A virus targeting the mind

Viral marketing depends on a high pass-along rate from person to person. If a large percentage of recipients forward something to a large number of friends, the overall growth snowballs very quickly. If the pass-along numbers get too low, the overall growth quickly fizzles.

Plenty of viruses succeed without spreading beyond a single community, and in terms of viral marketing and how it can work in conjunction with search engine optimisation; sometimes a single community is all it takes to initiate a high search result. Once it is accessible via top search results for a popular/relevant search query, a page/site hosting a commanding idea (i.e. a virus targeting the mind) can be very difficult to shift, as it quickly becomes self-reinforcing.

Viral marketing has come under criticism from consumers, privacy advocates, and marketing pundits because of concern over unsolicited e-mails. The best campaigns, however, use the principles of viral marketing tactfully to avoid negative reactions and ensure a high pass-along rate - the number of recipients that will pass the message to others. Much like the common cold, effective viral marketing uses people to unwittingly transmit a message within their social network. It takes the concept of word-of-mouth and enhances it with the instant global communication afforded by the Internet.