I cannot divulge specifics, but an idea for advertising my website dawned on me. Let's pretend that back in the 1980s, some foreign government was able to clone a dinosaur that is still living(this isn't my plan, mine is more believable but its the same concept that something years ago was done in secrecy and is still around today.). That government was disbanded, as well as the group, and the mammoth was being cared for by the people who worked on the project. There are few living scientists left from the process, and they feel it is now time to come forward before they pass on. Where would I begin to start this? It's news worthy, but would I be able to get it picked up by the news without myself being a reporter? Or should I be looking at a press release? I'm in talks with a writer but I'm not even sure what I should have them write it as. I also have "documents" recovered from it years ago chronicling it. I was thinking of something along the lines of a countdown site, with some shady youtube videos that make people go "??? GIVE ME MORE!". However, I think the media will be the biggest help. All suggestions are welcomed. Thanks.
Well you should first obviously make a website about it. Explain what happened, and whatever you are trying to make viral. Then just explain everything in a press release and say for more info go [insert your url here]
I like the idea of making a weird countdown site with a place to enter your e-mail. Make a bunch of shaky Youtube videos and hire people to post on forums with odd stories/scary stories. Go the way of The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield. The above poster's idea isn't too good - don't divulge all the secrets at once. A press release could help, though.
Well, I'd agree with MoneyMoose's first post. A collection of Youtube videos would be interesting, as well as a countdown website. I'm not particularly experienced with press releases, so I'm not sure how effective they'd be. I really have no idea what your viral subject is, but you could possibly send a letter to some national news programs like Dateline or 60 Minutes or something. I don't know if your "slip" is really what you're planning to reveal, but it sounds pretty interesting already!
You can't MAKE something go viral... they just either go viral or not. What you're describing has already been done, in a book... and a movie... it's called the DaVinci code. But yah, stupid slip.... if your viral skills are as good as your secrecy skills, then dont hold your breath
I also agree with Breakaway11, that you can't MAKE something go viral. You can do your part to promote it, but do you think the family that posted the "Charlie, that hurt!" video online expected it receive tens of millions of views? Good luck with your marketing plan, though. Do what you can, and if the "secret" is fascinating yet believable, I'm sure it will catch on.
Pretty epic stuff. If you need help promoting your Youtube videos, holla at me! I can get them to the front page of Youtube for a few bucks.
^Haha, I was originally going to say mammoth, but I decided to put a dinosaur. Mine has nothing to do with cloning Thanks for the help though.
If it's good enough, then build it up. Make people wait and anticipate it! In response to some earlier posts; You do have a choice whether or not to make your site viral or not. If you don't say anything to anyone at all and keep this your little secret (which you can't do at this point because you made a post on the world wide web about it) then, of course, your site would not go viral because no one would know about it. However, just by you posting this, you're guaranteed to get some attention and if this 'secret' is really as big as you make it sound then, a few snippets into the truth, and you have something capable of becoming a household name.
A little secret about viral marketing--the best way to get widespread attention with a viral campaign is to do PHYSICAL advertising. I have seen hugely successful viral campaigns as well as some that quickly fizzled out and the differentiating factor seems to be the extent of the reach into the physical world. Something about the bridge between online and other forms of media/real life seems to bring in the masses and spark interest. My advice? Create some flyer/design that is intriguing, confusing, and gives NOTHING away about what it is. Buy some poster space at a bus stop or hang a few in abnormal places. Even better, create flyers with just a logo and plaster them up on multiple buildings around your city. The more vague and creative you are, the more intrigued people will be--the best kind of advertising is advertising that doesn't look like advertising
You could leave an official looking document / folder on a train - this would hint at the project, might get picked up and passed to the press - from there it could be huge. But if the story you create is truly news worthy - then the PR directories are probebly the place tp post - the media, like most of us, are busy and under pressure to deliverso if you can present them with a story that sounds plausable, and is difficult to dispeove, has some checkable facts that if asked about govenment will not comment on. Try to find a event from the same time that you wish to set your story, that was reported a bit, but was also a bit of a mystry, did a high ranking politition resign, did a man drop out of sight if you can hint that these events were linked to the story it is a bit that sounds like it might be right but would be difficult to get a definate yes on. Then you may get it picked up - if the big news outlets even do a small peice on it your story should go global.