a good kind of virus...

First there was Interruption Marketing, then Permission Marketing. Add Viral Marketing to the list and it's no wonder how much spam can accumulate in just a few days. Ireland and Nash's book points out that Viral Marketing differs from the others in that it is entirely peer to peer. It's a technique targeted to people who would never click on a banner ad and who even filter out e-mails from anyone who's name they don't recognize. Websites have discovered that people will listen to their friends. By simply adding a button labeled "Send this page to a Friend" it can significantly increase its hit count.

This concept reminds me of Ed Keller and Jon Berry's book, The Influentials, which Jonah Seiger mentioned in his lecture a few weeks back. The authors note that one of every 10 people is an influential, or the person that all of their friends go to for advice on the best restaurant, movie, etc. Websites have caught on to this idea. By supplying the send to a friend button, these influentials can now easily use cyberspace to show their friends why their candidate is best or to pass along an interesting article in the Post. I know that I frequently e-mail articles of interest to my family and friends.

As long as the websites do not abuse the system by then sending out unsolicited e-mails to both the recommender and the recipient, I think viral marketing is an easy and fantastic way to spread a message.