Want to Go Viral? - Help Your Fans Make It Viral!

Everyone wants to go viral, whether it be a video, their new CD release, a press or marketing campaign and all those widgets and applications on Myspace and Facebook. Going viral is great, the problem is that not everyone and not every campaign can go viral.

When promoting your music, a new video or even a show, the key to going viral is the ease in which your fans and users can help the process.

YouTube does this with its ability to embed videos on any website that allows for HTML code. Newer video sites such as Viddler, Blip.tv and Kyte also allow for an easy way of transplanting a video from their site to another.

Facebook applications have made it incredibly easy for it to go viral. When you have chosen to install an application on your page, it asks you to send it to any and all of your friends who may be interested in the fun you are embarking on. Some see this as an annoyance, app makers see this as cha-ching!


Trent Reznor and NIN have come out today with a brand new 10 song free album, The Slip, for everyone as a thank you for continued support. Trent has gotten the hang of this internet thing and found a great way for this release to go viral. Not only does he have the blogosphere going crazy with features on Wired, Mashable and others, but when you get to the download page, he does 2 things exceptionally well.

1. The album is licensed under Creative Commons. Trent encourages his fans to re-mix the album as they see fit. The viral reaction will be fans creating mash-ups and telling their friends about them, which puts NIN in the ears of more listeners and the potential for them to become future fans.


2. After you enter your e-mail address for the download link, a new screen appears asking if you would like to send this album as a gift to 3 friends. The thinking here is that the distribution will expand exponentially as each person will tell 3 people who tell 3 people and so on. With this model Trent gets their email address for future promotions and a lot of music into listeners computers.

The moral of the story is that it is great to have free material that you want to get into people's hands. The content is strong and people want the product/service. Now make it easy for them to take the information and spread it.

For extra credit, you can Digg this article and help spread my information all over the internet. (I won't be mad at ya!)

-Greg Rollett