Viral marketing definitely has a place in the business world today. In fact, it may be one of the more effective ways to market on the Internet.

1. VIRAL MARKETING THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKS: AN INSIGHT
ANOOP MOHAN
PHD SCHOLAR
PSGR KRISHNAMMAL COLLEGE
Email Id: anoopmohandrsr@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Marketing has become extremely competitive due to globalization and the availability of more
alternatives to customers. The rapid pace of advancement in the areas of information technology,
telecommunication has opened up a plethora of opportunities for the marketers to stay connected
with their customers round-the-clock ‘Viral marketing’ refers to marketing techniques used by
existing social media networks and other similar online technologies in order to raise consumer
awareness of the existence of particular products and services or to achieve other marketing
objectives, such as sales, with the use of self-replicating processes that are reminiscent of
spreading of computer viruses. Viral marketing is conducted through Internet campaigns with
users sharing and sending each other interesting and entertaining content. . It harnesses the
advantage of modern technologies like mobile sms, emails, online blogs, review sites, social
networking sites etc. Viral marketing efforts are extremely effective to build brand awareness,
attitude and motivation regarding brand. Viral marketing is known as word of mouth or buzz
marketing. Internet has now become the prime tool for viral marketing and it has led to
tremendous growth for many companies. It’s been estimated that a successful viral campaign can
have 500-1000 times more impact than a non-viral campaign. Here, both positive and negative
aspects of viral marketing are explored. This article provides an overview of how viral marketing
is formed and what are the social Medias using to create a splash in the market place.
Key Words: Viral marketing, Social networks, Marketing strategy, Online campaign.

2. INTRODUCTION
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to
marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networking services and other technologies to
try to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as
product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or
computer viruses (cf. Internet memes and memetics). It can be delivered by word of mouth or
enhanced by the network effects of the Internet and mobile networks. Viral advertising is
personal and, while coming from an identified sponsor, it does not mean businesses pay for its
distribution. Most of the well-known viral ads circulating online are ads paid by a sponsor
company, launched either on their own platform (company webpage or social media profile) or
on social media websites such as YouTube. Consumers receive the page link from a social media
network or copy the entire ad from a website and pass it along through e-mail or posting it on a
blog, webpage or social media profile.
The ultimate goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs
is to create viral messages that appeal to individuals with high social networking potential (SNP)
and that have a high probability of being presented and spread by these individuals and their
competitors in their communications with others in a short period of time. Viral marketing is a
credible marketing tactic that can deliver positive ROI when properly executed as a component
of overarching strategies. Viral marketing is helping in generating brand awareness and brand
equity. Trust is a crucial element of viral marketing for both marketers as well as recipients. In a
social media, the one who spreads your marketing messages might or might not be someone you

3. know personally. You have to trust that the product they refer you to is something that will fulfill
your criteria for utility, creativeness, uniqueness, and will also be safe.
An effective viral marketing campaign can create an instant buzz; thereby you can
experience a huge improvement in gross revenue of your business or company. Viral marketing
relies on communication between people. More the viral content is forwarded, more beneficial it
is. Viral marketing definitely has a place in the business world today. In fact, it may be one of the
more effective ways to market on the Internet. It is cheap, and with a few clever ideas you can
really take advantage of the viral characteristics and potential of social media and the search
engines. People are constantly searching, following, and networking; make this clear trend work
for you.
There is debate on the origination and the popularization of the specific term viral
marketing, though some of the earliest uses of the current term are attributed to the Harvard
Business School graduate Tim Draper and faculty member Jeffrey Rayport. The term was later
popularized by Rayport in the 1996 Fast Company article "The Virus of Marketing," and Tim
Draper and Steve Jurvetson of the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson in 1997 to
describe Hotmail's practice of appending advertising to outgoing mail from their users. An
earlier attestation of the term is found in PC User magazine in 1989, but with a somewhat
differing meaning.
Among the first to write about viral marketing on the Internet was the media critic Doug
Rushkoff. The assumption is that if such an advertisement reaches a "susceptible" user, that user
becomes "infected" (i.e., accepts the idea) and shares the idea with others "infecting them," in the
viral analogy's terms. As long as each infected user shares the idea with more than one
susceptible user on average (i.e., the basic reproductive rate is greater than one—the standard in

4. epidemiology for qualifying something as an epidemic), the number of infected users grows
according to an exponential curve. Of course, the marketing campaign may be successful even if
the message spreads more slowly, if this user-to-user sharing is sustained by other forms of
marketing communications, such as public relations or advertising. In early 2013 the first ever
Viral Summit was held in Las Vegas. It attempted to identify similar trends in viral marketing
methods for various media.
VIRAL MARKETING TECHNIQUES
1. Word of Mouth - We have all seen this phenomenon displayed with many products. People
spread the word about some great movie or gadget and suddenly everyone knows about it.
Human nature dictates we tell our friends about some great product we have bought or found.
Nature of the beast, it's just the way we are - so why not take full advantage of it? If you have a
web site - put up a simple 'tell a friend' form so your visitors can easily tell others about your
great site. Easy and very simple to do but many webmasters don't do it. Similarly, if you have a
newsletter, service, product or with any aspect of your site – just include a few sentences at the
end of your copy - asking very politely, "if you found this service, product or web site helpful -
why not tell your friends, family and colleagues about it."
2. Branding - Make sure you have a logo on your site or product. Branding your site is very
important if you want your site or product to be noticed and talked about. For that matter, a
catchy brand name can be a 'viral technique' in itself - so try and come up with one that springs
from the lips with a distinctive ring to it! People recognize brands; it gives them a clear image of

5. your site or product. Include your brand or logo on every page of your site and on every product,
service, and material coming from your site or business.
3. EBooks - Savvy marketers jumped on this new invention very quickly, they knew the 'viral'
power of these little ebooks. Ebooks are electronic files that can be downloaded from any web
site and distributed easily around the web. You can also have other webmasters or marketers, 're
brand' these ebooks with their own links. High quality eBooks get passed along very quickly and
are great viral tools.
4. Viral Software - Some simple software products or applications can be very viral, often
passed around or downloaded from the web by thousands each day. These have to be useful or
handy products that the users will desire E-calendars, organizers, personal planners, link
checking software, and so on. Many are desktop products that sit on the computer user's desktop
- prime location in the marketing arena. And the best examples of this kind of viral software have
the company logo, sales message and contact email - with LIVE LINKS to all of the above -
conveniently displayed within the product.
5. RSS - Newest player in the viral game! RSS which stands for 'Really Simple Syndication' and
just by the nature of what it does; RSS is an awesome viral tool. Originally used by news
organizations to syndicate their news stories, it is usually associated with Blogs because blogs
use an RSS feed to distribute their content. Good quality RSS feeds are picked up and displayed
by different web sites all across the web. Internet Viral Marketing is an online marketing
technique that is meant to increase your brand awareness or product sales through various online
media such as video clips, ebooks, articles, or software. The goal is to create messages or content
with a high probability of being passed along over and over to reach the most amount of people
possible

6. SIX PRINCIPLES OF VIRAL MARKETING
If you want to delve into the world of viral marketing, there are six principles that you
should remember.
1. Incentives
To get your social circle involved in your viral marketing strategy, the best way to jump
start their participation is to offer some sort of incentive. While your best friends may be willing
to spread the word with nothing in return, if you offer free products or services in exchange for
sharing your company information with their friends they will be more likely to pass it along.
The incentives you have to offer don’t have to be extravagant, and it can turn into a win-win
situation. Not only will they be giving you free advertisement, if they are impressed with the
products and services you have to offer, you may end up with a lifelong customer.
2. Ease of Use
You want your marketing package to be easy to share for everyone. The advertising
media you want to be shared should be easily transferred through different ways. Create
advertising content that can be shared easily through e-mail or posted on a website. A good
graphic could not only be sent through e-mail but also shared on various social media sites as
well.
3. Use what’s Out There
Take advantage of the existing communication networks that are already out there; Facebook and
Twitter are still incredibly popular and a simple way to have your company brand shared with
millions of people with just the click of a button.

7. 4. Utilize Your Friends
Don’t be afraid to ask your friends and immediate social circle for their help. You may
know someone that has a well-known blog they could use to do a piece on you and your
company. Just be sure to sweeten the deal by paying for the favor with free services or products.
5. Exploit Motivations
Everyone is a little greedy sometimes. Take advantage of that; don’t be afraid to exploit
human nature for further gains on your marketing investment. Social media in itself is an
extension of its user’s vanity so feel free to use it to its fullest. If someone see a chance to gain
something by helping you further your advertising, they will be more likely to jump on the
bandwagon and help out.
6. Scalability
The media you chose to use for your viral marketing should also be able to be used in
both small and large campaigns. This allows for more variety and gives you more options for
spreading your company’s message.
ELEMENTS THAT MAKE UP A VIRAL MARKETING STRATEGY
We must all face the fact that there are some viral marketing strategies which are more
effective than others. Some viral marketing strategies work better than others. But below are the
six basic elements you hope to include in your strategy. No matter what the basic strategy is
comprised of there are six basic elements that should always be included. It is important to note
that any one viral marketing strategy does not have to have all of these elements, but to achieve
more powerful results you will want to use more of these elements.

8.  Product or Services Give Away
 Make it easy to transfer to others
 Create a strategy that is easily scaled form small to large
 Exploit common behaviors or motivations
 Utilize existing networks used for communication
 Takes advantage of available resources
TYPES OF VIRAL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
1. Pass-along: A message which encourages the user to send the message to others. The crudest
form of this is chain letters where a message at the bottom of the e-mail prompts the reader to
forward the message.
2. Incentivized viral: A reward is offered for either passing a message along or providing
someone else's address. This can dramatically increase referrals. However, this is most effective
when the offer requires another person to take action.
3. Undercover: A viral message presented as a cool or unusual page, activity, or piece of news,
without obvious incitements to link or pass along. In Undercover Marketing, it is not
immediately apparent that anything is being marketed.
4. Edgy gossip/buzz marketing: Ads or messages that create controversy by challenging the
borders of taste or appropriateness. Discussion of the resulting controversy can be considered to
generate buzz and word of mouth advertising. Prior to releasing a movie, some Hollywood
movie stars get married, get divorced, or get arrested, or become involved in some controversy
that directs conversational attention to them.

9. 5. User-managed database: Users create and manage their own lists of contacts using a
database provided by an online service provider. By inviting other members to participate in
their community, users create a viral, self-propagating chain of contacts that naturally grows and
encourages others to sign up as well.
SUCCESSFUL VIRAL CAMPAIGNS
An array of viral marketing examples have come and gone with varying degrees of
success. There have been many memorable viral marketing success stories and memorable flops
in the past decade. Some viral campaigns have become better known for driving people away
from a commodity than to it resulting in worst impacts than regular marketing campaigns.
Why this Kolaveri Di: - Song is officially released on 16th November 2011. Then it spread like
a fire through social networking sites. Within first week of release, it received 1.3 million views
on YouTube, more than 1 million shares on Facebook. It was drawing more than 10,000 tweets
daily by the end of its first online week. Having garnered over 45 million views so far, it has
proved with its success that viral marketing works in India too. Within a few weeks, YouTube
honored the video with a Recently Most Popular Gold Medal Award for receiving a large
number of hits in a short time. Honestly at first, people were sharing the video on Facebook,
Almost everyone was sharing the video as their status updates.
Angry Birds Space Video campaign: This was one of the most viewed viral videos. What was
that which made the video so likeable? One of the chief traffic drivers was the authenticity of the
video as it was shot in space trailer that showed NASA scientist’s physics demonstration, making
it relevant to online audience. Also, the lucid animations that showed how the game characters
found their way into space helped a lot.

10. Vodafone ZooZoo ads: Which were series of 30 ads have also added to the success list of Viral
Marketing. After launching the campaign, Vodafone’s subscription rates increased.
P&G’s “Thank You Mom” global campaign: This was released in April, 2012 to hype the
Olympics. The ad went viral, amassing over 2 million views on YouTube shortly after its release.
It was successful because of its sincerity, timeliness and universal appeal.
Hotmail and Indianpangaleague are classic examples of adopting viral marketing
strategy. Monster.com and Naukri. com are also the beneficiaries of this form of marketing.
Amway, Hindustan Lever and Tupperware have also implemented such marketing concept.
CONCLUSION
A good idea can spread like wildfire if its business model maps to the medium. Viral
Marketing adds fuel to the fire. Internet and Intranet applications move beyond computation to
embrace communication, the Viral Marketing strategy has wide applicability. Viral marketing
appears to be an open invitation for marketers to make some quick money by using friendship to
sell their goods and services to customers. Viral marketing is not only about getting someone to
interact with a message, it needs to be viral - it needs to have a pass-along effect. Like viruses, it
takes advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands –or even to millions.
If your viral marketing concept catches on, you will need it to handle the infected visitors. When
it is integrated with other marketing communications approaches, viral marketing could prove to
be a rather powerful tool, as none other has the capacity to spread a message as far or as fast.
Viral marketing give solution for Fragmentation and rising costs of traditional mass media like
television.

11. REFERENCES
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approach to the new era of marketing” Volume 1, No. 3, December 2012.
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