Over the last few years, there have been a large number of things that “went viral” online, and this trend has certainly been noticed by the millions of small business owners across the country. Just about anything that goes viral can, in some way, be monetized, and if entrepreneurs can seize on such opportunities, they might be positioning their companies for massive success.
The problem, though, is that there’s no telling what will become viral, according to a report from the Columbus Dispatch. For instance, there was recently a dress posted online known as “The Dress,” which people were seeing as either blue and black or white and gold, and which led to some rather intense online debate. The British company that made the dress said that sales of it have skyrocketed 600 percent since it went viral.
“People are more likely to purchase an item if their friend is sharing it online,” Devra Prywes, vice president of marketing at Unruly, a company that advises brands on how to create viral videos, told the newspaper. “It’s also free advertising.”
Why is this the case?
When something goes viral, it not only generates a lot of buzz online, but also tends to get picked up by the mainstream media, the report said. That means news stories, discussion on morning talk shows, and constantly plugging whatever company makes the product in question. The end result can be millions of dollars worth of what amounts to free advertising, and that tends to drive sales pretty heavily overall.
That kind of success, in turn, can help to inform future business decisions and so on, the report said. But once again, the catch is that trying to create viral content isn’t guaranteed to actually lead to something being that much of a worldwide hit. There’s no way to know whether any sort of video or content is going to seize the public’s attention for a few days or so, and thus, any businesses banking on that kind of success will likely struggle.
Instead, it might be wiser for owners to make sure their companies are just well-positioned financially. One way to do this may be to search for more affordable small business insurance policies, including those for liability insurance, as a means of potentially trimming thousands of dollars from the company’s expenses annually.
