Viral Marketing - Stand Out! Don't Be Like The Others

So my book is out now. I promoted it on social media for 6 months prior to release. During that time, I sat in judgement of all the marketing mistakes other writers did:

• too much "buy my book" spam
• failing to connect with target market
• mis-use of goodreads

And then, as soon as I published, I found myself wanting to do the same thing.  I wanted to spam twitter and facebook with pleas to buy my book. I was so excited to have it finished I temporarily forgot everything I know about marketing.

As soon as my goodreads author profile was finished I looked at Council of Peacocks, alone, unloved on a shelf. I added it to my shelf so there was at least some love for it. Then I came "this close" to recommending it to all my friends.

Such a rookie mistake.

So I started to wonder why I'd suddenly lost my mind.

I did what other people did because it came naturally. It's what "makes sense." However, I also realize that if I do what everyone else is doing I'm never going to stand out. I have to try things that don't make sense. That's what "out-of-the-box" marketing means.

Below is a video for a recent viral marketing campaign. It works incredibly well.

At first it looks like just another funny internet cat video. Which is good. It means people will want to share it. But it's truly a commercial for O2, a UK mobile phone company.

Seeing this video reminded me of how to do marketing properly. I start work on a viral marketing campaign in a few days. I haven't seen anyone do what I'm planning. It means I'll either flop hard or stand out. Sure it's a risk but if there's one thing I know about investment:

If you want to win big you have to risk big.

Council of Peacocks Now Available: 

Amazon - United States

Amazon - Canada

Amazon - U.K.