Going viral is the dream that many entrepreneurs, authors, and others have. It is an experience that allows you to get in touch with hundreds of thousands of people, possibly make a lot of money, and spread the word about your brand. Virality allows you to go from another person on the web to an international sensation. Then, you get to become a case study for others, and everyone will be asking you how you went viral.
You will get a lot more attention for going viral. However, there are some people who go viral only for a short amount of time. These people do go viral and bring their YouTube videos up to 100,000 views or make five times as much month on the day it went viral. However, after a few months go by, the next big thing is already here. At this time, someone else went viral, and the people who went viral a few months ago become long forgotten. One viral tweet was the one when the teacher would cancel the exam if the tweet got retweeted 15,000 times. There are other tweets that also went viral so no one wouldh have to take the final. However, those viral posts and others before them are now long forgotten.
Is viral marketing a one hit wonder? Does viral marketing result in a dramatic increase in sales, but then sales go back to normal once virality is lost? Some people are able to keep their virality long after they start going viral. There are many strategies to prolong the amount of time a YouTube video or a Facebook posts stays viral. However, these strategies do not keep virality forever. Keeping virality seemed hopeless, at least it seemed hopeless until Brendon Burchard came up with his theory, Circular Viralocity.
According to Burchard, Circular Viralocity is, “A crazy simple and effective strategy for posting and reposing specific archetypes of content on specific platforms at specific times with specific links and specific directives.” The only problem with the theory is that you could only learn about implementing this theory by buying a $1,997 training course or going to his $10,000 event in California (he gave some tickets away for free to people who signed up to his membership sites and training courses, but getting the ticket to fly to California still costs a lot for the people who do not live nearby). I did not feel like paying $1,997 or going to the event.
My solution was trying to discover the methods on my own that Burchard uses to implement Circular Viralocity. Since implementing the tactic, Burchard was able to get hundreds of thousands of extra likes on his Facebook Page. In addition, his newest YouTube videos have been viewed over 100,000 times each while most of his videos before that rarely went over 50,000 views. The results were obviously there, and the only thing stopping me from implementing Circular Viralocity was identifying how it worked.
The first place I decided to investigate was Brendon Burchard’s Facebook Page. Prior to watching his video about Circular Viralocity, my Facebook Page had under 100 likes, and I wanted to build my presence on Facebook. Most of his Facebook posts are motivational and get thousands of likes. Those are the kinds of results that we would all like to have.
While looking through his Facebook posts, I noticed a pattern. He would say something very motivational and then offer complementary content at the end of the post. That complementary content turned out to either be one of Burchard’s YouTube videos (one of the videos that got over 100,000 views), a link to one of his blog posts, or a link to Burchard’s free email opt-in box that promotes his membership site, High Performance Academy. This part of Circular Viralocity is the easy-to-understand part that most people implement. They use their social networks to get more YouTube views and blog traffic.
Most of Burchard’s blog posts start off with one of his YouTube videos. By clicking on and watching the YouTube video, that counts as another view on YouTube. There is text directly below the video that allows visitors to read what gets said in the video, or the text contains a powerful story. Burchard’s blog is a Tumblr blog which means visitors can reblog (Tumblr’s version of a retweet) or like his content. In addition, it is hard to ignore the follow button at the right corner. Right next to the follow button are links to Burchard’s Facebook Page and Twitter account.
Now let’s say you clicked on the link to one of Burchard’s YouTube videos. At the very beginning of the video’s description, Burchard promotes his Facebook Page, blog, podcast, and free book. This part of Circular Viralocity quickly became obvious, and the name gave it away. When you implement Circular Viralocity, if one social network or product goes viral, then they all go viral.
Here is the condensed summary:
- Burchard’s Facebook Page promotes his YouTube videos, podcast, email opt-in box for High Performance Academy, and blog.
- Burchard’s blog promotes his Facebook Page, Twitter account, YouTube videos, podcast, and email optin box for High Performance Academy.
- Burchard’s YouTube video descriptions promote his Facebook Page, podcast, blog, and email optin box for High Performance Academy.
That means if you see Brendan Burchard once, chances are you will see him a lot for the next 30 minutes. After you connect all of your social networks together, the next thing you need to do is post the archetypes of content that your targeted audience likes. For Burchard, that means motivational videos, and his YouTube videos that brought in over 100,000 views were motivational. In addition, most of Burchard’s posts are motivational quotes with a few paragraphs explaining that quote. This is the recurring archetype that Burchard uses to get over 10,000 Facebook likes every day.
The next part of Circular Viralocity is posting your content at the right time. Posting on Facebook at 6 am and posting on Pinterest at 6 am are two very different things. In order to find the ideal time for you to post new content, you need to figure out when your audience is on Facebook the most. Track your results and repost content so you can determine when most of your audience is on Facebook, Pinterest, and other social networks as well.
The specific links are the ones that relate to the message of your post but then lead the reader to your other content (i.e. A video or blog post). You need to make sure that the content you are introducing them to is free so you keep their attention for a longer period of time. If you wrote an inspirational post about conquering fear, the YouTube video you link to should be about conquering fear. Connect the themes of your content together with what you post on your social networks.
The last part of Circular Viralocity is giving your readers specific directives. Write posts that give the readers the right actions to do. Saying anything like, “Click this” is not the right type of action. For an inspirational post about conquering fear, a good action would be something like, “Shove fear into the very back of your mind by envisioning yourself as the most successful person in your niche.” That’s a good action to perform, and when you add the complementary video or blog post at the end of your Facebook post, more people will be inclined to click on the link.
And that’s how you master circular viralocity. After you connect your social networks, blog, and YouTube channel together, you need to focus on certain themes and have those themes reappear throughout your social media posts, blog posts, and videos.
What are your thoughts on Circular Viralocity?
Hi Marc,
Love the way you reverse engineered it, thank you for sharing!
Did you find much in terms of any specific calls-to-action? (e.g. when he pushes the seminar, or experts academy online course?)
I didn’t do extensive research on those two areas but I’m sure I could figure it out. The funny thing about marketers (and I know I am one) is that the top marketers tend to use the same tactics. Ultimately, it’s based on trust and personality. Most of the other stuff is the same.
Just want to congratulate you on what a great work you are striving for. You are doing an excellent job. I encourage you to remain focused, keep climbing, never give up, and keep putting forth the diligence necessary to reach your dreams!
Thank you Jonathan. That means a lo to me.
Circular Viralocity is definitely a useful concept and tool set. I will begin incorporating this and some of your other insights into my rapidly developing social media strategy!
Awesome Blair! Circular Viralocity is one of the best social media concepts I have come across. I look forward to seeing how it changes your social media strategy.
You’ve done a great job on extending Burchard’s offering with your own research. I admire that – you didn’t just simply “re-post”. Thanks for the hard work.
My pleasure Esther. I am happy to hear that you liked the article.
Thank you Marc! Very helpful.
My pleasure Ryan. I am happy to hear that you enjoyed the article. Burchard always comes out with incredible ideas, and after watching one of his videos, I know that there is more to circular viralocity than what I wrote in this blog post. He buys popular Facebook Pages related to his niche and spends $1,000 every day on social media advertisements. He knows his stuff.
Thank you for your very fine explanation !
My pleasure. I am glad you liked the article. Circular Viralocity is definitely a powerful idea. I’m sure there are components that Burchard discusses that I did not cover, but that’s my very educated guess on what it’s about.
Great explanation, thanks. I am wondering if that is all there is to it? Brendon is offering his Circular Viralocity process for free if you buy some motivational books from Hay House. Do I need this or just follow your process???
I do not know because I have not seen the training course. I am going to go with what I know because it has helped me, and it is easy for me to see through other people’s social media strategies. Brendon Burchard went into great detail in his Total Product Blueprint training course, and I don’t think I would have been able to cover everything that he covered. I’m still a no-go for his Circular Viralocity training course, but it is definitely worth looking into.