One of the toughest things for a new brand can be getting its name out there and catching the public’s attention. One easy way to boost your publicity is to take part in a viral challenge. Most viral challenges generate a large amount of attention. So brands that choose to participate in a viral challenge or even reference it in their marketing can boost their recognition.

Participating in a viral challenge can have a great benefit to brands both big and small. Here are 3 steps that can make taking part in a viral challenge as a brand simpler and more profitable.

3 Steps to Taking Part in a Viral Challenge as a Brand

1. Pay Attention To Trends

Keeping up with current trends is an essential part of a good social media marketing strategy that can ensure your brand stays on top of the game at any given time. When it comes to viral challenges, timing is key. In order to maximize your profit and publicity benefits, you want to take part in the trend as early as possible.

Getting a head start on-trend marketing can be easy if you’re consistently monitoring social media trends. This means staying up to date and watching out for any new Twitter trends, YouTube’s trending tab, TikTok’s front page, or setting an alert for articles talking about a new viral trend or challenge. You can make this process even easier by utilizing various software and programs that do the work of analyzing viral trends for you. While you can’t truly predict what the next big viral challenge will be, staying informed on what’s trending can help you react quickly.

2. Pick the Right Viral Challenge

Don’t jump on every single trend you see. Picking the right challenge can be the deciding factor in how your brand’s participation is received. Find a viral challenge that suits your brand and message in order to get the most benefit from your participation. The challenge doesn’t need to be perfectly relatable to your product or service. But it’s important that the two make sense together and are compatible in a marketing capacity. Forcing a connection where one doesn’t exist will come across as disingenuous and could hurt your reputation.

3. Your Brand Must Be Prepared

While it’s important to react quickly when taking part in a viral challenge, you shouldn’t dive in head-first. Being prepared with a plan and marketing strategy is crucial to making the most of the challenge and resulting publicity. You will need to know who’s taking part in the challenge and if the group includes your target audience. This will then allow you to create a campaign that will appeal to them.

Since viral challenges result in a lot of attention, be extremely careful to avoid any questionable wording or imagery that could lead to controversy and backlash towards your brand. Have a team ready to respond to any initial reactions and monitor the response your campaign is getting. Even though you’re following a trend, come up with a way to make your campaign original. This allows you to stand out and make it easier for people to relate your brand to the challenge.