Viral marketing and the social web
Here’s a quick word on viral marketing as it relates to social media. The two terms are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same. Just as a room full of children sets up the perfect conditions under which a virus can spread, the social web is an environment through which your message can spread. However, just because you have a room full of children does not mean that a virus will spread. They could all be washing their hands; stranger things have happened. I point this out because I often hear people say….
“we need to be on the social web so that we can infect it, so that our message will go viral.”
Don’t count on it. Savvy social media citizens wash their hands all the time. Unless people – in large numbers – value and accept the content, viral campaigns have little chance of “infecting” anything…
