Earlier this week, the Kony 2012 video became the most viral video of all time, viewed over 100 million times in 6 days. That’s an enormous amount of exposure in a very short time.
Jackie Huba, in her insightful blog, The Church of the Customer, expressed a valid concern:
“I'm wondering if it has renewed demands by the C-suite that their team get them a viral video ASAP. Smart marketers know that producing a video that spreads like Kony 2012 is like catching lightening in a bottle. You can try it, but the odds are stacked against you.”
In other words, trying to grow your business by banking on going viral is a lot like planning to get rich by winning the lottery – those odds are equally stacked against you. Your chances of success are a LOT higher, if you focus your efforts on delivering a rock-solid product or service through a superior customer experience.
Sure, your message is important, and you need to get it out there. But don’t invest too much thought into making the message go viral. Instead, invest your thinking into how you can delight the customer by anticipating their needs, solving their problems, and delivering the kind of experience that will cause them to want to tell everyone they know about you. After all, that’s the kind of viral that you probably really want, isn’t it?
Thanks to Tom Fishburne's humor, we're warned of the folly of banking on the improbable.
