Viral Marketing is very generic and can have many meanings. This article discusses it in terms relating to online or internet marketing.

What It Isn't

It isn't word of mouth.

Word of mouth can be likened to the schoolroom game in which a message is whispered to one person in a circle and they repeat it to the next person in the circle and so on.  By the time the message gets back to the original person, the message has become so distorted it is unrecognizable by them.


So, What Is It?

Viral marketing does consist of information being passed from one person to another endlessly, however, the message never gets changed because it is in digital form.  The original message is maintained no matter how many pass it along.

A couple of examples may be in order;

Publishing articles containing links to your site in the signature is one way as long as permission is given to republish the content in its entirety.  When your article is republished, your link is seen by many more without additional effort on your part.  A popular article could wind up being seen by thousands with some clicking through to your web page.

Another method is a little script adding a form to your web page so visitors can add their friends information and email.  A message is then sent from your website to these people with recommendation by the visitor.  Some have even made it possible to receive special information as a result of entering email addresses of a minimum number of friends.  This can result in numerous visitors to you website.

Sign up to forums and include a link to your website in the signature line to bring traffic.  This can be as effective as writing articles if people find your information desirable.

Using social media such as twitter to tweet your message to your followers who in turn re-tweet that message to their followers is also another good way to spread your message virally.

Mainly the objective with viral marketing is to get your message out to a large number of people with little effort on your part.  The use of free traffic is usually a big part of making viral marketing work.  It can take some time for your message to spread to a large audience but once it does the results may astound you.

Go here to read more: Viral Marketing Genius