Viral marketing basics
I have recently posted on my unbelief in search engine optimization; I also have posted a few times about social websites that along with communities should help you to succeed in the short and long run.
Social websites welcome all sorts of viral marketing products - they are fast to spread around. Social websites are as a rule places where people search for information and fun, not products.
So if you target social websites and online communities with information then it is a good idea to explore viral marketing and its techniques. I think the classical sample of viral marketing of the past decade is free e-mail from Hotmail that was very popular with the Internet audience of that time.
What is viral marketing?
Viral marketing refers to marketing techniques that seek to exploit pre-existing social networks to produce exponential increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes, analagous to the spread of a computer virus. It can often be word-of-mouth delivered and enhanced online; it can harness the network effect of the Internet and can be very useful in reaching a large number of people rapidly.
Its characteristics:
- Free products or services
- Easy transfer to others
- Scales easily
- Exploits common motivations and behaviors
Sex, humor, celebrities are good candidates to become a successful viral marketing product. Standard forms for online viral marketing products: images, jokes, videos, websites, animations, audios.
According to Seth Godin, viral idea:
No one “sends” an idea unless:
a. they understand it
b. they want it to spread
c. they believe that spreading it will enhance their power (reputation, income, friendships) or their peace of mind
d. the effort necessary to send the idea is less than the benefitsNo one “gets” an idea unless:
a. the first impression demands further investigation
b. they already understand the foundation ideas necessary to get the new idea
c. they trust or respect the sender enough to invest the time
I have posted my ideas on MillionDollarHomePage. It is also a product of viral marketing of the recent time (2005).
Summary: When you read these lines you think that it is an easy task to make a nice viral marketing catch. Once you turn to your website the ideas that come to your mind are commonplace and far from being original – an image or joke or something. How to keep within the viral marketing principles and stay original? The only answer you can get – experiment.
I also recommend you researching the List of Internet phenomena – explore success stories, it should help you with the ideas.
[tags]viral marketing, myspace, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, blogs, content generation, make money online, work from home, home based job, earn your living online[/tags]
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