Any clip that starts with "What's up, viral marketing douchebags?" has to go horribly wrong to lose my attention. Fortunately, this YouTube video response... wait where are you going?! This is actually pretty amusing. Anyway, this YouTube video response to the Activision viral marketing attempt doesn't go wrong at all.
I use the term social & viral marketing to refer to what I do: contagious, organic marketing. But there are a myriad of other words and phrases people use to describe it.
Past Paradigms of Viral Marketing
In the past few years we've all started to understand the value of social media, the importance of great content, and the great success that can be had when one reaches the so called "tipping point" of virility when promoting their content.
It seems as if viral marketing is one of the most successful strategies that one can employ with Internet marketing. Viral marketing is an Internet marketing practice that employs referrals, recommendations, and reviews in order to quickly spread word about a product or service. Gmail, Utube, and various viral videos on the Internet have all been transmitted by the viral marketing technique. These online entrepreneurs have enjoyed immense success by employing the viral marketing technique.
When I saw the title of a sales page dealing with Viral Marketing, I was skeptical of this type claim. Then I started reading about a new Viral Marketing Idea which was about as different as anyting that I had ever seen.
This viral marketing strategy starts with the e-book being given away for free without even asking for your e-mail address or name. That is almost unheard of in modern Internet Marketing.
Recently I shared with you a few tips on how to generate word-of-mouth marketing for your business. I received a few emails as well as comment post on the difference between word-of-mouth marketing and viral marketing, so I figured what better time to explore the differences in these two types of marketing.
Word-of-mouth marketing is when a business does something and their consumer tells five to ten friends. Word-of-mouth marketing has an echo affect. The initial sound is loud and then it fades into the background.
What is viral marketing?
Friends in social media and social networks have asked me for my perspective at gatherings and recent conferences like BizTechDay and SNAP Summit. I used to work at Slideshare, which I joined partially because I was fascinated that it had spent $0 on marketing yet was ranked around 2100 on Alexa. During my first three months, I played a minor part in contributing to its skyrocketing from 2100 to a rank of up to 800. Talk about viral!
A majority of real life companies have "refer-a-friend" deals that are a very low cost way to acquire new customers. In SL, referral deals are even more effective due to the ease of communication between avatars and the viral aspect of SL. MutualWin for free aggregates the referral deals that are available and adds a new element. It encourages charities to become the "referrer", giving companies both a new method to acquire customers while helping non-profits.Questions?[Removed for spam]
