother, wouldn’t you want to cater, somewhat towards their interests? And that brings me to my next point.

What are the Goals of the Viral Video?

Take a few moments to think about why you are making it. Is it to generate new leads? Convince current customers to try a new and innovative product line? Or perhaps the aim of this particular viral video is to simply gain exposure for a new product. Whatever your reason is, it is important, since you will be creating a viral video to meet those goals.

How Are You Measuring Success?

In a way, viral videos can behave like people. They may start out by providing you with 10,000 views the first week, and then through no fault of your own drop down to six views in the third week. Then, as if by some magic, surge up to 200,000 views after a month of being online. So the question to ask yourself is whether or not the viral video is meant to help you out with short term things – such as an upcoming sale, or something more long term? By knowing how you are to measure the success of the viral video, you can decide how much time and effort to truly put into it.

These are just a few simple things to keep in mind before you start creating a viral video. Doing so will help you create the most effective video to meet your needs.

The goal of your viral video is to be seen. Therefore, it is imperative that your video dance in front of the eyes of as many viewers that it can. Most would believe that simply posting a great viral video is enough to reach the next marketing plateau. However, just posting something to the World Wide Web doesn’t necessarily mean that it will become an overnight sensation. Sometimes you need to help it reach the masses.

Make Use of Blogs

Take a look around the web for bloggers with similar interests or ideas. It couldn’t hurt to ask them to run your embedded videos, and perhaps even blog about it. If the video is to their liking, convincing a few bloggers might be the best way to send your viral video on its way.

Social Media Networks are perfect for Sharing

Nearly everyone who uses the internet for business or pleasure has some sort of presence on the social media scene. Why not use this vast resource to your advantage when it comes to promoting your viral video? Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn provide easy to use ways to share videos with friends and contacts. Just post your best viral video on multiple sites, and encourage your networking contacts to share.

Email Lists Are Still an Effective Option

One of the oldest, and perhaps most useful targeted marketing tool from the Internet age is that of the email list-service. This, along with RSS feeds are perhaps one of the easiest ways to distribute your viral video to those who are already interested in your product and service, and will most likely be willing to pass it along. Never forget to make use of that core, returning clients to help you find new ones.

Making the most of your viral video is a lot like any marketing or advertising tool. Very few of them can be successful without a little push. The options described above are just three of the many ways that you can get the ball rolling.

Viral videos are perhaps one of the most popular marketing tools today. These catchy, infective, and often outrageous little videos are a great way to expand your business exposure. Unfortunately, it’s not all about splicing some footage together, or digitally enhancing some video from the depths of your marketing supply closet. Rather, viral videos work best if you follow a few simple tips and tricks.

Tip #1: Keep it Short

One of the nice things about viral videos is that effective ones are often short- no more than 30 seconds. This gives them faster loading times, and makes it easier to share them across multiple social media platforms. If you have a longer message, consider splitting it into a multi-part viral campaign. This not only makes use of people’s natural curiosity, but it will also make each episode a little easier on the computer bandwidth.

Tip# 2: Don’t Make an Ad into a Viral Video

Unless your marketing department has come up with something simply extraordinary, you should shy away from using a classic add for viral video material. Viral videos are shared organically because they are so engaging that people want to pass them along. There are very few advertisements that are successful as viral videos. Instead, focus on a way to surprise, entertain, or just confound the viewer- then you can direct them to a website of your choosing.

Tip # 3: Keep the Video Simple

When it comes to viral videos, the whole idea is exposure. Remixes or mash-ups are great tools for getting your viral video seen by millions. Therefore, your video composition needs to be simple, and easy to remix. Those who want to share your viral video within a mash up of their favorite things will have an easier time.
These are just three of the tips that you can use to help make your viral video the marketing and exposure tool that you need. Remember, viral videos may be the newest craze in marketing, but it still takes an intelligent player to win the game.

We all want the maximum exposure for our viral videos but don’t want to break the bank.  There are ways to maximize the exposure of your videos, keeping the cost down and getting your message across to many.

One of the obvious ways or perhaps a way you may have overlooked is placing the video on your site.  You may do this by using a widget to add your video to the sidebar of your site.  Sites like Widgetbox will help you create a cool looking widget of your video that you can then place on your site and share on other sites.

Maximizing exposure means to literally saturate the waves with your video.  Your ultimate goal is to have your video and message seen by your target audience.  Making it available is important, which is why placing it on Youtube is a great idea.  Placing your video on Youtube will be seen by many and they will also have the opportunity to embed your video on their sites which of course leads to more views.

Placing the video on your site is important as mentioned above.  What is of greater importance is the tags and descriptions of the video.  Placing a video on your main or company site is a great way to break up the monotony of text.  Be sure to either add a transcript along with your video or include precise descriptions with tags to be found by the search engines.

Social networks are the latest and greatest craze and you can use them to your advantage.  Let’s not spam all your visitors or followers with videos, but placing your videos on Facebook will definitely increase the exposure it receives.  Facebook also allows the ability to share the video with others and of course that is always welcomed.

Most importantly make online videos part of your marketing efforts.  People love connecting with the person behind the site.  Using your videos will create instant recognition and expertise in your market.  If you haven’t incorporated videos as part of your marketing plan do it today, start 2010 with a bang!

A viral video is a short video that is meant to attract your target audience.  Once you have developed your viral video, the next step is to get it seen, and that’s where marketing comes into play.

Below I will share some tips on marketing your viral video successfully:

- Optimize – it is very important to optimize your video for increased exposure.  Keeping the video short and having a call to action within the video will optimize it nicely.

- Place your video on your site – sounds simple enough but you’d be amazed at how many people will neglect to post their videos on their sites.  You may consider adding the video to the sidebar on your site for added exposure.

- Recruit your list of clients, followers, etc – Send out an email with a short clip from your video to create excitement about your video.  Ask your list members to share the link to your video on their sites and encourage them to leave comments.

- Create a buzz – Talk about your video, don’t simply rely on traffic from online friends or associates.  Share your video link with people offline, and entice them to visit your site where they will find your video.  Next time you are at a conference, talk about your video, create the excitement so people will be eager to view your video.

- Social Media – share your video link on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn.  Do not simply rely on video sites to share your link.

- Ask your target market – within your target audience you will find many that share the same interests as you, hence your target audience.  Ask them to share your video link for more exposure.

- Video sharing sites – Everyone is familiar with Youtube, but don’t stop there.  Research other video sharing sites and add your video to them as well.  Some others include, TrafficGeyser.com, Bliptv and Viddler.

- Share your links – this is the last and the most important tip of all. Share your link everywhere, this will entice more, and more folks to view your video which is your ultimate goal.

If you are one that markets your business online, you have more than likely heard or read the term ‘viral video’.  But what exactly is a viral video?  Let’s explore the answer and how you can make an effective viral video.

First of all a viral video is simply a short video designed to market something, perhaps your business, product or service.  Sounds simple enough, right? Well, it is not very difficult but in order to make an effective viral video for your needs there are some points you will want to keep in mind.

Before venturing out to make your viral video, determine what it will be used for.  Once this step is determined then you will want to make a viral video that will target your market audience and draw their attention.  Commonly viral videos are short which means they are no longer than 3 to 4 minutes.  Although you may find some viral videos circulating the web that are longer, the average is 3 to 4 minutes.  The object of the viral video is to entice your market audience and leave them wanting more.  With this short video clip they will be encouraged to visit your website or shop to learn more about what you may have to offer.

Once you have determined the theme, then you are ready to produce your viral video.  If you are not video savvy, you may want to outsource this project to someone or a company that will make one for you.  Your goal is to attract more business and entice your target audience, so be sure to keep this very important point in mind.

The viral video will need to be seen by many for it to be effective.  After the viral video is complete, you will want to place in different video sharing venues or video distribution sites to share with a larger audience.  From this point, your video will be picked up by bloggers or other followers that enjoy your video.  A wonderful site to place your video is TrafficGeyser.com where they will distribute your video to over 100 other video sharing sites.  If you are active in the social media scene, you will want to share your video in those avenues as well.  The sole purpose of your viral video should be exposure and the more places you can share your video link, the best it will be.