I have talked a lot about what to do to create and promote viral content. I wanted to give some tips that have helped me ensure that my future campaigns have equal success.

First and this should be obvious before any viral launch you should have a set of metrics and goals you are looking to achieve and track. Whether that is sales, traffic, leads or links. What is it that you are looking to achieve as a result of a viral campaign? I am going to manly talk about learning from your mistakes to make future virals better as well as links and traffic as that is the most common/general goal of successful viral marketing.

1.) Feedback: Believe me there is very few things more painful then reading through hundreds of snarky comments left by the social media middle class, but beneath all the noise there may be some useful feedback. Look for repeating trends left in the comments regarding actual constructive criticism, these can be learning opportunities for you to better prepare your next piece. You will often see actual feedback about your site, regarding your design, layout or even how dumb your bio pic looks. Hopefully you can gather which feedback might have some merit and make some definitive decisions regarding your site or content. Again this will be “needle in a haystack” but if there are certain things on your domain that do not sit well with your audience you may want to change them before your next piece.

2.) Analysis: We will talk about referring domain data below but first you will want to pay attention to some things like what time of day the piece “went viral” or what day it did? How long did it take to reach critical mass on the social sites? How many Diggs, Thumbs Up/Reviews, Tweets/RT’s? Every piece is going to be different but it can help you plan and execute later if you know all of this. I know some people that only launch on Tuesdays or only start the process at a certain time of day. I like to plan things for Tues-Thurs and so they are aimed to reach critical mass for mid day. You need to find what works for you.

3.) Conversions: What type of conversions were you looking for if any? More RSS Subscribers? More Twitter Followers? Comments? Newsletters? Leads? Sales? All of these things can benefit from successful viral marketing. If you were looking to get one or more of the above, did you? If you did, why do you think you did? If you didn’t, why not? Maybe you need to make your call to action more prominent, or maybe less prominent? Maybe you need to make your RSS Button bigger or have a reminder at the bottom of the post instead of just relying on your Orange button on the side nav? Maybe your Twitter account info needs to be better located? What type of content brings more of the goal you are setting out for? Does a more specific list/tips type post get you more leads? Does an informational type post get you more Twitter followers or RSS subscribers? You need to test and test and pay attention and make note as to the answers to all these questions.

I have seen posts literally bring hundreds/thousands of new RSS subscribers or Twitter followers. I have seen virals bring hundreds of thousands of dollars in new business within days. I have seen them bring thousands of leads, and it is important that I know why, when and how. *Tip make sure you use analytics to track what referring sources brought these conversions. You can use BLVD Status to track out going clicks and other stuff more specific to viral success.

4.) Referring Traffic: There are really two parts to this section; first, traffic counts from the different social sites/blogs that you targeted and second, traffic counts from sites/blogs you did not target and otherwise didn’t really expect. You may know how much potential traffic Digg can bring (just had one last week with more than 200k) StumbleUpon can get up into the 30-50k range now, Reddit is often 9-20k and I have seen Twitter do 10-20k, I know it can do more and on avg I see it do about 3-5k (*Twitter specific articles usually get the most traffic on Twitter). It is good to note how much each one does, but the gold nugget here is the second part, which is to watch for the traffic sources that surprise you. Did you know that a foreign site similar to Digg/Reddit can bring over 20k to your site without breaking a sweat.

There are numerous blogs and social sites you might not frequent that can do serious traffic and link damage. Make note of these and if your next viral does not get submitted there, then submit them yourself or find someone you know that uses those sites. Either way it is a quick way to build your arsenal.

5.) Rolodex: This is saved for last cause it is so simple yet most people I talk to never do it. Generally speaking gaining high quality relevant links that you couldn’t otherwise get through any other means is the main reason for the majority of viral campaigns. This is a legit reason, I have gotten hundreds of thousands of links that you could never get any other way, no matter how big the link building team or how much money you had. If you want a link from WSJ or NY Post, Newsweek, USA Today etc. you gonna get those from a link broker (notice how I kept Forbes out of that list :)? Creating something truly viral and useful is the best way to get links from the big dogs. And getting links from the big dogs is what may be the difference between you out ranking your competitor.

One of the most important things you can take from this post is this; if you get a link from a big dog site, contact them and thank them. Put that author/editor on your radar, tweet their good stuff, comment on it, build a relationship and the next time you have a viral that is worthy of the big dog love send them a link. The only thing better than a link from the largest most trusted site in your industry is two links from the largest most trusted site in your industry. I am in no way suggesting you should spam and bug these people, I know how annoying it is to get asked to blog about stuff. What you are doing is finding someone that likes the content you create and you are establishing a relationship with them that can be beneficial to both parties. It is a business contact that you create, nourish etc. and it is so simple and it works well and the next time your piece gets buried and gets sub par traffic you can still come out on top with some killer relevant links. After all isn’t that the reason you started out building the content in the first place?

In 09 we have made 2 very cool updates to Social Media for Firefox. In Feb we added Twitter, Sphinn and Mixx. This lets you hit the manual button on any URL you are on and see how many Tweets it has had. In other words it lets you see how many people have posted your link on Twitter. (There are a million short url services and we are working frantically to add the most prominent in so numbers might be a little off until then)

Today I’m announcing that we have added Bit.ly the Short URL service and I am really excited about the time it is going to save you. Here is how it works.

After installing the new version, Right Click on the manual button and follow the steps to configure Bit.ly by adding in your info and api key.

Then go to any URL and click on the Bit.ly Icon

Then a box will pop up that shows the new Shortened Bit.ly url in it, hit ok that closes the box and saves the link to your clipboard at the same time.

Then go to Twitter or where ever you want to post the URL and hit paste and done the link has been shortened and added into your Bit.ly account stats automatically.

Now after you have posted the link, you can go back to the url you shortened at anytime and hit the manual button. This will load two sets of stats one showing how many hits you have sent to that url and the second showing how many stats in total have been sent to the url from all Bit.ly users. Gives you your influence numbers without always having to login or go to your Bit.ly page and also gives you an idea on how viral or how well that bit of content is doing.

Example

I tweeted a link from Mashable a little while back, and I sent it 897 hits and it got a total of 9,955 hits from Bit.ly. The post got much more traffic than that I am sure but it is pretty cool to at least get some kind of idea as to how popular it was and see your influence in that at the same time.

Remember if you don’t use all the services that are a part of SMFF you can remove them by Right Clicking on manual and configuring your settings to save more real estate in your status bar.

You can download the new version here. If you want more info on Social Media for Firefox see the video below.

***Please add reviews at the Firefox Addons page, I have been lazy and need to get it out of the sandbox there so I can have more freedom with it.

Aside from 97th Floor, I co-own an action sports news site called 5ones and a live analytics company called BLVD Status.

This week 5ones launched a very cool project that we have been working on for a very long time (initial idea Jul 08). It is called, “5ones Earth” and it is an interactive Google Maps mashup that organizes all of the worlds Surf Spots, Skate Spots, Ski/Snowboard Resorts, Pro Shops and Company Headquarters. The idea is if you are in Hawaii on vacation and you are not familiar with the local surf spots you can do a search and the application will bring back all the relevant results to your search and give you specific information on the break as well as directions. Or if you are in need of some gear you can search for a shop. Maybe you want to find a place to skate while you are visiting friends in a different state? Whatever it is we hope to organize it and share it with everyone.

Check it out and if you are into action sports and have some spots to add then please do so to help it grow and also so you can enter into the contest which has over $1,000 worth of free gear.

Original Post on It

With social media reaching near its peak, more and more people and businesses are realizing its importance. Unfortunately for most, they get their ideas from a “bag-and-tag” blog post that claims it has the end-all result to reaching viral success. There’s especially been a lot of chatter on Twitter about people being so called “social media experts/gurus” and, in turn, there have been a bunch of blog posts to ridicule those type of people. One of my favorites on the subject was You’re Not a Social Media Expert, You Idiot (funny read w/ some good insight).

One thing I think I’ve personally seen is the overuse and abuse of the “Top 10″ lists. It’s crazy…it’s like some people think they can turn their crappy content into a less-crappy viral piece by chopping it up into 10 pieces. Don’t get me wrong, I love lists and do believe they work fabulously if you put the right amount of effort into it and complement it with great content and supporting images/videos. I definitely think some people have it down to a “T” when it comes to lists (just take a look at Wired - many of those articles get great social love from all over). That’s what I want to get into with this article is placing more emphasis on your content and not taking the easy way out by going straight for a list of some type.

Prepare Your Content Well

I remember reading a great post on DoshDosh a while back (sorry, can’t remember the post) where he went into getting better content into your posts. One thing that stood out most to me was the tip to jot down some of the first things that come to mind (in regards to the article you’re prepping) and then throw that piece of paper (or document) away. THIS is your starting point! Don’t include the obvious info for your viral piece, this will help you go beyond peoples’ expectations and you’ll have a better article because of it.

Sometimes You Don’t Need to Say Anything

I’ve already said how much I like the posts made by Wired, but here’s a great example of an excellent viral piece with ALMOST no content: Top 10 Time-Lapse Videos Show Nature at Work. What an awesome concept! Videos and images are an essential ingredient to your viral souffle (duh). Never underestimate the power of content mixed in with your videos though. One place that does this well is Mixergy. They create great videos of interviews with power-players and then summarize their video with content below (great to watch + Google gets new content = everybody’s happy).

Another great example is: 34 Amazing Tumblr Themes (Twitter Never Looked So Good). If you need to rely on your images/videos, make sure they speak for themselves!

Graphics, Charts & Stats

I’ve got to say, above all, one place that I highly admire for their social efforts is Mint! Not only can they produce insanely killer content like “8 Things You Should Never Buy New” (nearly image-less), but their new wave of “information graphics” are so well put together! In case you haven’t seen any of them, here are a couple I really liked:

• Visualizing One Trillion Dollars (in-depth research of what you could buy w/ $1 Trillion)
• The Fall of GM: A Visual Guide (several factors that point out many of the negatives that brought GM to it’s currently low standing point)

Now, I realize many of you are probably like me who couldn’t draw to save their lives. But outsourcing a simple task like this and turning your research into visual points creates a much greater impact on the people who read them. A quick visit to Elance could easily help you find someone who could put your thoughts into graphs for a reasonable price.

Work Backwards

One thing that can force you to be unique is to work backwards. I think a lot of people think “this would be a great top 10 list” and then start thinking of 10 things that they can come up with. Instead, do the opposite; work on your content and research and THEN find if you can segregate that information in 10 (or 8 or 6…whatever) main concepts for a list. This way, you put more emphasis on what people read and you don’t need to pull out 10 things from your ass to make your list.

Think of List-Alternatives

Lists do great, if you get them right, but there are other ways to look at your article before you immediately think of tearing it up into 10 pieces. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Go Back in Time

You don’t need to reach 88 MPH to get there, just grab some images from Flickr and/or Google Images (be sure to reference your source!). No matter what industry you are in, you can show what it used to be like 20, 30 or 100 years ago and how people did the same things. One great ideas was 25 Years of Mac: Classic Macs Still at Work (a great article about a business owner who still uses her old school Macintosh).

Another funny one is What lifestyle gaming pics looked like in the 70’s. It’s always fun to go back and see how stupid or inefficient we were back then.

Just about any industry can do this; Automotive, Marketing, Underwater Basket-Weaving, even Skateboarding: A Radical Collection of Vintage Skateboard Advertisements

Comparisons

These can be a lot of fun to put together. Whether it be a “Pros vs. Cons” type article or like this Battlestar Galactica comparison, you can easily put together a little data that would show the ups and downs to a product, service or style. Apple hit a homerun in their Apple vs. Windows commercials because they detailed out many of the features that people loved and showed how Apple did them better.

Examples

• Atheism and Christianity Timelines Compared
• iPhone’s size when compared to other devices
• PayPal vs Google Checkout

Find What People Like

Everyone’s pre-prepping research should involve a few simple steps to make sure you’re going to be heading in the right direction. Twitter Search can be a great way to find information about what’s happening right now and what peoples’ reactions are. Chris did a really good article here about Twitter becoming the most important website since Google (a great read if you haven’t already).

Another quick search on many of the popular aggregates (Reddit, Mixx, Digg, etc) will quickly give you ideas on what to do and what’s been done. If your idea has recently been taken, read through some of those relevant posts and find how you can evolve your idea into something further. Just because it’s been said before doesn’t mean it can’t be built upon by another perspective.

Be sure to put your piece together for YOUR audience of readers, it differs amongst industries and throughout the different social sites (depending on which one you’re targeting). Jane Copeland put together a massively resourceful article on How to Leverage Web 2.0 & Social Media Sites to Market Your Brand & Control Your Message. I highly recommend reading this simply for the knowledge of how each site works and what they’re after.

Another must-read is a collaboration of must-reads over at Traffik’d: 35 Must-Read Articles for Social Media Marketers.

I was going to put together a list of websites that never made the front page of some social websites and tear them apart to find why they didn’t and what they could’ve done to improve, but I think I’ll leave that for another post. Here are a few to look at, feel free to critique/talk about them in the comments below:

• Top 10 Reasons I’ll Never Use Ubuntu
• Top 10 Indian Actoresses (besides their obvious misspelling)
• Top 10 Gadgets (a “sexy wallpapers” site talking about gadgets? really?)
• 5 Essential Car Loan Refinancing Tips

Enjoy!