Viral Marketing

Viral marketing describes strategies that encourage individuals to pass marketing message to others. This type of marketing creates the potential for exponential growth in its message's exposure and influence. "Word of mouth" and "referral" are often called the best thing that has happened to marketers after the invention of advertisements.
Examples of viral marketing are non standard commercials and pictures. They tend to push the envelope so they continue to live in the customer's mind long after the commercial is over . Viral marketing has the potential to save an enormous amount of advertising dollars. Even though viral marketing is a great tool to save money it is highly underutilized because it is not a for sure thing. It is a phenomenon that tends to exist on its own not intended by its advertisers. The entertainment quality of the advertisement is what keeps the advertisement alive and going.Viral marketing is another proof that we have arrived into an age where the opinion of the consumers matters more than ever.
It is important to note that there is a difference between viral and word of mouth advertising. Word-of-mouth marketing is when a business does something and their consumer tells five to ten friends. Word-of-mouth marketing has an echo affect. The initial sound is loud and then it fades into the background.Viral marketing unlike word-of-mouth marketing has a compounding affect. A consumer tells five to ten people and then those five to ten people tell another five to ten people. The driving force behind most viral campaigns is the passion a consumer carries.
Three key factors that will help you remain in tip top shape on the viral marketing playground are:

1. Mean what you say and say what you mean.
2. Stand behind your product or service.
3. Under promise and over deliver ... always!

 Some of my favorite viral ads include:

1. Dove "Evolution" Video -Part of a campaign by Dove, this video showed how models’ beauty is often artificial, and really struck a chord with its intended audience of female viewers. The Toronto-made viral ad for Dove called "Evolution" has won one of the most prestigious advertising awards in the world - the Grand Prix for viral marketing at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. For more information and to see the video please go to- http://yourdailyintake.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/dove-evolution-a-case-of-viral-marketing/

2. XBox banned ad- This ad became viral, because of its unique expression of life and death in 52 seconds. It captivated its intended audience's imagination in an extreme manner. People either loved it or hated it. Decide for yourself -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brsI6z13Su8 In my opinion is is a beautiful, creative commercial with a simple message "Life is really short guys, enjoy it while you can!"

Does every website need an interactive community?

Does EVERY website NEED and interactive community? My answer to that question is no.  Need is a strong word in this case. I can think of a few examples where an interactive community is not necessary. For example when I use online banking I would not like to be a part of an interactive community. Also when I place an online order for a restaurant I am also not interested in social interaction. I also believe that others don’t like to slow down and  have to  read a page that’s decorated like a Christmas tree with ads, headers and "share this" and "tweet me" buttons.

On the other hand I think that most websites will benefit from an interactive community. Building an interactive community is important for the development and maintenance of a successful web presence. There are parts of each website that need to be filled with interactivity.  Interactive communities give people a sense of belonging and security.  They are a forum where people who share common interests in products,services and ideas, can feel free to speak anonymously and exchange information that they otherwise wouldn't feel comfortable to share. The advantage of all these kind of web social interactions is that it creates a communication flow amongst users. With the help of social interaction, website owners gain valuable insight into the views of site visitors. For more details on the pros and cons of a website having an interactive community please check out the following blog: http://e-marketingforsensiblefolk.blogspot.com/2010/05/does-every-website-need-interactive.html.

When the internet first started gaining popularity, websites were about sharing static information. Now interactive websites  facilitate sharing life.  It is all about real life and real experiences. The social web has taken off over the past couple of years.  The importance of social interaction is more evident than ever.

Facebook privacy issues

Facebook is now the number one social networking site in the world. Many think that Facebook is a benevolent force that wants to help people keep in touch with friends and loved ones. In the past year alone, Facebook more than doubled its U.S. audience from 54.5 million visitors in December 2008 to 111.9 million visitors in December 2009. It now accounts for 7% of all time spent online in the U.S. Lately Facebook has been facing a lot of criticism over privacy issues. News emerged that a Facebook loophole had allowed advertisers to see personal user information. As a result Facebook decided to ramp up safety. I use facebook, because it is a great way to keep in touch with friends from all over the world. I personally keep my information to a minimum. I am amazed by how some people put their biographies, addresses and other personal information on Facebook. If you use Facebook be smart and protect yourself.

I stumbled across this interesting site that scans your Facebook for privacy holes. Check out http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/. When you hit the reclaimprivacy.org site, read the instructions carefully and run their tool against your Facebook privacy settings. The service will offer up recommendations to tighten up your Facebook security and fix them for you. Give it a try to see if you have any privacy holes that need filling. I was amazed at how "unprotected" my information was.

Here is my take on the privacy issues facing Facebook. I think that CEO Mark Zuckerberg's head became inflated after learning Facebook became the #1 social network site, surpassing MySpace and others that he really did not care about heeding any concerns of anyone that had been trying to warn him of the privacy issues. Now that Facebook has been in the media negatively he decides that it's time to wake up and realize the dream might be over if he fails to deal with the problems facing Facebook. For the changes that Facebook made as a result of the fierce criticism you can read Tom Spring's article "Facebook beefs up privacy with three big changes" in PC World.  http://www.macworld.com/article/151570/2010/05/facebook.html#commentsjump

How safe do you really think you are? Corporations and commercial websites have a habit of finding and exploiting information for their own agendas. Look at all the people who've been arrested or lost their jobs. It's a new world folks, think before you leap!

Is Online Social Media Necessary for Brand Success?

The recent posting on professor Anthony Miyazaki's “E-Marketing for Sensible Folks” blog posed the following questions: ”Is online social media crucial? Or is it just another way to spend money unnecessarily?

According to wikipedia online social media is a term used to describe the type of media that is based on conversation and interaction between people online. Where media means digital words, sounds & pictures which are typically shared via the internet and the value can be cultural, societal or even financial. Online social media is very important nowadays for brands, because more and more people are online. I believe that social media is the future of businesses and should not be taken lightly. Emerging companies need to set themselves apart with a unique perspective of their product and brand name.

Online brand development and social networking appear to be easy, on the surface, but it is not a simple process. It is crucial that your company's conversation connects with your customers' conversation. If a company wants to succeed in the online social media it needs a solid foundation of their brand and a well defined strategy. I think that the online social media will not help a weak brand succeed. If anything social media will accelerate the brand's failure.

Social media activities should play a supporting role in many of the activities of the corporation including marketing, corporate communications, customer support and forming strong business networks. Creativity is also very important in the social media arena. Creative solutions are necessary to enhance the company's reputation and ability to serve clients better.

A negative effect of the social media is the necessity of constant upkeep of the site. Someone needs to be dedicated to maintaining and keeping everyone informed on the social network. The other issue of social networking is that not all businesses are created equal. Some markets rely heavily on demographics. For example a restaurant in the middle of an industrial area will peak its sales between 10 am and 1 pm without ever needing to market itself on a social network.

Quality news at a price?

I recently found out that the NY Times plans to charge in early 2011 a fee for frequent users to its website. I do not think that this strategy will work for the following reasons:

1. I think that the potential revenue is not going to be enough.
2. There are too many other alternative quality sources of news with virtually the same headlines.
3. The public is accustomed to free information online and according to my research users are not willing to pay for news. If other online papers don't do the same then it will not work for them because readers will simply find the news for free elsewhere.
4. NY Times.com, being the most popular newspaper site in the country with highest advertising revenue has a lot to lose if the move backfires.
5. In the past other newspapers like Los Angeles Times have experimented with online pay structures and then abandoned them.
6. This move will mean less people on their site which means less advertising revenue.

On the flip side I understand that it takes a lot of money to create quality news. It costs money to pay writers to come up with interesting stories, pay photographers and editors to make sure that the reporting is accurate. What I think they should do is sell more ad space, get better writers to bring in more people making it possible to charge more for ad space.

Nowadays we pay more for information than we ever did before, because we place a high value on the content we receive. People are already paying for information, a lot of money a month, but they are choosing to pay for these content providers such as cable/satellite. For further detail on that check out the great synopsis by Nicholas Carr on how "Information wants to be free" - http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2010/01/information_wan.php

On a final note I think that as consumers we are all lucky to read as many online newspapers for free as we do.

E-Marketing Plan/Success

Email marketing is among one of the most effective tools in the online marketing arsenal. But unless email marketing campaigns are properly managed, they can be a waste of effort. They can even be counterproductive if not done carefully such as using aggressive e-marketing that repels customers. Which brings me to conclude that an e-mail marketing campaign needs to be carefully managed to make sure that it does not turn away potential customers and that it only reaches its target audience. Unsolicited email marketing is known as "spam" and it is one of the most irritating things about the internet. They probably won't bother to read your mail before deleting it - and the next time they come across your brand, their opinion will be less than improved by your attempt.

If you are in a monopolistically competitive market where there are many producers and many consumers in a given market, and no business has total control over the market price, the best thing you can do to gain market share is to get more leads. The second best way is to brand yourself or your business. In a crowd like this, it makes even more sense to brand yourself and stand out from the pack. If not, you will just become another 'me-too' marketer. If you try to become everything to everybody, you become nothing to everybody. Do whatever it takes to stand out and be remembered. Mat of e-marketing Matador explores the 4 pillars of Internet Marketing success in detail at the following site: http://www.emarketingmatador.com/the-4-pillars-of-internet-marketing-success

#1 – Good Web Design

#2 – Good Website Coding

#3 – Driving Relevant Visits

#4 – Maximizing Conversion Rates

Please refer to this link for 10 E-mail marketing facts: http://ezinearticles.com/?10-Email-Marketing-Facts&id=4011759