Viral marketing: a lot like swine flu

[Gruden]

This morning I was reading a blog post by Dan Zarrella, a social media and viral marketing blogger I often turn to for words of wisdom*in relation to*web 2.0.* His recent blog post, 7 viral marketing lessons learned from the swine flu virus, was no exception. Full of interesting euphamisms for the concept of viral marketing, he presented a logical and topical argument which would enrich any marketer trying to make their brand’s*mark in the social media space.

The name viral marketing stems from the theory that ideas spread like viruses, making epidemiological metaphors and models useful when attempting to understand the spread of memes. Since the goal of any viral marketer is to create a pandemic with their campaign, we can learn a lot from the early spread of Swine Flu.

He essentially seperated viral marketing into seven components, consisting of:

1. Seed selection
2. Knowledge gaps
3. Addition vs replacement
4. Novelty
5. Communal recreation
6. Infectious period length
7. Endemic*vs Epidemic

Some of the gems of the article included Dan’s comments on adding value to an existing*message through social media, rather than trying to present a new message:

Each of us has a mental framework of ideas built on each other that we use to view and understand the world around us. When we are exposed to a new meme that contradicts an existing portion of our framework, it is very difficult for the new idea to replace the old idea.

and his take on the “infectious” period of social marketing campaigns:

the case of most viral and social marketing campaigns, the infectious period exists as an event rather than a period of time. An “infected” person will blog or Tweet about something. The goal for viral marketers looking to exploit the infectious period should then be to increase the number of infectious events each individual will undertake.

A good example of the latter*was the recent city-wide blackouts in the Sydney CBD. Rather than consulting news sources or Energy Australia, Grudenites immediately jumped on Twitter as “infected” (or “affected”) people, and in turn, relied on other “infected” parties for information on the situation. Within minutes, an entire network of “infected” people were all a’twitter. Shame that this was negative PR for Energy Australia, rather than positive.

This blog post should be used by marketers as somewhat of a template for their social marketing campaign. A few key questions for marketers to ask themselves before embarking on a social media tirade include: Where’s the novelty factor? How many people does this “infect”? Are we introducing a new message or adding value to our existing brand message?

Most importantly, however, is the question: Are we prepared for remixing of the message by target audiences? After all, that’s what*viral marketing *is all about: a user’s interaction with your brand.



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