Viral Marketing and the Word of Mouse

In my previous article I have discussed what viral marketing is. This time I will be talking about how the “word of mouse” works. As we learned before, viral marketing, as it name suggests, is a contagious form of product marketing that uses carriers to spread it. These carries are of course your own customers or prospective customers. These persons should be infected with viral products, prices, places and promotions. Your product, to become viral should possess quality and excellence and will guarantee costumers’ satisfaction. Your price, to be viral, should be reasonable and properly directed to the right consumers. Your placement, to be viral, should be efficiently accessible. And finally, your promotion, to be viral should be creative, innovative and extraordinary.

In this hi-tech era, marketing evolves as the internet evolves. Because of convenience, real-time and low cost features of internet communication, marketing has never been fun and easy as today’s marketing. This technology advantage is tempting numerous entrepreneurs to expose their marketing campaigns online. Marketers use popular social site likes YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to promote products. I just remember how Susan Boyle of Britain’s Got Talent became an instant celebrity with his more than 53 million viewed youtube video as of today. Not only Susan got the instant fame, but the show “Britain’s Got Talent” also achieved worldwide recognition. Susan’s video became an example of a viral video and a viral promotion that helped “Britain’s Got Talent” famous not only in the British islands but in the entire planet.

In the Susan Boyle fever, her looks and talent becomes the viral factor. The people who witnessed her performance become the hosts of the Boyle virus. These hosts carried such virus and spread it like an epidemic that stretched throughout the planet. But this worldwide outbreak could never happen without the use of the “Word of Mouse”. What made the Boyle’s outbreak very effective and efficient was the power of the Internet and its one mouse click feature to connect to the people around the world. Every people who witnessed her performance were eager to spread the news online and offline. Actually it expands through the word of mouth (offline) and through the word of mouse (online). And obviously, the word of mouse was technically very efficient.

Aside from the story above, many companies have already succeeded in creating viral videos that multiply the exposure of their products, services or websites over the internet. But aside from brainstorming and creating a viral video, there are also other ways to create viral promotions and attract people to embrace your products. Creating a viral e-book, article (story), audio (voice), music and even artwork and spreading them throughout the cyber world can also become as effective as creating a viral video. A video, ebook, story, artwork, audio, etcetera should possess the following characteristics to be viral:

1. It must be different and something extraordinary

2. It must contain a strong emotion and will create tremendous reaction

3. It must bring a worthy experience

4. It must be interesting and exciting

5. It must be capable of creating a long and connected discussion

6, It must be accessible

7. It must have a freebie

8. It must live in the minds, hearts or spirits of people

9. It must be online

10. It must be contagious

The above characteristics of a viral marketing should have the power to invade the mental and emotional attributes of people. And will let these people spread these viruses right through the computer mouse – through the word of mouse.

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