So how does someone or something become popular online?
Nearly every client asks us how we can make their business as popular as another business they see getting a lot of attention to their social media. Unfortunately, most of the time we can’t make that happen. It is not due to us not being able to, it is just that many times what took place to make a business popular online was not what it appears to really be.
The Games People Play
There are a large number of games people play to artificially make someone or something appear to be the latest and greatest. I have not yet found a verifiable Facebook or Twitter user report.
It would be safe to say factually many of the digital reports being produced are based upon users views. However, it is also factual to say that over 85% of the users on these platforms are not real people.
There are businesses who, for a very large sum of money, will create a lot of smoke and mirrors online in an attempt to get the consumers focused on buying something.
Fortunately, SyncLab Media is NOT one of those businesses.
What we find, from the many businesses who do produce favorable..and verifiable.. results towards boosting a client’s popularity, is these smart businesses gain their high level of online popularity through hard work.
It is not easy work and usually takes a lot of time in planning strategies which many businesses do not see as being of value.
What Works???
What takes so long to produce online popularity has to do with putting together the right team who will work towards highlighting the client’s business online.
There is no secret to what works best to gain popularity online for most businesses has to do with the business being present at an offline event.
How Some People Became Popular
If you were to look at how the social icons of today’s social platforms became famous you will find everyone of them…yes, everyone of them…became popular after attending an offline conference of some sort. Those who are still popular years after the initial event generally had a speaking presence or a strong mouthpiece spokesperson to deliver their message to a large number of people attending the event.
Just take a look at any of the brands that have gained popularity online.
Everyone of their beginnings can be tracked back to an offline event they were mentioned or had significant presence.
Begin With Offline Events
Yes..going offline to promote a product is the only proven and verifiable method of gaining online popularity. Yes, it is expenses and it does take a lot of work, but it is proven to work so it is worth the cost and time.
Being present in front of real people sets the foundation for building a solid digital footprint.
Our studies are showing for businesses who set up a booth at a conference, attend an industry gathering or conduct a happy hour for the business community receive immediately an 88% increase in a business’ online popularity.
Those who use professionally produced Google+ Hangouts during the event have a 20o% increase in their online popularity. (I though I would plug HangOuts since the G+ Hangouts have not stopped trending upward.)
Videos Are A Must
The fact of the matter is videos have been leading for over fives years now as the most popular type of digital marketing. It is number 1 for consumers who are searching for more detailed information.
Using videos produced from offline events validates the business or brand is:
- trustworthy
- run by real people
- and accountable
Quality First
Unfortunately, or depending on how you look at it could be fortunately, the trend of consumers being interested in low quality cellphone or web-cam homemade videos is dropping like a lead weight. In more than 60% of the cases I have been a part of the low quality videos were immediately clicked off by the viewer. Today’s video viewers are much more sophisticated than they were just a short year ago.
I realize this drop in interest for cheaply produced videos goes against what many small business owners want to hear, but the fact is, consumers have so much quality video content to look at that they will keep looking to find the quality camera work, quality audio, well produced, and compelling message they want to view.
Lots Go Into Being Popular
Many businesses who search for immediate popularity seem to lose sight of reality. It takes a number of things to improve the popularity and consumer acceptance of a person, business or brand online.
Once a significant popularity has been gained it would be wise to repeat the process.
Popular Through Events
Once the event someone has attended has been introduced online it takes…
- quality community management
- compelling content
- pleasant visuals
…to keep consumers coming back for more.
All of this and more is what I have found it takes to become popular online.
Let me know how I can help.
