Viral marketing & Blogging - It's here and now!
When you look up viral marketing in Wikipedia you get this…
“Viral marketing and viral advertising, (buzzwords), refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes […]. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.”
But for me it is all about online films, interactive applications, social media, iPhone apps, even text messages and blogging.
In the beginning viral marketing was all about email. Since then, viral marketing has become an art form with many ways to creating a successful viral campaign. Today, I’m focused on social media and blogging in particular.
Can social media help sales? Well, a few weeks ago I needed a plumber so I thought that I would post a request on a local blog. The result was surprising – the next few hours I had two recommendations and contact details! Could the same happen with someone wanting a film or a website? Of course it could. Solutions get most of our business through recommendations and those recommendations come largely through social media.
But beware of negative comments. Quality counts more than ever. you can’t afford to deliver anything other than excellence.
There’s so much more to explore – listening skills – knowing what people are thinking, in real time – eavesdropping in on your customers. A lot of business is all about finding the right person to talk to… this is especially true for B2B businesses. “Listening” to your customer’ social media is a very good place to start.
In brief, I summarise viral marketing & blogging as… listening – speaking – engaging – evangelizing – adopting.
There is much more to say… check out my next blog to find out how you can incorporate blogging into your sales marketing.