
Chatbot ViralityFebruary 22, 2018Written by Alex Debecker

Chatbot Virality: Shares, Features, and Quirkiness


It's the Holy Grail.

To me, chatbots have the greatest chance of going viral. They're usually social, sometimes fun, they live on a platform that begs for you to share stuff (Facebook Messenger, Kik, etc.).

So, let's talk chatbot virality. How does it work? Is it worth it? What can be done? I will throw in some definitions and concepts, so anyone without a marketing background can enjoy the article.



What is 'virality' and why is it amazing?




Why is it amazing? Because it's free acquisition!

chatbot user virality






Word of mouth versus virality

This may get political, but I believe word of mouth is a form of virality. I know I'm not alone in thinking this, but I am also aware that many of my marketing peers don't agree.

To some, a product can only be 'viral' if word about said product is spread in the context of using it. Confused? Let me run through an example.

Consider Twitter. Twitter is great (hey, follow me!). However, Twitter would be pretty pants if you were there by yourself, tweeting away. Within the context of this product, you need to invite others to use it. If you don't, you're all alone.

Now consider Buffer. Buffer is a social sharing tool (a bit more than that, read their page to know more). I love Buffer. But you know what? I don't use them. I love them for their culture, their blog, their customer service. And I talk about them all the time -- case in point, this article. This is word of mouth.

So, Buffer is not viral while Twitter is? I don't necessarily think so. A great company culture or product will create virality.

All this to say, if your chatbot goes viral based on being amazing (i.e. word of mouth) as opposed to based on a specific feature (i.e. 'official' virality), rejoice; you've done it!


Chatbot virality: the easy, the good, the maybe-not

Now that we're all caught up on the wonderfulness of virality, let's focus on chatbots. Though chatbots are new, they are products like others. You should, therefore, see if injecting a bit of a viral loop into yours makes sense.

I want to focus on three approaches to virality in chatbots.


The easy: group chatbots



This is what the guys at Roll did.


Easy, simple, useful; super fun.


Read more about Roll's story from its founder, Ryan. 



The good: built-in features and amazing UX

The best way to build chatbot virality in a non-group environment is to build an amazing experience. I'm sorry, peers, but this trumps any viral feature anyone could ever build.

If your users have a tremendous experience. If they love it from start to finish. If they get huge value from using your chatbot. They will share it. There is almost no way around it.

To build an amazing experience, think of your conversational UX. Factor in your One True Goal. Get your users from A to B as quickly and efficiently as you can.

This is our focus with most of our clients. We don't start their bot with the intent of building some super cool feature that will make the users share. We build it to satisfy a demand (which our client has identified) in a way that makes sense to the user.

The second best way to build virality in your chatbot is through features. This can be as simple as a share button.


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The maybe-not: company-facing chatbots (and more)




