SUNOCO has figured out how to make their recent campaign go viral. The US-based fuel company has spread their brand rapidly by offering on lucky person 5,000 gallons of gas and 15,000 runners up $10 SUNOCO gift cards if their car is spotted with the SUNOCO sticker on it.

This is a brilliant marketing ploy to spread brand recognition. Just like how a link from one site to another site is an endorsement of the quality of the referred site. By having their sticker on people’s cars they are in fact getting endorsements from these people that SUNOCO gas is worth using.

Now how can this be applied to online viral marketing? Think about how you can get your sticker or badge on other people’s sites?

People come up to me all the time and ask if I think their business would benefit from Social Media and Viral Marketing. I almost always say yes. There really isn’t any business that can’t benefit from more exposure to the masses. Below in the video, I talk some more about this and how we at Goldstein Media can help you and your company capitalize on Social Media and Viral Marketing.

Welcome to the official Goldstein Media blog. We frequently post about all types of Internet-related topics ranging from Social Media, Internet Marketing, and Viral Marketing to the latest in Web Design and Development. You’ll see that there is a trend with our posts and we hope that you find them informative and helpful.

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Seth Goldstein
President – Goldstein Media LLC

Veronica Belmont (of Tekzilla fame) did an Ignite 5 minute presentation on how to make your business a meme and have it go vial. A great 5 minute video.

Check it out:

Several elements make up viral marketing. Not all of them need to be active in a strategy for it to be effective, but the more of them the better the results.

Six main fundamental rules that should be followed to helpy our viral campaign successful:

1. make sure there is an effortless transfer to others
2. give away products or services of value
3. make sure it can easily scale from small to large
4. take advantage of basic human behaviors and motivations
5. make good use of your existing communication networks (linkedin, face-to-face networking, social media, etc.)
6. take advantage of what’s already out there and other people’s resources

Their are 7 key secrets to any viral marketing initiative:

1. Get the headline right. Make the headline strong by putting in numbers and showing value to the reader.
2. Take advantage of buzz-worthy topics. Align your campaign to what is currently a hot topic being talked about.
3. Try and cram as much value you can into a small package. The more value that the reader/viewer can find in your campaign the more likely they are to pass it along and so on. More Value in One Place = More Impact.
4. Don’t event the rules as you go. Learn from what already works and use a proven formula.
5. Keep your viral content to the point and concise. Outline the overall value, otherwise you run the risk of having the viewer/reader moving on.
6. Links, yes, putting links into your viral content will add value and additional depth. But make sure the links are carefully chosen.
7. Finally YOU can start the chain reaction and get the word-of-mouth off the ground.