The definition of viral marketing from wikipedia: marketing techniques that use preexisting social networks to produce increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.[1] Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily.[2] Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages.
Here are some of the best tools that can assist you with creating and sharing your own viral marketing campaign for anything you want to promote. It can be your blog, political candidate, a book or screenplay you wrote and just about anything else you can imagine. The possibilities are limited only by the imagination. Also, it can be a lot of fun too.
gydget is the easiest viral marketing service that I’ve tried thus far. You can create live widgets with feeds for videos, events, news and more. Whenever something changes on the source website such as your events on MySpace then the information is updated in every gydget that is loaded out there on the web! This makes the widget a useful information tool in addition to entertaining (thanks to the video feature).
Here’s a gallery of existing viral marketing campaigns created with the free gydget. Most of the widgets are for music artists, but there are many that are not. For example, you will also find promotions for comedians, actors, actresses, movies, and much more. Just about anyone or anything can benefit from viral marketing tools such as gydget. This includes even non-technical people or ventures like writers and their work.
This video from a local news station shows how a fan of the Oakland Raiders uses a Gydget widget to share the latest news and information about the team with other fans.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLMVM7a5w7M]
Here are two viral marketing distribution services that allow you to setup websites to provide widgets and track them. They offer some free accounts but also provide premium services that include more bells and whistles.
http://www.gigya.com is the creator of wildfire which is most popular platform for websites that distribute viral marketing widgets such as gydget.
Here is a video promo for Gigya.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XfW_5tQh18]
http://www.clearspring.com is a competitor to gigya and gaining some attention lately.
Final Thoughts:
I think viral marketing is a brilliant way to get the message out about yourself or anything else you want to share with the world.
Who says that press releases have to be dull and boring? Why not use some of the these tools and create exciting and refreshing new ways to spread the word?
Links:
Here’s an excellent link to a free eBook on Viral Marketing as well as an insightful podcast in mp3 format.