Was there a NEED TO SEE this Guerilla campaign?

The psychology behind anything that goes viral is that the user gets some sort of benefit by promoting it.

The “viral” aspect only works if, after spreading it to their friends, that user will be seen as funny, smart, up-to-date, or valuable.

So, when thinking about new Guerilla marketing content, focus on creating remarkable pieces, that will separate those who have seen it (the cool, the smart, the savvy, the geekiest…) from those who NEED to see it (beyond your potential customers)

The Viral Effect Determines The NEED To See/Read/Try It

Therein lies the Viral Effect; divising the “have seen it” from the “need to see”. And the more remarkable your Guerilla marketing is, the bigger the “NEED TO SEE”.

You’ve probably seen a very old viral video on TV being advertised in the ‘news’ and thought to yourself:

“I’ve already seen it, those TV people are always behind…”

And of course, you’re a much cooler person because you had already seen it

Alright, but how does one go about creating the viral effect in guerilla??

First of all, check through this list to make sure your content passes “guerilla quality control”:

• Very little pitch, if pitch at all

• There’s no way anybody will know what it relates to unless they watch/read it to the end

• Creates expectation/suspense/thrill/curiosity

• Goes WAY beyond “target market”, attractive to a wide range of users

If it passes all these factors, there’s a big chance you’ve got a bazooka Guerilla on your hands.

But well, it’s not like there’s an ignition button to fire up massive content syndication – specially if you don’t have a large syndication network – but here are strategies good for any marketer:

• Contact major twitter users with large heavy internet users as followers (those are the social media trendsetters). I.E: Guy Kawasaki, Perry Belcher, Richard Branson, Arleen Anderson, Chris Brogan, Chris Pirillo, etc.. You can check twitterholic.com for stats. Refer them to your video/post/campaign and ask for a retweet.

• Most twitter users have their own blogs, but it’s also good to check alltop.com for specific blogs and contact bloggers.

• On youtube, if you’re doing a guerilla video, it works very well to ALLOW embeds and comments. After all, you do want buzz, right?

This troublesome strategy of contacting social media personalities is the ONLY shortcut to those who do not have a large network of friends to syndicate your content.

The other strategy that seems to work (depending on budget) is to have a top-notch PR firm feed the media.

(of course, we’re talking about social media here – so don’t expect me to suggest helicopter-bombing-business-cards type of strategies here)

But turning any guerilla into a viral marketing depends on your ability to:

• be newsworthy

• be social (online)

(grow a large group of ‘friends’ on multiple platforms – your content syndication network)

• be remarkable

• be steady & keep ‘em coming

(turn a single campaign into multiple posts/pieces – start a specific website/blog just for it)

We’ll keep the guerilla rolling, and will post much more content here, but if you really want to overthrow the establishment and learn underground guerilleros’ tools to automate social media marketing, click here.