19 Nov 08 Viral Marketing and Online Advertising
Viral marketing
Many people would have seen the keywords “viral marketing” around the internet. To most of you, this may not be so new, but techniques are pretty amazing. I will just start from the part “what is viral marketing?”. It’s marketing for advertising like the way virus does. That would be my simplest explanation. In order to know what the IT world’s current buzz is all about, you have to keep an eye on the current developments and technologies. Consequently, you need to create a virus for your marketing plan so that you can sell successfully. Fundamentally “Viral Marketing” and “viral advertising” particularly online, is a way marketers can take advantage of pre-existing social networks to get a message out there using self-replicating viral processes, which are comparable to the way a physical virus or computer virus would spread (Mike Filsaime 2007).
How Viral Marketing Works
The Techniques
You have to ask yourself what makes you so special or what makes you unique from the crowd. That is an important question. Many people turn to creative ideas or new innovations in the first place, I do not mean that’s typical but that’s old. There are more than that you can actually do. Of course, innovations bring a lot of attention whereas there are many innovations every month, you might as well get drown into old ones after a while. Or use Apple’s iPod method; just create a buzz with variable sizes and designs where the basic functions are basically the same since its first product. Another technique is to create a controversial situation to get an attention. It is however likely to have both positive or negative effects, for example, whether the Hitler is still alive or not. That kind of blog or article might intrigue majority of people. In addition, another fantastic viral marketing we have to accept today is, funny comedy video shared online. Funny stuff is fast spreading type via internet. Last month, Obama vs McCain’s dance showdown on the internet has been so famous because of election period. Let me remind you not to discount the effect of funny stuff because they are unbelievably easy to be contagious. Another controversial technique is to provide emotions, some people use emotion and heart-warming techniques as their viral marketing. You may probably have seen somewhere on the website or a web link or an email that explains how poor the kid is, contribute to feed the children or how dangerous drunk driving is. However, this one would mostly become scam or NGOs asking for donations. On the other hand, E-cards and celebrities speaking for good cause are precisely the kind of viral marketing that provides emotions. Last but not least, create a curiosity by building anticipations to your audience is one of the most effective methods I have ever experienced. For example, Sony Play Station IV will be launched by this or that date. That will create a serious curiosity to Play Station players around the world. It actually did stir the audience in previous releases as well. Or Harry Potter series, you let audience to anticipate and expect what is going to happen next about 4 years prior to JK Rowling’s final release.
Did it work?
Of course it did. Back in mid 90s, hotmail and yahoo put their sponsored link on every bottom of the sent mail. “get your free-email at yahoo.com”. Just after a couple of years, they are the two biggest web-based email providers for next 10 years. The built-in signature spread like a virus every time a recipient reads an email sent from Yahoo! and Hotmail. Today, more of less, everyone has Yahoo!, Hotmail or Gmail nowadays.
My Opinion
Well, I use it indirectly and sometimes directly, it is not a one time hit, once you start it, then you have to keep it going. For websites and blogs, you constantly need to have regular readers and audience, so that you may monetize your traffic. But that’s not just that, sharing valuable information is one of my main objectives as I would try to monetize in other sites. Tell a friend script or social bookmarking or forum signature posts are part of the viral marketing as well. So, if you have perfect examples of the techniques I have mentioned above. Then, go for it. It could never go wrong because viral marketing is one of the most effective methods available on online marketing.
Any comments and suggestions, feel free to comment. You may as well want to subscribe my blog for my regular blog entries. Thanks for reading.
Reference: Mike Filsaime, 2007, “Virology: The Secret Science of Viral Marketing”
Tags: advertising, make money, online, viral marketing
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Nice Site layout for your blog. I am looking forward to reading more from you.
Tom Humes
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Linn Reply:
November 20th, 2008 at 9:42 PM
thanks alot for your comment Tom.
you have a fantastic website as well.
i will read more into it as my job is a bit related to satellite and telephony as well.
cheers
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Very sound advice Linn!
Viral Marketing stems from the age old word of mouth sales method. There is no other marketing format that gets better results. Anyone considering an online business should also look into a list builder.
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thanks for the comment. Pat.. another absolutely creating traffic is, leaving comments, it actually accelerates very much, now i can really feel the momentum with leaving comments.
cheers
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