What is online viral marketing? It is basically a successful advertising campaign. The phrase was a creation of a business school graduate, popularized by the media and a media critic named Douglas Rushkoff. It simply refers to your ability to reach an unlimited number of people by starting out with a handful.

If you tell me something that I think is interesting, I will tell my friends about it. If they, too, think it is interesting, they will tell their friends. They probably know people that I do not know. So, the circle of growth is unlimited. In the old days, we called it word of mouth advertising.

The difference between word of mouth advertising and online viral marketing has to do with the number of people that someone talks to every day. Let’s use me as an example. In my “real” life, I talk to my close family members every day. I may talk to my extended family members and my friends once a week.

Some of them I haven’t talked to in years, “live”. But, via e-mail and social networking sites, I communicate with all of them, every single day. If I find something that I believe in…something that moves me, I will share it with at least 30 people.

Surveys say that the average person shares this kind of thing with only 12 people. So, I may be a little outside of the curve. The point is that the 30 people that I know will share with others. Effortless, information moves through this wave of people. Will the wave eventually crash?

If you have an effective online viral marketing strategy, you may be able to generate numerous waves; when one crashes, another forms. There are a number of different strategies, but all of the effective ones include one element. There is something “free” for people to share.

In some cases, it is simply a well-done commercial. Sony had one a while back. It was posted on YouTube and people sent it around. To date, it has had hundreds of thousands of views. How many people bought something? Who knows?

The point is this. In order to reach hundreds of thousands or millions of people in the past, you would have had to pay for television advertising. And, of course, you would have had to buy space on the most popular shows and the costs are prohibitive. With online viral marketing, you can reach that many people for next to nothing.

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Filed under: Marketing and Advertising

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