Viral Marketing

Viral marketing (viral advertising) is one of the marketing techniques that use existing social networks to increase brand awareness. This method is analogous to the spread of computer viruses. Because it is based on human behavior, it encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions can take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, games, e-books, software, images, or even text messages.

It is said that a satisfied customer tells an average of three people about a product or service he/she likes, and eleven people about a product or service which he/she did not like. Therefore the goal of marketers is to design successful viral marketing programs in order to create positive word of mouth marketing strategies and to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential to have a high probability of Viral Messages being passed along.