Marketing Roadmaps

What’s so Viral about Marketing?

by

Just recently, I wrote a blogger outreach strategy for a client. My piece was part of a larger "viral marketing" effort. Which got me thinking…..

What’s so Viral about Marketing anyway?

As my readers know, I hate buzzwords. We throw them around as though they mean something Important, mis-use them horribly and in the end they often mean nothing at all.  State-of-the-art. Yeah right. Web 2.0. Uh uh. Even our beloved Cluetrain is woefully abused.

Viral Marketing. Hmmm. Seems everybody wants to do Viral Marketing these days. It’s the new black. Or whatever.

But the more I think about this, the more I realize we are once again creating a monstrous buzzword and removing the meaning. Viral Marketing (note, with a cap M) is being equated with the tools we are using, not the messages we are sending. When in fact, it is the message that is viral, not the marketing tools themselves. A good (or bad) story about a good (or bad) product will spread no matter what. It’s just faster, more efficient and sexier when we use social media than the old way. You know, just talking to people in the (real life) community 🙂

MySpace. Second Life. YouTube. Blogs. They are communities, and if we want to market within them, we must learn and play by the rules. Just like in the real world. Or the members kick us out. As they should.

But you are not doing viral marketing simply by having a MySpace page, posting a video on YouTube, starting a blog or creating something in Second Life. It reminds me of the old Mickey Rooney/Andy Hardy movies, where the solution always seems to be  "Let’s put on a show." Nowadays, the "cool" solution is to do something "viral."

But guess what, campers?  You still need to cover the basics. Is this a good story? Who would be most interested in this story? How and where do we reach them? What do they want to know? How can we help them? Are we willing to give up control of the message?

That’s the deal breaker, isn’t it? Control. If you put the story to the community, you cannot control what it does with it. You can try, but  that is just as likely to halt the spread of the message as anything else. People don’t want to be used as corporate mouthpieces. They want add their own value as they pass it on, to feel like spreading the word is helping other members of their community.

So, remember: viral marketing (note the lower case) is all about a compelling story told to the right community. Get that right, and then get out of the way.

That’s viral.

*******************

Other recent posts on this/related topic(s) you might enjoy:

The Dynamics of Viral Marketing (Eric Kintz, HP)

PR Meetup in Second Life (Kami Huyse)

Second Life (Todd Defren)

Text 100 Misses the Second Life Boat (Jeneane Sessum)

Tags:

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Its the MessageStupid

    Over at Marketing Roadmaps blog, theres an interesting post that addresses something Ive been thinking about a lot lately.
    All the new marketing and PR tools like web 2.0, social media, Second Life, blogs, vlogs, etc. are great.
    Love em.
    …

  3. What, you mean we have to have a good message? Our products have to be great?

    Heh. I liked this post Susan. Too often the focus is on the tools, because tools are easy to understand and (at least theoretically) can increase your cool factor. But if there is no there there, all the cool tools in the world aren’t going to bring you success.

  4. Can’t agree more.
    Back to basics : a good and innovative product and buzz will spread.
    Unfortunately, a lot of brands don’t have the right product for buzz.
    It’s simple me-too products.
    What to do ? Do a campaign worth talking about (Wassup, Subservient Chicken)
    All in all (Either product or campaign), what you need is a great story, you’re right.

  6. Far too often marketers become more concerned about the way in which they are going to put the message out there rather than the message itself. I think the reason for this is the control factor. They can control the channel that they use but then they are at a total lose when they loss control of the message.
    It is always funny to when people veer off course and it is always the simplest answer that will get them back on track, Back to Basics. Viral Marketing is a great tool but it is being abused. People use it to get their message out there but they forget to target the message to an audience and most of the time the message is of poor quality. This is how I judge a good message from a bad one first how did I receive the message; second, was the message meant for me and last, is it a good quality message. Viral Marketing needs to be used with caution.

  7. Well said. If people spent more time on finding out what’s compelling about their businesses, or their clients’ businesses, there would be more buzz out there about what’s going on.

    Instead, someone tarts up the old “maximizing shareholder value” line in some new clothes, and tries to pass it off as viral. Bleh.

  8. Social enterprise on the web: the early days ofFlickr

    From an Inc.com article about the birth of Flickr: (via UIE Brain Sparks)

    George Oates and Caterina Fake would spend 24 hours, seven days a week, greeting every single person who came to the site. We introduced them to people, we chatted with the…