Viral Marketing - Getting a "Buzz" On

Viral marketing has matured a bit over the years. There seems to have been a shift to the web not just being seen by agencies and brands as another tick box for any ad campaign, which is significant enough, but now being seen as a medium where a campaign can be launched to create a nearly INSTANT buzz before it hits TV and print.  Even before a movie is released, previews and trailers are now being uploaded to YouTube and other video sharing sites -  and movie moguls now see this as standard pre-launch buzz-generation activity. 

As far as the Web's power for going viral and generating a pre-launch BUZZ, Big business "gets it".

Buzz works! It can work for small and start-up businesses, too. The planning stage of a viral campaign will set out objectives and develop the viral theme for a buzz. There are three core components to any viral campaign, and businesses of any size can use them. They are:

1. The creative material: the viral agent that embodies the message you want to spread in a digital format (image, video, text, etc). The trick is to put together material that people will be eager to share with their family and friends and people are much more eager to share "advertainment" and advertisement.

2. Seeding: distributing and placing the agent online in places that provide the greatest potential spread. Direct viral material downloads or links on special viral third-party web sites in order to create awareness and spread before users get to the campaign destination site.   Social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Del.iciou.us, and social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are a few excellent examples of Web 2.0 sites to 'seed' your viral agent to be shared by the masses.

3. Tracking: Measuring the spread of the campaign to provide accountability and prove success. It is absolutely vital that you know what is or is not working. The only way to get that information is to track the results of your seeding.

Lessons have been learned, trends have been developed and there is definitely some science involved in creating a buzz successfully. The buzz technique is here to stay and, if used strategically, it can make a difference to the success of your e-business.

Article by Web 2.0 Media Marketing - Offering a collection of social marketing guides to using the top social sites for marketing and traffic generation.

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