{"id":2239,"date":"2015-03-17T11:07:48","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T18:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=2239"},"modified":"2015-03-17T11:07:48","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T18:07:48","slug":"what-you-can-learn-from-thedress-to-help-your-small-business-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/what-you-can-learn-from-thedress-to-help-your-small-business-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"What you can learn from #thedress to help your small business marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, #thedress <\/a>became the latest viral phenomenon sparking a global social media debate over the color of a dress to be worn by the mother of a Scottish bride to be. The science<\/a> behind why some saw the dress as black and white, which it actually is, and others perceived the colors as white and gold, is pretty fascinating in and of itself. But for marketers, far more interesting was the result in demand for the dress, which sold out in minutes<\/a> once the debate over its color hit cyberspace.<\/p>\n

While the odds of winning the lottery may be greater than becoming a viral sensation, wrote Slate contributor Chris Wilson in \u201cWill My Video Get 1 Million Views on YouTube,<\/a> some years ago; there\u2019s no reason not to try to have your small business take social media by storm. You may not get millions of tweets and Facebook shares, but\u00a0 understanding what resonates with friends and fans and what kind of content they are more apt to \u201clike and share\u201d can give your marketing effort and brand building a huge boost.<\/p>\n

Viral marketing success starts by asking yourself is the content something people can connect to quickly and viscerally, according to Forbes contributor Allen Adamson in \u201cThe Secret Behind a Viral Marketing Hit.\u201d<\/a> If your customers and targets can connect with your content, there\u2019s a good chance they will want to share it, as evidenced by #thedress.<\/p>\n

And the potential for sharing continues to grow as people stay more and more connected through their mobile devices<\/a>.\u00a0 ShareThis reports<\/a> that \u201cmobile engagement has nearly doubled since the beginning of 2014. Mobile sharing represents nearly 20% of total activity within mobile devices, compared to only 6% within desktop environments<\/p>\n

Know what\u2019s shareable<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to finding out what your audience finds interesting and in turn shareable, you need to pay attention. Listen to what your customers and prospects are telling you and analyze how they interact with your content. The more likes, comments and shares you get indicates what resonates with your small business audiences.<\/p>\n

While the subject matter of\u00a0your small business content has to be of interest to audiences; there are some types of content that have proven to be \u201chighly shareable.\u201d Keep these in mind as you develop your content strategy.<\/p>\n

Video and images:<\/strong> A picture is worth a thousand words and potentially even more shares if it\u2019s entertaining, fascinating or\u00a0 informative.\u00a0 Make it more compelling with some commentary and text. Video and images enables you to communicate something more powerfully than you might be able to do with words<\/p>\n

Infographics:<\/strong>\u00a0 Infographics do a great job of clearly conveying topics that rely a lot on data. They are generally visually engaging and colorful and can be very impactful to validate blog or website content. As long as you have data for backup; you can create an Infographic on any topic such as Plantronics Infographic on Flexible Working.<\/a><\/p>\n

News:<\/strong> Become a source of breaking news about your industry or marketplace to gain the attention and shares of your audience. Add value by offering your opinion or additional background on the situation.<\/p>\n

How to guides and lists:\u00a0<\/strong> How-to-guides and lists are popular for sharing. They are easier to digest than long blocks of text and readily can answer questions about how to resolve a problem.<\/p>\n

SlideShare presentations:<\/strong> You can turn most any presentation you\u2019ve already created for a meeting, conference or your own small business event into a SlideShare presentation.<\/a> You\u2019ll need to open a SlideShare account. Once you do, upload your SlideShare and easily share it across your social channels.<\/p>\n

You never know exactly what will be the next viral sensation. But if you think about your customers’ needs and interests and what appeals to them on an emotional level, your small business may be the next \u201cdress\u201d or even \u201cgrumpy cat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, #thedress became the latest viral phenomenon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[510],"tags":[1188,957,580,450,1189],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}