Topics include:

• Social Bookmarking Sites with Ryan Pitylak
• Social Networks and Viral Marketing with Ryan Pitylak
• Word-of-Mouth by Ryan Pitylak
• Viral Marketing Principals with Ryan Pitylak
• The Long Tail and Viral Marketing by Ryan Pitylak

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Viral marketing doesn’t have to be purposeful or orchestrated.  There are many instances where viral marketing spreads naturally due to the value of the programming, and the olympics certainly meet that criteria.

Ultimately, 1 person telling another person IS viral marketing.  Is it viral?  That’s another question…. Does it virally grow on its own without any additional push?  For every person who joins, does at least 1.0001 additional person join above anyone else who leaves?  If the answer is yes, the over time, you will see growth organically.  We’re not talking about traffic from search engines, redirects, or other places.  We’re talking about straight direct traffic that delivers new visitors.  That’s viral.

But, do I think that someone who tells someone else about a product isn’t viral, no.  That’s also viral.  It may be harder to understand how to capitalize on the opportunit, but it’s certraintly viral.

Ryan Pitylak and viral marketing.

Fans were given the opportunity to create their own online space where the joker still roams Gotham City.  This engagement helps create brand awareness, because people associate with the brand (in this case, the Dark Knight).

Fans could also view trailers of The Dark Knight on websites months before the movie was released, but that’s not too compelling, as most movies let fans see trailers months in advance online.

Traditional viral marketing comes into play when people rave and review about the movie, tell their friends, which all result in sold out shows.

Ryan Pitylak’s Viral Marketing Blog discusses viral marketing trends and techniques.

However, I feel that it’ll take some time before bluecasting (advertising to cell phones through bluetooth) will be accepted here.  You’ll need to add significant personalization before people will really feel like they’re receiving the benefit from the push advertising.

Ryan Pitylak provides viral marketing services for companies.

Well, viral marketing isn’t for every company, but if you’re really trying to reach a younger demographic, then you can’t worry about videos created by third parties.  The ad wasn’t even about JC Penny, but they made things a lot worse for themselves by getting involved.

I wrote about the viral marketing video by Bluetooth that took a common fear (cell phone waves killing your brain) and spun it around to sell their product.  This is a great way to sell a product, especially considering how much traction the video received online.

Creating these unique videos takes creative talent, but ideally, you can distribute them on a low budget.  Creating good videos can be costly, but the overall cost is very low compared to normal advertising vehicles.