Viral Marketing

viral

What is Viral Marketing? Why does it sound so scary? Well to be honest, you really have nothing to fear other than wasting a lot of time using the wrong mediums.

According to Wikepedia, take it or leave it  however I think this definition is not that bad…“The buzzwords viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. The basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable.”

Well if that is the case than couldn’t Viral marketing be considered Guerrilla Marketing Online? Yes, i t could be. Much like a Guerrilla Marketing plan, Viral marketing uses already developed Social Networks to spread the word about your brand. Instead of posting flyer’s on a telephone poll, you instead post them on different networks.

Does it Work? The answer to that is simple. Do you think that Coca Cola and Bank of America would have a facebook site, or a twitter page if it didn’t? Developing a good Viral Campaign for your website not only drives traffic to your site, but it also helps get your site ranked with key search engines.