Viral Marketing

The wikipedia page on viral marking did not say much that I did not expect from it. In this day and age it seems like every post being made is someone trying to go “viral.” This made me realize something about my project 2; Second Chance Rescue uses viral marketing tactics in its advertisements of shelter dogs that it rescues. It uses a social media platform (Facebook) to create a message that appeals to individuals. The goal is for these individuals to respond to the post by sharing it themselves. I believe that this way of advertising is genius because it is just about completely free. The way that Facebook allows people to share posts to such a large audience is like a free alternative to maying for ads on popular websites. All that it has to do is appeal to the audience enough to make them want to share the advertisement themselves; this is not a big addition since personal appeal is a major part of marketing. Another convenient part of using Facebook posts as potentially viral marketing is that is can include pictures, texts, links, just about any media that an advertisement may include. I say “potentially” viral because while we all want to go viral, no one is guaranteed that anything will blow up on the internet. People respond to certain posts in unexpected ways. I will never understand how some memes have gone viral, such as the “How bow dah” girl or the “damn Daniel” guy. This world is unpredictable and the internet is a blackhole of information. The strategies for viral marketing on the wiki page may be helpful, but I am not sure that this phenomena can be put down as a formula just yet. This is a new level to the tipping point.