5 Secrets of Viral Marketing

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How I Used Them To Get The Best Results?

Almost at every workshop/training, I am asked, “How do you make your content viral?’ Though I believe, the focus should be on serving the audience, solving its problems and touching hearts & lives, here are five of my secrets, I am sharing for my loyal readers. 

I also call them 5S of Viral Marketing viz Supercharge, Simplicity, Storytelling, Soulfulness and Spontaneity:-

1) Supercharge-We are drained of energy with the combination of high pressure jobs, family responsibilities and drab routines. Images, text and videos which energise us with their high energy content surely make a powerful impact. Take this example :- ( the most popular image on my social media, till now).

What do you want in Life 129 shares

2) Simplicity-Content which is simple yet powerful, touches people more and hence shared virally. Let me give you few examples.  Look at these 2 pictures:-

Sometimes God gives us suffering  82 shares

True greatness  90 shares
Personal Branding FAQ 

Address your target market or audience directly. Two of my focus areas are CEOs/ CXOs    and Knowledgepreneurs which are addressed directly by these hyperlinked posts.

3) Storytelling-Telling stories which share your heart and successes make a powerful impact. As Mark Schaefer, Global Social Media Guru rightly says,  “Disclosing your own heart and your own story is hard but makes for the best blog posts.” 

How I became a professional storyteller, is a story in itself. Probably the most popular story I have written till now is “3 Life lessons that led to social media success”  (400 + Tweets, 1,600 + FB likes + 100 Linkedin shares, Total of 2,100 +)

4) Soulfulness-The content which comes from the heart/soul and inspires others with its positivity, is soulful content in my view. Let me give you an interesting example on love and personal branding. You are thinking, love and personal branding, what? 

Here is the post, “ 7 Personal Branding Lessons, you learn by falling in love” which attracted attention from across the world and was shared by Global Social Media Gurus like Kim Garst and Shelly Kramer. (with 600 + Tweets, total of 1,200 plus shares and 40 Google +1s) On Topsy.com, you can even find out whether influential people are sharing your content (Refer picture on the left above).



Check out this Slideshare presentation on Social Media and Global Trends, which also featured on the home page. If you guess the future trends, your audience literally worships you. 


It goes without saying that wisdom becomes essential for success (The post has 2,300 + shares) on the glasshouse styled social media.

5) Spontaneity- Look at all the videos in the world which have gone viral. You will find one common factor in most of them-spontaneity. Kolaveri song in India, Charlie bit my finger and Blendtec (series) are classic examples of spontaneity. Blendtec was intentionally shot with the CEO and not a professional to make it spontaneous. In some ways superficiality has completed its cycle and people are getting fed up with it. In some ways authenticity is a new fashion statement. Or it is possible; we have lost spontaneity in the mad, rat race (in our lives) and are eagerly looking for it elsewhere, in places like Youtube. (Video for Personal Branding)

Catchy Headlines & well presented content

Unless the headlines are catchy, people don’t even click the link. Some of my most popular posts have catchy titles like:-

1)      To Hell with respect, it’s only a drama

2)      Stop the Job hunt, let the job hunt you

3)      I just want to whistle, I am too much pressure

4)      Indians embrace personal branding, but don’t hug it tightly yet

5)      So what if life slapped you hard, get up and carry on

The final lesson

Here is my formula for Social Media Mega Success:-

Social media success= Mindful Content + Passionate Engagement + Heartfelt Collaboration

Mindful, audience-centric content can only be generated with an uncluttered mind. It must add value to people’s lives by motivating, energizing or helping them resolve their current life challenges. This Slideshare presentation will give you a concise idea of my overall approach. Closely collaborating with your community is something which is taken for granted on social media.

Keep a watch on audience tastes through tools like Klout (Popular moments. See Picture on the left)

So if you still have doubts about the power of personal branding through storytelling on social media, connect with me on Linkedin or Twitter and see for yourself.

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Brief Profile

Dr Amit Nagpal is a Personal Branding Consultant and Mega Success Coach. He is based in New Delhi, India and specializes in personal branding with a holistic touch. His philosophy is, "Enlarge as a Human Being, Excel as a Social Media Being and Evolve as a Personal Brand"

To know more about Dr Nagpal, visit www.dramitnagpal.com. Contact for personal branding/social media speaking/training/coaching. 

Contact for content development /personal branding/social media services