As it is in so many other areas of life, semantics is one of the highest barriers to substantive discussion about online marketing strategies and tactics. “Search engine optimization” can mean many things to many people. (In any case, it should not mean black hat SEO techniques.) There’s disagreement on whether “word of mouth” is a tactic or an outcome. (It’s an outcome — of coupling a superior product with exemplary customer service.) And then there’s “viral marketing.”

Step one in every online marketing plan seems to be: “Let’s do something viral,” but there’s little agreement or understanding on what “viral” is. For example, Nike gets all excited about “going viral” over here, but there’s nothing viral at all about it, so marketing professionals react with a “wow, that sucked” or a yawn (which is probably worse).

I think creative technologist Kevin Glennon does a good job of laying it out here, where he explains, “a viral advertising element is simply something that requires you to do stuff in order to make it work.” The full article is worth reading.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 15th, 2006 at 6:00 am and is filed under Marketing Stuff.