Viral Marketing
Viral marketing or viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives such as product sales through self-replicating viral processes.
Viral marketing can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. It is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral marketing is also based on the natural human behavior.
Viral marketing promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages.
The basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable. It is claimed that a satisfied customer tells an average of three people about a product or service they like and 11 people about a product or service which they did not like.
The goal of viral marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high social networking potential and create viral messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being passed along.