Today we are going to talk about folksonomies (tagging) as a viral
marketing tool.

Folksonomy (also known as collaborative tagging, social
classification, social indexing, and social tagging) is the practice
and method of collaboratively managing tags to categorize
content.

The fairly new consumer phenomenon is called “tagging”. Tagging
is powerful because consumers are creating an organizational
structure for online content. Folksonomies not only enable people
to file away content under tags, but, even better, share it with
others by filing it under a global taxonomy that they created.

Here’s how tagging works. Using sites such as del.icio.us – a
bookmark sharing site – and Flickr – a photo sharing site -
consumers are collaborating on categorizing online content under
certain keywords, or tags.

For instance, an person can post photographs of their iPod on
Flickr and file it under the tag “iPod.” These images are now not
only visible under the individual user’s iPod tag but also under the
community iPod tag that displays all images consumers are
generating and filing under the keyword. Right now Flickr has
more than 3,500 photos that are labeled “iPod.”

You can also use Digg.com. All of digg’s content is created,
submitted, and judged by its audience. If your page, blog or online
article is good enough to be “dug” by digg users, you could
receive literally hundreds of unique visitors immediately. The best
thing about digg is that it is so popular that many submissions can
instantly dominate some keywords on search engines like Google.

Another site is Technorati.com. If you have a blog, Technorati
should become one of your favorite search engines. Because
many Technorati Tags are beginning to dominate the search
engines. You can easily add your blog to technorati’s tagging
system. Just like digg, even if you only happen to get a small
amount of traffic from technorati it will increase your site rank in
the search engines.

There are many sites that can help you with “tag syndication.”
Web applications like TagCloud integrates RSS and tagging
while wikipedia.org is method of allowing social webpage and
content development. All these methods and many more have two
great things in common

Tagging is catching on because it is a natural complement to
search. Type the word “blogs” into Google and it can tell if you
are searching for information about how to launch a blog, how to
read blogs, or just what. Large and small sites alike are already
jumping on the tagging train. They are rolling out tag-like structures
to help users more easily locate content that’s relevant to them.

Here are some other sites that you can visit to start using tagging
as part of your viral marketing campaign.

A1-webmarks
http://www.a1-webmarks.com

All My Favorites
http://www.allmyfavorites.net

Ambedo
http://www.ambedo.com

Blinklist
http://www.blinklist.com

Socialmarker
http://www.socialmarker.com

And that is a very short list. There are literally hundreds of sites
that
you can use to increase your visibility through tagging. I especially
like to use socialmarker.com, because it allows you to instantly
add your information to multiple sites without visiting and manually
submitting to each one individually.

Well, we’ve come to the end of this short course. I hope you have
learned the basics of viral marketing and that you will be able to
use the information to start your own successful viral marketing
campaign.

Good luck with all of your viral marketing ventures,

Jim – siteforsell.com

Today we are going to jump right into how you can take your viral
marketing campaign mobile.

Mobile devices, mobile phones and PDA’s are one of the last
great frontiers of viral advertisement opportunities. However, we
have become experts at filtering everything, our air and water, our
e-mail and pop-ups, and our mobile devices as well. We are good
at filtering.

The very idea of unwanted advertising streaming through our
Blackberries is annoying. Mobile devices are the ultimate opt-in
medium and, therefore, a great way for marketers to connect with
users, if that’s what the users want. “WANT” is the key word here.
How should marketers approach the medium?

There are three main ways to achieve this. They are:

1. Offer exclusive content. Anyone can offer ring tones. It’s the
unique content, such as exclusive mobile images of new brand
concepts, that drives interest and calls them out in other media
like e-mail campaigns, newsletters, websites, etc. So a wireless
campaign is most effective when it offers exclusive content for
wireless devices.

2. Make it useful and timely. Think about what would be handy
and helpful to have on a mobile device. Last year, for example,
Food Network enabled Sprint customers to download shopping
lists for their Thanksgiving dinners. There was a lot of “Sprint-envy”
going around among non-sprint customers.

3. Clearly define objectives. Usually, one of two business
objectives drives successful mobile experiences: incremental
revenue of brand intimacy. On the intimacy factor, a text message
usually takes priority over almost any other form of communication.
Why? Because we haven’t yet been saturated with mobile spam,
and this is what causes us to prioritize wireless messaging over
voice.

Mobile marketing has been out there for a while but we marketers
have new territory to explore. Video offers fantastic opportunities
for engagement. Consumers already bypass their filters for highly
useful or entertaining content and will do so for rich exclusive,
compelling content.

I hope today’s lesson was helpful to you.

Don’t forget to check your mail tomorrow we will be talking about
“Folksonomies” (tagging) as a viral marketing tool.

Forum marketing has been touted as a kind of free, organic, viral
marketing. But because so many marketers go into forums purely
with the intention of marketing products or services, their actions
and attitude unwittingly causes the exact opposite of the desired
effect.

Forums aren’t marketplaces, but when used as such, the
marketers’ actions become offensive and will only inspire the
wrath of fellow members and marketers, not to mention
moderators who can ban them from the site with the click of their
mouse.

In order to be effective, this kind of marketing carries a certain
degree of commitment, responsibility and respect.

The first requirement is to take a personal interest in the main
topic of the forum. Not only does that mean visiting it regularly, but
it also means developing a good relationship with both other
members and the moderators, as well as taking an active interest
in helping others. Of course, it also means abiding by and all rules
that exist.

By doing this, you can develop a reputation and, since it is human
nature to work with a trusted colleague, business will naturally
develop from this.

This type of marketing has already suffered some abuse and
because of this, many forums have recently developed stringent
rules designed to protect their members from abusive or overly-
aggressive marketing tactics. One forum grants .sig files only after
a member has created one hundred valid posts and another has
disallowed ads in sig files altogether.

Marketers must respect that the purpose of a forum is to be a
platform to exchange ideas on a given topic. It is not there to
advertise products and services. By focusing on the topic and
posting questions and answers, your reputation will grow and this
creates the potential for sales naturally.

That’s it for today’s lesson. In tomorrows lesson we will talk about
taking your viral marketing campaign mobile.

Today let’s talk about using ebooks to really go viral!

An ebook that includes your marketing message and a link to
your website is a proven technique in viral marketing. This method
uses the multiplication effect to “explode” the distribution of your
message by willing participants.

This is the same basic principle that was used by Hotmail to get
established and grow into a house hold name. When the two
founders set up their free email system, all the messages that
were sent by subscribers had a text message at the bottom which
identified Hotmail as the origin. People who sent emails to their
friends advertised the free email site.

One of the best reasons for using viral ebooks as a marketing
method is because is cheap. It doesn’t take long to set up and it’s
even quicker if you use rebrandable ebooks that have been written
by others.

Finding ready to go viral ebooks is pretty easy. Just use your
favorite search engine and do a search. You will find more than
enough rebrandable ebooks that are available on whatever
subject you are interested in and that apply to your e-business.
One method of distributing the ebook is to offer it to visitors in
exchange for subscribing to your newsletter. If they pass it on to
their friends and family it will promote your business for you.

Ebooks are capable of reaching a large audience and are limited
only by the enthusiasm of the participants.

Ebooks are fairly easy to create. It’s possible to produce your
own ebooks by combining articles that you have written or have
gotten from public domain sources, such as directories.

A common approach is to use material that has private label
rights, including articles and reports that have been written
specifically for that purpose, for that niche. Using a portion of a
larger work that you have prepared such as the first three chapters
of a large ebook could also be used as a viral ebook.

Using ebooks as a part of your viral marketing campaign is one
of many techniques that will have a cumulative effect on your
business, by attracting more customers, subscribers and targeted
visitors to your website. Start using them and you will soon find out
that this is an excellent way to increase sales and awareness too!

Look for another lesson soon! We will be talking about how you
can use online forums as a part of your viral marketing
campaign.

We’d love to hear from you! Please let us know what you think.

No not the one you get after a couple of cocktails! I’m talking about
a viral buzz.

I’m not sure if you have noticed or not but viral marketing has
matured quite a bit over the past few years. There seems to have
been a shift to the web not just being seen by agencies and
brands as another tick box for any ad campaign, which is
significant enough, but now being the medium where a campaign
is launched to create a buzz before a new product even hits the
market.

Have you ever noticed that before a movie is released you will see
clips and trailers which are used to generate excitement and
activity before the movie hits the theaters? That’s buzz.

Plain and simple buzz works! Just like it works for movies and big
businesses, it can work for small and start-up businesses, as well.
The planning stage of a viral campaign will set out objectives and
develop the viral theme for a buzz. There are three core
components to any viral campaign and businesses of any size can
use them.

They are:

1. The creative material: the viral agent that embodies the
message you want to spread in a digital format (image, video,
text, etc). The trick is to put together material that people will be
eager to share with their family and friends. Keep in mind when
you are creating your content that people are much more eager to
share something that is either fun, entertaining or informative
rather
than an advertisement.

2. Seeding: distributing and placing the agent online in places
that provide the greatest potential spread. Direct viral material
downloads or links on specialist viral third-party web sites in order
to create awareness and spread before users get to the
campaign destination site.

3. Tracking: Measuring the spread of the campaign to provide
accountability and prove success. It is absolutely vital that you
know what is or is not working. The only way to get that information
is to track the results of your seeding.

Lessons have been learned, trends have been developed and
there is definitely some science involved in creating a buzz
successfully. The buzz technique is here to stay and, if used
strategically, it can make a difference to the success of your
business.

Just take some time and create a solid viral marketing plan using
the steps above and it won’t be long before you get your buzz on!

Look for another lesson soon! We will be talking about using
ebooks to really go viral.

In this lesson we will be talking about using email to achieve your
viral marketing objectives.

During this lesson I want you to keep in mind that the main
objective of an e-mail campaign is branding, in order to achieve
greater branding success and maximum exposure for your offer
you should do your best to craft your email message in a way that
it encourages your readers to pass it along to others.

Producing a message with a quality offer or an incentive for
passing it along is what viral marketing is all about.

Just suggesting that e-mail recipients forward your message to
their friends and relatives is not viral marketing. A message at the
bottom of your e-mail that reads “Feel free to forward this
message to a friend” is nowhere close to viral marketing at its
best.

On the other hand, if something worthy of sharing, such as a
valuable discount, vital information, additional entries into a
sweepstakes, an added discount or premium service, a
joke/cartoon, or a hilarious video, is included in the e-mail, viral
marketing happens naturally and quite successfully.

The bottom line is that your message must be perceived as having
value. Relevant or timely information, research, or studies are all
good examples of content that might be viewed as potential pass-
along material. Interactive content like a quiz or text can inspire
forwarding, especially if it is fun. Personality tests, fitness quizzes,
or compatibility questionnaires are all things that have been
passed on by many people many times.

Why? Because they are entertaining and entertainment has value.

A good video is always going to achieve some pass-along value.
After all online video is hot! It is a bit more of a time and money
investment but the messages have a great appeal and rich media
has the advantage of being new. The tech factor alone is often
enough for the message to be perceived as valuable.

Email is the ultimate “word of mouth” marketing tool. If your email
message is “viral” in nature, your customer can quickly and easily
forward it to friends and family, spreading your message to an
ever growing list of potential customers.

Look for another lesson soon! We will be talking about getting
your buzz going!

Again, I appreciate your time for visiting and reading this post.

Jim – siteforsell.com

In the next 7 posts of Viral Marketing Crash Course I will  post a lesson
that will help you learn the how you can use viral marketing
to increase awareness and profits for your business.

In this first lesson let’s talk a little about the different types of viral
marketing. As we dive in to the wonderful world of viral marketing
I want you to keep something in mind; a true viral campaign gets
forwarded because consumers are compelled to do so by the
entertainment or quality of the content, not because you bribed
them with a reward or something else.

In the beginning, e-mail was the main way that viral marketing was
passed along. Since then viral marketing has gone from a
marketing strategy to an art form and there are many ways to
accomplish your objectives and create a successful viral
marketing campaign. In this lesson we are going to go over the
different types of viral marketing tools (methods), so that you can
become familiar with them.

We are going to start at the very beginning with e-mail:

It was first but it is still around and still used. It is, however, getting
a little harder to use as more and more government restrictions
are placed on it. Still… it does work.

Newsletters: This is an extension of e-mail but it a very effective
tool. If you include enough timely and valuable information, a good
newsletter can drive up the number of visits to your website.

Blogging: Providing the tools on your website to enable bloggers
to interact with one another is a terrific way to get the message
about your product of service out there and being talked about.
Bloggers have their ears to the ground for new products and
services.

Chat Rooms: A chat room on your website can and does
encourage interaction among your customers and that can’t be a
bad thing. Also, you can use the chat room to schedule special
events like having an expert available to answer questions on a
given day at a given time.

Ebooks: Share your ebook with your visitors and let them share
copies of the ebook with their own visitors and other contacts.
Include a nice blurb or ad for your most popular product with links
to your website.

Software: Share a trial or “lite” version of your software with
your visitors and just like with your ebook tell them that they can
share copies of the software with their own visitors and other
contacts.

Templates – Design your own website or other templates,
include your own marketing information on them and give them
away as free downloads or as an electronic package. Grant
permission for recipients to pass them along.

Articles – Write articles about your niche topic. Include your
website and contact information in the byline and grant permission
for others to publish as long as they keep the byline in tact. Then
people can use your contact on websites, in ezines, newsletters
and other places where once again, viral marketing will speed the
spread of information about your business.

Video Clips: This is one of the hottest types of viral marketing.
Including cool video clips on your website will keep the interest up
and increase traffic.

Flash Games: Although they are a little costly to start, they are
an extremely effective tool to get your viral marketing campaign
going. Once they are launched, they require nothing more from
you.

Of course there are other methods for getting your marketing
message to go viral, but we will get in to those later.

As we close this first lesson I want to touch on one of the main
things that make starting a viral marketing campaign such a good
idea. It is the simple fact that it costs a lot less to implement than
traditional advertising and can be much more effective in a shorter
period of time.

You will also want to keep in mind that viral marketing is just one
basic components of your overall marketing plan. It should be
linked with other strategies such as setting up squeeze pages to
collect subscribers. When you take the time to combine viral
marketing with other essential business building strategies it can
help you increase awareness about your business, generate traffic
to your web site, build a huge and solid customer base, add to
your sales and go a long way in contributing towards your
success.

We have a lot to go over in the next seven days if you want to learn
how to use viral marketing to your advantage, so make sure you
look for your next lesson soon. We will be talking more about using
email to achieve your viral marketing objectives.

Thank you again for stopping by and reading this post.
Jim – siteforsell.com