What's the best way to create buzz around a newly launched startup?

Optimal exposure is achieved through various forms of exposure. Groupon had a unique offer and used email marketing and PR to start the buzz going. Videos that go viral on Youtube have an attention getting quality and are properly submitted and described (video seo), then they are shared by the original viewers and re-shared by the additional viewers. If you need any assistance in promoting your business I would be happy to help, 888-380-3050

Answered 11 months ago by Inna Ninna Shapiro

No easy answer to how videos can go viral...

Other than the external efforts like email marketing, smart advertising, event promos etc, the video itself can try to address a few things:

1) Shock! throw something controversial out, people get bored of bland stuff
2) Catchy Music with Sexy dancers, just see how Gandam Style went viral!
3) Make an explainer video, with a quality script, adding twists and humor

If making a DIY video, check out my comments on Quora: http://qr.ae/8W4XO

Answered 9 months ago by Brendan Yong

Number 1 Rule for ANY business, young or old: DIFFERENTIATE.

Spell it out with unmistakeable clarity what makes your business DIFFERENT than the other guys, what makes you special, one of a kind. That's what everyone wants to know, and that's what attracts interest and gets you remembered.

Al Shultz
http://www.alshultz.com/

Answered 11 months ago by Al Shultz

As many of the commenters have noted, there's no silver bullet and it really depends on the industry. The best thing you can do is go where your potential customers are and start talking to people about their pain points. Then build a service that solves those pain points. If you want to build a video there are a lot of ways, including working with a creative agency. If you don't have the budget to work with an agency then check out http://videorascal. We're building an application that enables businesses to create professional promo videos.

Answered 11 months ago by Andrew Page

The best buzz comes from not generating a buzz at all. Many YouTube videos that generate millions of unique views do not put a marketing plan together prior, it just happens from the nature of them being awesome. Bringing something to market that is so unique like Groupon and it will generate a buzz on its own. Of course, this doesn't work with everything but it does happen more often than you think.

Answered 11 months ago by Maciej Fita

If you have a store front having the local Chamber of Commerce throw a grand opening celebration is one of the best ways that I know of. Of, course before you open up you should have your website up and running and have business pages on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. If you don't have a storefront launch it at a series of local organization, Chamber etc, luncheons or happy hours.

Answered 11 months ago by Chuck Lee

Hi Bryan,

The best way to create buzz is to create an incredible user experience. Videos go viral because people laugh (or cry) so hard they want to share them with all their friends. Groupon offers great deals that get even better if you share them with your friends.

You don't give us any hint as to what kind of startup you're part of. If you are an internet site, give away memberships for such a cool experience that people share it with their friends (and give them some incentive to do so). If you have a product, offer it free to key bloggers so they'll share it with their audience. If you have a restaurant make a dish that's so tasty that people bring their friends and families just to try it....

You get the idea.

One word of caution. As Michael says, the thing you're offering has to have a WOW or none of this will work.

I'm happy to offer more ideas if you want to share more about your particular startup.

Happy Networking!

Answered 11 months ago by Andrew Winig

There are so many different factors to take into consideration before you answer this question -- What is and where is your target audience? Is your product ready to sell or are you looking for alpha or beta testers? Are you looking for funding, bootstrapped or self-funded? What are the media, events and influencers appropriate to your industry? Are there many competitors? Do you have immediately apparent benefits or does your product need a lot of explanation? What are your marketing assets? Do you have a great company story? Do you have happy customers who will speak on your behalf? Do you have a wonderful, happy to be out in public founder or someone who isn't as comfortable speaking in public? How about content creators? Do you have a company blog? Or thousands of followers on Twitter?

Understand your goals and your assets and you will have a better idea of the direction your marketing needs to take. There isn't any "one-size-fits-all" marketing for startups.

Answered 11 months ago by Bobbie Carlton

experiential marketing is cool and has a wow factor.. it's important to generate offline material that creates a stir then distribute on youtube and push out through social media channles. coordinating hashtags through twitter is pretty important to gain traction. but the ideas all comes down to creativity, really.

Answered 11 months ago, Edited 11 months ago by Michael Coughlin

Social media :)
Groupon was the first of its kind and that's why it went so viral. Good SEO on YouTube videos and blasts to various outlets help make videos so viral. Having a big target market helps as well. For Groupon, everyone loves discounts and coupons and getting things cheaper than they really are. EVERYONE loves this so it was easy for them to appeal to a large audience. They also probably did a lot of things like SXSW and other exhibits to show off their product. The YouTube videos that go viral are ones that appeal to a large audience as well, most everyone laughs at Antoine Dodson so it was easy for that video to go viral. The larger the audience appeal, the larger the possibility for virality.

Answered 11 months ago by Jessica Martinez