Viral marketing is growing up. The term, coined in the mid-1990s to describe how Hotmail got users by letting people invite their friends to join, as if they were passing a virus, is now branching out into different forms. David Meerman Scott is coming out with a book on why he thinks viral marketing now should refer to only professional campaigns, where companies or ad agencies try to get people to spread their marketing materials. Scott, whose book “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” got a thumbs up from BNET’s Geoffrey James, has a new book coming out about the original, Hotmail-type viral marketing — where you get your growth because people love your stuff. He calls it “World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories.”
You can check him out in this interview, where he talks about the concept. I think the interview makes it clear that his new Rave concept is a bit forced. I remain skeptical that you can package up love for a product or idea. That said, there are certainly things we could all do to make our products and ideas more likely candidates for getting spread around, and Scott’s tips on how to make this work are still valid. You can probably get most of those by downloading this free precursor to the Rave book, The New Rules of Viral Marketing.
