Viral Marketing & Public Relations
Word of Mouth =>> Word of Mouse
- Get the right message out to the right people
- ·Make sure your message can spread easily, and inexpensively
- ·Get your message out unfiltered
- ·Get your message out to online news sources and bloggers
Purely defined, a viral idea is an idea or meme that spreads itself. Perhaps the perfect example is Hotmail – every time you use it, others are invited to get their own account.Digital cameral are another excellent viral product – if you see them used or receive a picture through email, you see the benefit.
The tools of viral marketing:· Targeted email· Blogs· Permission Marketing· E-newsletters· E-magazines, Forums and Bulletin Boards
A little less strictly defined, viral ideas are ones that travel quickly and easily. The essential point is that some ideas, due to their nature, and the way they are packaged and promoted, are more likely to be passed on to other people, spreading like a virus.The key feature is that they have to be “smooth” – very easily propagated and passed on.
A message arriving in someone’s inbox with a means to pass it on to others is smooth. If someone has to cut and paste a URL to inform a friend about something, is less smooth, particularly if you are not taken to exactly the page you were referred to.
Of course, viral marketing relies on the ‘friends of friends’ to pass messages on.Viral marketing also relies on “Sneezers”. There are people out there who by nature tend to spread ideas more than others – the people who forward jokes or actually pass an email on to everyone they know because it says to pass it on to everyone they know.
Reporters and the media are by definition “sneezers”. Now the internet allows anyone to be a sneezer, and we are increasingly seeing bloggers and websites as key information distributors with increasing reach. Many have a niche where they will spread certain ideas easily. Finally, if you are looking to spread ideas, you have to realize that there are a lot of ideas out there – every reporter or blogger might have a dozen options to pursue on any given day.
In order to spread, it must be interesting and serve the ‘sneezers’ interests. The ‘wow’ or interest factor is probably more important with bloggers than the traditional media.In the commercial world, customers trust the recommendations of friends, acquaintances, and even postings on web sites and blogs more than most other media sources.
On a viral level, the negative often travels better than the positive.Many a negative message has done well on the internet before being picked up by the national media. [Honda gas mileage, iPodNanos that scratch, Kryptonite locks, Sony Spyware] Another factor: one individual who has a bad experience with a product has the opportunity to post their story and find out whether their experience is unique or endemic.
It is important to assess and know whether to respond before a negative meme spreads.