Share My Post and I’ll Buy a Pet for the Office

Social Media Marketing Tips from the “1 Million Likes for a Puppy” Story

By now we have all heard about the puff piece of the kids whose dad told them if they got 1 million Likes on their Facebook photo they could have a puppy. Within seven hours or so, they had 1 million likes and their dad kept his promise.
While I don’t particularly care about the controversy that quickly ensued regarding the dad’s level of responsibility by asking for attention on Facebook (the kids and dog are all doing fine), through the lens of a b2b marketer, 1 million Likes in less than a typical business day is something worth noting.
Turns out that dad is a digital-media scholar at Northeastern University, and while he didn’t actually create the Facebook page, “Twogirlsandapuppy,” there are a few key aspects of their story that make for great social media marketing tips.

1) Start with a goal

How many of us are operating without a specific, metric-driven goal? It sounds simple, but make it a point to really define what you’re trying to do and the expected behavior around it. Getting a million unique visitors is cool but is it really success? There’s a ton of metrics that define social engagement, for instance, but they’re completely useless if they don’t appropriately align with your end goal.
Finding metrics that validate whether you’re successful will be easier when you first have a goal in mind.

2) Focus on your target market

Rather than chasing broad traffic trends, companies with high market clarity will also discover the most effective marketing channels to run their marketing efforts through. Getting to know one market segment at a time intimately will yield far greater returns than having a one dimensional understanding across a greater number or markets. Such is the case with social media.
Organizations can cultivate loyalty for their brand more effectively with a solid understanding of their buyer and user personas. By doing so, they won’t burn hours with a spitball approach. Instead, content and delivery will meet the communication expectations of their targets, forming the foundation for successful relationship building while increasing their demand pipeline.

3) Understand viral loops

While many startups have been all over viral loops for years, digital marketing strategies including social media should encompass the most efficient means of distribution and scale. At a tactical level, if your social campaign is all about getting new visitors, consider the number of steps visitors have between entering your site and inviting the next set of new visitors. That can be a critical factor to your campaign’s viral growth. Make the process of sharing easy, even if you’re not building a social media widget. This is also a great element to test as part of you campaign optimization.
Regarding the office pet, it would take well over 1,000 shares before I could even begin to lobby for one. Perhaps the photo of the cute puppy will help.