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Go Viral: Make It Easy To Spread The Word

"Viral marketing" is one of the marketing business' most popular buzzwords right now. Everyone wants to "go viral" and small business owners are spending a great deal of time concocting their plans to create something so irresistible that others will share it without seeking anything in return.

That's really the basic premise behind viral marketing. Person A loves the artifact so much that she tells Person B and Person C all about it. Also impressed, People B and C each tell two people. On and on it goes. The end result is shocking.

Even with that very limited example, you can see how quickly things add up.

In just a three "generations," that one experience with Person A will account for a whopping thirty-one separate exposures. And, of course, that just keeps on doubling.

It isn't amazing that people want to "go viral." It's even less amazing that they want to concentrate their viral efforts online (the fast nature of internet communication allows for the creation of an amazing snowball effect).

That all just makes good sense. What is amazing that so many people are working so hard to come with the right gimmicks and are overlooking distribution encouragement.

They know that if the produce the next red hot video on You Tube that it will go nuts. What they ignore is making it irresistibly easy for people to share their discovery.

If you have a viral plot in the making, that's great. Just don't forget to do everything you can to encourage rapid and easy distribution. Add a "tell a friend" form or enable an "email this to: ____" button.

Make sure those social bookmarking chiclets are dangling in plain view. Let people know they should share the information.

It seems silly. After all, one of the reasons viral marketing works so well on the net is because it is just so easy for someone to copy and mail a URL to a friend (or friends).

Nonetheless, there are millions of potential buzz-spreaders who won't go through the hassle of doing that but who WILL click on a button in order to spread the word.

Make it easy for your germ to spread. Your goal is infection, so do everything you can to turn every viewer into a contagious carrier of your viral message.

Spread The Word Announce IT!