Fanning the Flames of the Viral Marketing Fire

Social news is the largest source for igniting campaigns, according to Greg Finn, Director of Internet Marketing at
YouTube Product Manager also spoke at this session. He says viral videos "just happen" sometimes. Some videos take off in the wild with no marketing involved. The original uploader probably did not think the video would go viral.

He says it's a good idea to use subtle branding and stealth marketing efforts in guerilla marketing. Seed to news sites and blogs. Use YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook to fan the flames. With explicit marketing, you should communicate directly with the YouTube community and use video responses, subscriptions, and comments to engage in dialogue.

Liu also discussed "putting gasoline on the fire" with viral videos through paid marketing. He says to use YouTube promoted videos to seed discovery, home page ads for massive reach, and other ad platforms to drive traffic to YouTube watch pages. Organic traffic often exceeds paid traffic after the initial burst though, he says.

As far as YouTube SEO basics, Liu says titles should be accurate and descriptive. Use keyword tags and avoid keyword stuffing. Community opinion, embeds, and YouTube Insight should all be utilized.