Viral Marketing…. I hear it all the time, basically know what it is, but the former journalist in me made me want to look it up anyway. Below are a few of the official definitions I found. In a nutshell, what it means to me is that you don’t have to have Coca Cola’s Super Bowl commercial budget anymore to successfully get the word out.

1. Marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness.

2. A marketing technique aiming at reproducing “word of mouth,” usually on the Internet or by e-mail, for humorous, political or marketing purposes.

3. Any marketing technique that induces Web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users.

4. A technique that is based on the assumption that people will share interesting and entertaining content.

5. A nontraditional promotional effort designed to quickly spread enthusiasm about a product or service, usually conducted through word-of-mouth.

Back in the days before the Internet, blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and a host of other keyboard connections, we just called this ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising or ‘marketing on a shoestring budget.’

Hey! Small business people, speakers, information marketers THIS MEANS YOU! Stop whining about social media taking up too much of your time. Stop complaining that you don’t know what to blog about. The Internet is the great equalizer – IT’S FREE. Maybe not scott-free, but compared to the traditional advertising venues – newspapers, magazines, TV, radio – it couldn’t be a better deal.

From my 20+ years working in and around small business, marketing, advertising, public relations, etc. I take away these three things. 1) You gotta advertise – build it and they WILL NOT come, 2) Advertising, marketing and PR all break down to simply getting the word out – by hook or crook, and 3) The Internet makes it so easy I don’t have to pull out my wallet, pawn my first-born or even leave the comfort of my keyboard. I just have to be willing to invest the time and the energy. Oh yea… and then there’s that learning curve thing!

Whenever my friend Peggy Duncan, the consummate shameless promoter, sends an email about her latest business service she ends it with a simple request… “Tell some people!” Viral marketing actually is just that simple.

PEACE.
Rick

PS. You’re welcome to tell some people about this blog!