Viral Marketing, its Tools and Benefits

Viral Marketing has become such a buzz word that anyone who asks the question what is viral marketing is looked upon as dinosaurs from prehistory.

However, it is always good to start by defining a concept; viral marketing is defined as a type of marketing strategy created by marketers to use  the internet, and social networks as a means of creating awareness of their brand, ideas, opinion or product.

The term viral is taken from a virus that spread rapidly from person to person and viral marketing tools to create a virus like situation that quickly spreads from one source to another.

Viral marketing basically is the word of mouth marketing strategy that uses modern techniques like social media, video clips, twitter or YouTube, sms and occasional emails, though with the emergence of the popularity of social media email marketing is rarely used; nevertheless, emails are also used if the message is big and cannot be send through short text.

One of the new tools used extensively as a marketing strategy is Tumblr.  Tumblr uses mixed tools , blogging and platforms used by social networking.

One concept that forms the very foundation of viral marketing is the idea that the message related to the product or idea has to be so attractive to the receiver and it is forcers the receiver to immediately share it  with others in the circle and like ripple effect it becomes known to a large audience in the shortest possible time.

Tumblr has a very dedicated group of people who are constantly online sharing ideas, exchanging videos and information.

As a marketing tool there is nothing better than introducing an idea or product on this hybrid platform and sit back and watch the awareness spread like a wild fire.

Another social media tool that has become useful in viral marketing is Instagram.  

Instagram is a platform where individuals come together to share videos and photographs.

An image can tell a story better than even a thousand words,  an image or a photograph is an extremely powerful tool to create awareness and influence an audience.

It is used very effectively as a marketing strategy to create awareness of new products and ideas and attract attention of dedicated audience.

Is viral marketing an effective tool in marketing strategy, or is it just a hype created by geeks who would like to discard the old trusted method of marketing like advertisements in news media, or on television, sponsorships and related old fashioned tools, and  use only social media to attract new a customer base.

Viral marketing is a very effective way of attracting attention, once the message reaches one individual, he or she forwards it to their all whole circle of friends or acquaintances who in turn forward it their to circle and the message spreads exponentially in an effortless way.

It is also a very inexpensive marketing tool.  It is not very easy to get the attention of the masses who are now bored with 3D billboards, shots and videos in the middle of a movie and names of brands flashing in lights over their heads.

The social media is a still a novelty and has dedicated fan groups that are constantly interacting with each other.  The tools used by viral marketing strategy use this urge to interact to their benefit.