So today, we’ve got a follow-up for any active lifestyle brands that may now be asking themselves, “So my video went viral, now what?” If you’re beyond asking “What does going viral mean?” and have moved on to pondering the best ways to chase the social media snowball effect, this blog article is for you. Consider these seven steps geared toward building on the success of your viral social video — and turning it into even more exposure and business for your outdoor enthusiast brand:
1. Share to your story
So your video post has blown up on your brand’s timeline — that alone is a serious cause for celebration! You’ve likely got all kinds of new consumer audiences (and potential customers) being introduced to your brand, and hopefully you’re seeing added website traffic, too.
But your viral post’s immediate impacts don’t have to be limited to your performance outdoor brand’s timeline. You can broaden its exposure, foster added community engagement and further capitalize on its in-the-moment success by also sharing it to your story on social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat that offer the functionality. Offering the viral post up in this new spot can help you prolong its momentum and keep your audience engaged and excited about the post (and your brand) for longer.
We suggest sharing it to your story with a simple message along the lines of “Our video has gone viral! Have you seen it yet?” (And if it’s a fit for your brand’s personality, you might even want to accentuate the message with an excitement-expressing emoji or two.)
2. … and on your other social accounts (and beyond)
In addition, repurposing the viral content across your active lifestyle brand’s various other social accounts and to its other existing audiences is a strategic move that can help extend the viral post’s lifespan and further maximize its impact. Such repurposing enables you to leverage your viral content’s success beyond the initial wave of engagement, helping you ensure prolonged visibility and relevance for your brand. One effective way to repurpose viral content is by (if the original video is long enough) creating shorter teaser clips or highlights to share on other social media platforms, enticing new audiences and driving traffic back to the original video. Additionally, you could extract key quotes, images or insights from the viral video for inclusion in your outdoor enthusiast brand’s blog posts, infographics or email newsletters, helping you provide valuable (and viral-worthy) content for your audiences across different channels. Still another approach is to repurpose the video into different formats, such as GIFs, memes or interactive quizzes, helping you cater to your audience members’ diverse preferences and consumption habits. You can use the viral organic post in paid social media campaigns to further its reach — and make sure it’s getting in front of your target audience.
3. Add an introduction post
To help ensure that audiences see more than just your viral video — and get acquainted with your brand and its offerings — creating and sharing a brand-introduction post is a good idea, too. With lots of new visitors likely finding their way to your social media timelines and your various social “about us” pages, serving up an introduction post can help you leverage a strategic opportunity to engage with existing and new followers, providing context about the viral video and directing traffic back to your brand’s landing page or website. By crafting a compelling introduction post, you can also effectively showcase your brand’s personality, values and offerings, helping you reinforce brand identity and foster deeper connections with your audience.
4. Pin to the top of your feed
When a video your brand has posted goes viral on social media, pinning it to the top of your feed can also help you maximize its visibility and impact. On platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, pinning the viral video helps ensure it remains prominently displayed, capturing the attention of new and returning visitors immediately. This strategic move can help your brand not only sustain the momentum by keeping the high-engagement content front and center, but it can also help to drive continued interaction, shares and follows. Additionally, it can help reinforce the relevance and popularity of your brand, showcasing your most successful content as a testament to your brand’s appeal and reach.
5. Take a quick look at your links
As you see your video going viral (or anytime, really), it’s important to check your social profile links to ensure they are accurate and optimized for maximum impact. The influx of traffic generated by the viral video, of course, presents a prime opportunity for your brand to drive conversions and engagement — but it’s much less likely to happen if your links are broken or aren’t directing visitors to the prime places. By verifying that your social profile links are functioning correctly and sending users to relevant landing pages, product pages or other website pages (such as your active lifestyle brand’s homepage), you can capitalize on the heightened interest in your brand. It can also help you seamlessly guide potential customers through the sales funnel. Additionally, checking your social profile links can help you maintain a positive user experience, minimizing the risk of frustrated users encountering broken links or outdated information.
6. Respond to consumer comments (when it makes sense)
When your post goes viral, it’s likely to generate LOTS of likes, shares and other engagement — and the comments could come flooding in hard and fast. While you by no means need to attempt to reply to all of them, it’s a good idea to keep your eyes open for comments that present opportunities to boost your brand and its perception among consumers by providing thoughtful replies. By actively engaging with users through comments, you can demonstrate your brand’s authenticity, attentiveness and commitment to customer satisfaction, which can significantly enhance brand trust and loyalty. Further, responding to comments provides an opportunity to address any consumer inquiries, concerns or feedback directly, allowing you to build a rapport with your audience and cultivate meaningful relationships. This also presents a great opportunity to get valuable feedback from your customers/community on what matters to them and what improvements your brand could make, as well as to get ideas for additional video topics (that could also go viral). And to add still more allure, engaging with comments can help you capitalize on the viral momentum by keeping the conversation going and amplifying the reach of your content through social sharing and word-of-mouth promotion.
7. Maintain the momentum with more content
You can further maximize the momentum of your viral content by creating more content in a similar style and on related topics. Your brand could even create follow-up content such as a sequel to the viral post. Or you could turn it into a series, share behind-the-scenes looks at the video’s origin, do a Q&A follow-up video, etc. Whatever direction you choose to take here, by producing additional content that aligns with the style and themes of its original viral video, your adventure brand can sustain audience interest, prolong the viral effect, and reinforce your brand’s message and identity. Creating more content also allows you to leverage the increased visibility and traffic generated by the viral video, helping you expand your reach and attract new followers and customers with whom your content resonates.
8. Make sure to monetize
Your viral video and the exposure it brings for your brand present a prime opportunity to monetize the event by ensuring that your products and/or services are readily available for website visitors to purchase. By capitalizing on the heightened attention and engagement generated by the viral video, you can drive traffic to your website and convert interested viewers into paying customers. Ensuring that your leading products and/or services are prominently featured and easily accessible on your website can help you capitalize on impulse purchases and maximize revenue potential.
9. Analyze to understand your viral post’s appeal
Lastly, it’s important to analyze the results of your viral social post to better understand the factors behind its success and gain insights on how you might replicate that success in future campaigns. By examining metrics such as engagement rates, audience demographics, sharing patterns and the context of the video’s virality, you can gain valuable insights into what resonated with your audience. This analysis can help you to identify key elements such as content type, tone, timing and platform-specific nuances that contributed to the viral effect. Leveraging these insights, you can refine your content strategy, optimize future posts and increase the likelihood of your brand creating additional viral content.
Step up your social efforts with help from the experts at TBA Outdoors
Could your outdoor adventure brand use the help of a team of outdoors-obsessed marketing professionals to elevate your social media efforts — and rev up their results? At TBA Outdoors, we’re here to help you create and execute a social media strategy that shines … and attracts the added consumer traffic needed to create more conversions.
Further, our fully integrated marketing firm boasts a team of seasoned specialists (and outdoors fanatics) who can cover all aspects of marketing for your hunting, fishing, camping or hiking brand. Those include social media, web design, consumer research, e-commerce, brand strategy, creative, SEO, analytics, public relations and much more — all in one place. And as certified brand strategists, we can also help you with the big-picture adjustments sometimes needed to put your outdoor brand on a course to long-term success.
To get started with professional guidance ranging from a simple website analysis to a comprehensive strategy tailored to boost your outdoor brand’s overall performance and identity, contact us today.
