Olivier Lasry spent 3 years working in financial services at Ernst & Young, with clients mainly operating in the new tech / media industries. Passionate about the new technology industry and its disruptive forces, Olivier then created Wingsplay, the first viral video advertising network ever, which connects influential social media users with the best viral video advertisers.
The rise of Facebook is transforming the way ads are distributed online. The online publishers who get the most attention, and generate the most engagement, are no longer big media properties. They are essentially the long tail of everyday Facebook users, who know their connections personally and engage in two-way conversations.
This evolution of online influence constitutes a huge opportunity for marketers. The best way to take advantage of online influence, however, must be clearly understood. Experience tells that the key to social media marketing lies in finding ways to enrich the voice of the every-day user; this can be done in several different ways.
1. Build valuable connections with your customers
First, brands can leverage the relationship that exists between themselves and the customer, by providing the customer with every opportunity to express (and consequently share) his "love." This is achieved by having the user engage with the brand and its material on a regular basis, once a connection is established (with users "liking" a brand's page on Facebook).
Generating engagement from such connections constitutes the basis of social media marketing. Few brands are in a position to build such valuable connections though, because doing so requires high doses of sex appeal. Fortunately, there are other methods of attaining very efficient social media marketing.
2. Use viral promotions
Advertisers can provide users with special offers, the value of which is increased when shared via social media. Groupon is doing this by requesting a minimum number of buyers per deal, in order for the deal to be validated. This entices users to share deals they're interested in.
This model of "viral promotion" can, on occasion, enrich users' voice in social media.
3. Provide compelling promotional content
What has been proven to most efficiently enrich the user's voice in Facebook, however, is providing him with remarkable video content.
If done well, such video campaigns can deliver impressive results, because users don't need a preexisting connection with the brand to spread these branded messages. Users share the content, not the brand. But the brand message is still being spread across Facebook.
The key component of this strategy is how such video content is seeded in Facebook (i.e. how viral-spread is initiated.) The best way to do this is to seed videos directly into the users' Newsfeed, utilizing the users who generate the most interaction among their connections.
To do so, few offers exist, and they all aim to leverage a network of celebrities, rather than the every-day user. However, this every-day Facebook user generates much higher viral action rates, compared with the average celebrity/brand Facebook page. This is because the every-day user knows his connections personally and engages in two-way conversations with them.
Conclusion
The key is to provide compelling video content to a fragmented network of every-day users, and Facebook is the ideal platform to do so. These users would never share "pure ads" the way a celebrity might, as a blatant endorsement. People enjoy discovering great videos before anyone else, and this type of content enables advertisers to leverage the long-tail of Facebook users, who are the most valuable publishers in social media.
This is what we focus on at Wingsplay. Also, it's just much more fun.
