What does viral marketing, cheap residential proxies and Reddit all have in common? The answer is not as surprising as it seems. In fact, it is straightforward. The thing tying them all together is more than the internet itself. It’s how the internet is used.
In this article we’ll be looking at how Reddit can be a valuable marketing platform, especially for viral content. We’ll also discuss the importance of using proxies when launching viral marketing campaigns and pitfalls to be aware of. Soon you’ll be able to create viral marketing campaigns without breaking your website.
Marketing Virally
Viral Marketing, according to Investopedia, is the “spread of information about a product or service from person to person…” exponentially. Anyone who uses the phrase: “gone viral” in reference to videos on YouTube understands the concept. Media that has gone viral is understood to be extremely popular.
There is a certain magic to viral marketing. Viral marketing aims to create media with a higher likelihood of going viral, but that isn’t always easy. Nevertheless, once something does go viral, it will be found across multiple platforms with potentially hundreds of thousands of users, if not millions, wanting to engage with it. That is the goal.
Viral marketing is important for companies or organizations. They want to bring attention to their cause, product, or website. Figuring out what goes viral requires a good deal of research and thought. But when it happens, it is undeniable and quantifiable.
Going Viral on Reddit?
There are plenty of places across the internet where ‘viral’ marketing can take place. Among the most popular social media platforms today, including TikTok or Instagram is Reddit. If Reddit users were a country, they would have a population larger than the United States. Reddit has threads for a wide range of subjects and interest specific content called subreddits.
Users are able to share content, upvote preferred content, and even participate as moderators in a given subreddit. The company is currently valued at $6 billion, with over 50 million daily users and 430 million monthly users. Links that go viral on Reddit could easily see an excess of thousands of hits.
Websites who become too popular have had the misfortune of breaking down when their servers can no longer handle all of the traffic. This includes traffic generated from going ‘viral’ on Reddit. This phenomenon is known as the Reddit kiss (or hug) of death. Yet the phenomenon is older than Reddit itself. It goes all the way back to 2005 with Slashdotting. Today, it can happen on any number of media sites including Twitter or Instagram.
Unintentional DDoS attacks
This unintentional traffic jam can happen to any site unprepared to handle large numbers of incoming visitors. And with viral content, like a top post on Reddit, it can even happen to websites accustomed to large amounts of traffic, creating a denial of service for other users. In other words, it would be indistinguishable from a real DDoS attack.
As anyone who has seen their favorite site go down can tell you, this can happen to anyone. Some links on Reddit are dead, giving potential users a 403 error code when they click on them. This can occur simply because the target site could not handle the unexpected traffic.
Websites big and small will need to think about going viral in the context of cybersecurity. As challenging as it is, many of these problems can be resolved with forward thinking and the right equipment. They never intended to go viral as there was no content marketing involved, so they weren’t prepared for this increase in traffic.
Cheap Residential Proxies
In the absence of infinite servers to handle large amounts of unexpected traffic, there are other ways to protect a network and a website from crashing. Network administrators are trained to secure routers, set up firewalls and do load testing. An individual or small scale site can get away with doing less or outsourcing those responsibilities.
In a similar way, there are tools available to help individuals and small companies do the kind of advertising, data analysis and social media management that big companies do. That tool is a residential proxy. Low cost residential proxies are out there for those concerned with cost.
Residential Proxy
Why would the average person or small company need a residential proxy? What makes it valuable or useful? These proxies can help with a wide range of tasks, including marketing tasks. For example, a residential proxy can assist with managing social media accounts across multiple platforms. It can also be used to keep users safe while browsing the internet and even help websites manage large amounts of traffic.
Load, Test and Proxy
Doing load testing and using a residential proxy are two ways small scale actors can make a difference in their cyber outlook. They can protect themselves from an unexpected traffic surge. They can also accomplish many of the tasks that big companies perform with big marketing and data departments. Reaching and serving a wider audience is just easier when using the right tools.
