With the internet, I’m pretty sure you’ve experienced plenty of things around the web. Many of these things have probably been seen by a few hundred people, or possibly a couple thousand. But, there are those internet sensations, such as pictures, articles or online videos, that have become something big. Really, really big. Forget hundred or thousands of views over a lifetime. There are some things found on the web that have gone viral, and are subsequently viewed hundreds of thousands of times, or even millions. This is very evident when you see a viral video on YouTube. Just look at the view count.
But, what if you’re trying to sell something, and you want it to go viral? Well, that would be called viral marketing. An example of viral marketing, as said by ViperChill, a Moz contributor, is Microsoft’s Hotmail email service. When an email is sent using the service, a signature is sent along with it that says “Get your free e-mail at Hotmail.” Well, to help better define this kind of viral marketing, you can say that viral marketing is when an idea or concept is spread from one person to another who is susceptible to an idea, and then being infected by another person, who then shares it with another person, and so on.
Ultimately, the idea is that even one person can help spread something to far more people than just themselves. ViperChill has been involved with many viral marketing campaigns, and has written a column on Moz that he’d like to share with everyone that talks about a case study that was done dealing with viral marketing.
The entire article can be found by following the link below:
http://moz.com/blog/9000-uniques-viral-marketing-case-study