Viral Marketing: What is it?

What is viral marketing?

That is a common question of some beginners. So far, as I know, there are no the absolute description of it. The point of viral marketing is person to person speech. So, some times it is called as word of mouth marketing.

The first descripton to write about viral marketing on the Internet was media critic Douglas Rushkoff in his 1994 book Media Virus. The assumption is that if such an advertisement reaches a "susceptible" user, that user will become "infected" (i.e., accept the idea) and will then go on to share the idea with others "infecting them," in the viral analogy's terms. As long as each infected user shares the idea with more than one susceptible user on average (i.e., the basic reproductive rate is greater than one - the standard in epidemiology for qualifying something as an epidemic), the number of infected users will grow according to a logistic curve, whose initial segment appears exponential. Of course, the marketing campaign may be wildly successful even if the rate at which things are spread isn't of epidemic proportions, if this user-to-user sharing is sustained by other forms of marketing communications, such as public relations or advertising.

In response to its use, many sites have started up trying to describe what viral marketing is.

Bloggers for Bangsari is an example of success strory about it. Using intenet media, the team made some fund-rising to help some elementry school students to keep their continuance studies. As the result, they gathered about 20 million Rupiahs. It’s converse 45 goats that help 11 students. In the first year, it become 70 goats and help 18 students. It's a pure social work. Amazing.

Above of it all, viral marketing is triggered by the growth of the Internet .