A friend tells you about the new range of food processors from a well known manufacturing company so the next time you are at the mall, you are going to be tempted to check it out. Word-of-mouth publicity is the oldest form of social network marketing and the internet is only helping it grow at a global scale. According to eMarketer.com, 37% of all American Adult internet users along with 70% of online teens are involved in each month.

If these figures are anything to by, it is also predicted that by 2011, social network marketing will span at least half of all online adults and the online teens contribution is likely to go up to 84%! No big surprise here that the marketing arm of all major companies are keenly following this trend and investing in seriously. In fact, according to eMarketer.com, $920 million has already been spent in 2007 on this form of marketing and the social network marketing industry is likely to see an influx of $1.6 billion in 2008!

Viral or social network marketing is a strong force and has some core characteristics which make it formidable:

1)      direct communication between users

2)      ability to spread a good word fast

3)      offers instant information by way of hyperlinks which results in quick re-action

4)      ability to go to the right demography right away

5)      cost per person approached is lower than direct marketing

6)      informal and easy-to-handle

7)      suitable for new product launches

8)      many networks like Orkut, Facebook, Squidoo, etc available for social network marketing

However, this form of online marketing is not suitable for all products and services. Custom services tend to feel shortchanged when utilizing viral marketing as users want a defined product of service to capture their imagination. The statistics stand in favor of social network marketing and it is likely that this is going to gain maturity and morph into a mainstream marketing activity in the near future.

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Viral marketing campaigns are the hottest new buzz phrase in the world of web promotion. Viral marketing campaigns involve using word-of-mouth and other related, but more sophisticated marketing weapons to publicize your business and generate traffic to your website. Viral marketing campaigns can be cheap and yet extremely effective marketing strategies for companies of all sizes and industries.

Well executed viral marketing campaigns will succeed in spreading the word about your business or website to thousands, even millions of people in a very short time. And the best part is that viral marketing campaigns are cheap, as most of the actual work is done by your customers, or to extend the “virus” analogy, the hosts. In this respect, the dynamics of viral marketing campaigns is not unlike that of biological or computer viruses.

When a biological virus attaches itself to a host, it will multiply rapidly and, pretty soon, an exponentially growing virus population will explode within the host. Well designed viral marketing campaigns can spread your promotional message in similar numbers on the internet and create massive and cheap publicity for your business.

Launching successful viral marketing campaigns is not as easy as it might sound. For starters, not all viral marketing campaigns are uniformly successful. A mishandled viral marketing campaign can be annoying and could easily drive away prospective customers. The key to successful viral marketing campaigns is unique and useful content that users will voluntarily share with their friends and family. Content is king. The promotional aspect of your viral marketing campaigns must be incidental to the content – at least that is how it must appear to the prospective customer.

If you are thinking about launching viral marketing campaigns to promote your business or website, here are a few tips that will point you in the right direction.

1. Subtlety is the key: As mentioned earlier, the key to successful viral marketing campaigns is the subtlety of the advertisement. This point cannot be over emphasized. Viral messages can be part of an email, an eBook or a piece of software, but the important fact is that the message must be relevant, unobtrusive and incidental.

2. Appeal to emotions: Analyzing successful viral marketing campaigns of the past clearly indicates that the most important quality of a good viral message is that it must contain a compelling call to action. A viral message that does not elicit an emotional or immediate response is unlikely to be effective.

3. Be unique: It is vital to stand out from the competition. However, this is easier said than done. The competition in the world of e-commerce is cutthroat. Nothing short of the most creative and original viral marketing campaigns will be successful.

4. Encourage sharing: The process of sharing is the back bone of viral marketing campaigns. Miss no opportunity to encourage or entice your customers to spread the word and share information about your business. But take care not to get pushy or annoying.

5. Persist with the promotion: Strong viral marketing campaigns are persistent. Once you have a toehold in some kind of social network, be persistent and develop a following. If possible, come up with a sequel for your campaign.

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