We all strive for the viral effect when sharing content on social media, and when it happens, we need to know where Social Equity is derived.

Virality is one of the most common terms when it comes to social media measurement. How many people are we reaching? Is our content being shared? Is our network growing? Is our business growing? It all relates to virality. Yet, while we measure what the viral effect might be, we may not be taking note of how it adds Social Equity, and therefore value to our business.

In this week’s Social Equity segment, we aim to explain how the viral effect on social media adds value to your business in three ways: credibility, exposure and network growth.

Credibility

If Company A and Company B are both pitching your project but Company A has an outstanding track record, dozens of referrals, an impeccable portfolio and a proven history of success, whereas Company B has no distinguishing benefits, you will most likely choose Company A. That is not to say that Company B might not be capable of producing good work, but without the same level of credibility that is backing Company A, it is hard to choose Company B.

The viral effect adds a tremendous degree of credibility to your brand. Your name popping up on news feeds, timelines, in groups and on search engines means you have made a name for yourself. When it comes to making a choice between you and your competitor, you can bet that the credibility garnered from the virality of your company’s content will make a big impact.

Exposure

Once again, if you are choosing between two companies, and Company A is easily discoverable for a given topic while you have to dig deep to even find a mention of Company B, chances are the choice is Company A.

Discoverability is at the heart of success in the online world. The goal we are all aiming to achieve is inbound business. According to the inbound marketing company, HubSpot, inbound leads cost 61% less than outbound. The exposure you receive from viral content can translate directly into inbound traffic, calls, leads and business.

Network Growth

If you’ll recall, our first Social Equity segment discussed the example of the dentist. Essentially, the added value of the dentist’s online presence and the size of his network allowed him to sell his practice at a much higher price than if he was relying solely on his current patient roster. The growth of your network resulting from the viral exposure of your content will lead to Social Equity in the long-run.

Keep in mind, virality is not a one-hit-wonder concept. Of course, there are examples where content goes viral without a business strategy behind it. (It is almost guaranteed that the sneezing panda wasn’t intending to capitalize on the massive audience that watched the video.) In business, if your content goes viral, you can expect to see a spillover effect. While not everyone exposed to your content will look to familiarize themselves with your brand, there are those that will. Down the road, this increased network will mean big value for your business.

Have you seen any of your content go viral? Tell us what you noticed in the comments below or on Twitter!