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As the title shows, this post is about intersection of social media and viral marketing. Man is a social animal and hence socializing comes natural to him. He seeks out places where he could meet, converse and share his thoughts and feelings with others. Therefore it shouldn’t be surprising at all that social media is the next big thing ( or rather has already become The Big Thing. )

Well, the other day I was twittering on my account (Click here for my twitter profile) when I saw a tweet from Guy Kawasaki. Guy is that sort of person who talk sense and doesn’t spam at all unlike many others who have made Twitter as a direct spamming ( just coined the term )medium.

The tweet was enticing. It read something like this: ” What do you think? Should I change my career?“. That is not in verbatim but meaning was more or less same. And then there was one link. Now anyone who knows anything about Guy would have obviously clicked that link since anything he touches turns to gold.

I clicked on the link and found out that a prank has been played on me where Guy was shown in a video contesting for US Presidential elections and how he is gaining the ground.Naturally, I also tried my hand at it. To view results click here.

Now this was a prank but guess what!

What if companies do create effective viral campaigns using social media and micro blogging platforms like twitter for say Brand Buzz?

The applications could be limitless and is left only to the imagination of the marketer. If you have come across any of such campaigns or situations, do share it with us.

Why not share!

Internet has become a ubiquitous resource now a days. We have leveraged the power of internet to different walks of life. While some use it for socialising, some for making money and many for information seeking.

But how about nailing down an auto thief?

Sounds weird, right!!!

But that is what exactly happend to Shaun Ironside, a car dealer in Calgary, Canada. Two young men stole Nissan skyline GT-R from Heritage Auto Sales, when they took it for test drive. After reporting its disappearance to police, Ironside posted a message on www.Beyond.ca, a website for Canadian auto enthusiast.

The post read:

” 10:28 pm, March 26. Unfortunately I have to post this as one of my first posts. My 1991 Skyline GT-R is officially STOLEN. “

The post included several pics of the car and offered a cash prize.

The next day , James Lynch, a forum moderator spotted the car parked outside a mall. He followed the car and at one of the traffic lights, got a picture of the thief. Lynch who is known over the forum by JAYMEZ, posted:

“4:19 pm, March 27 I FOUUUNNNDDDDD THEM =) And I have pictures Called the police and chased them, also talked to them. “

After the posting of Lynch, Allan Thomson known as Numi over the forum, posted about the car’s whereabouts. The post read something like this:

“10:23 pm. March 27 FOUND!! PMED with exact location. Guy drives it like he owns it. Idiot parks outside his house backed in so you cant see his plate. “

Another forum member added google maps to the thread for directions to the house. With the help of another guy named Punit Patel, alias DjStylz on the forum, the thief was nailed in less than 48 hours.

The story does not end here. Even the shaky video of police arresting the curprit Jamie Glen Jacobson was shared for happy ending.

Stories like this vindicate the fact that there are still numerous yet to be explored applications of internet which we have not thought of as yet and hence “Engagement of people”.

Why not share!

One of my friends recommended me to join him on twitter.I wondered why another “one of those networking sites” when there are already hundreds present…

But then I thought why not give it a try as it was recommended by a no nonsense guy. I visited the platform and saw a bird on the home page and a question:

” What are you doing?” …. thought what crap is this!!!!

but then joined it, made myself comfortable with it by spending some time exploring it…

And now that I know twitter better,whats the result ?

Warning: Don’t try twitter!! It is an addiction. Once hooked on it , you can’t escape it. It might be injurious to your health!

But kudos to guys who made twitter and gave altogether a new dimension to “Engaging people by leveraging internet”

Why not share!

Ask a layman, “Who do you think are websites made for?” and I am sure the prompt reply would be, “of course humans”. Ask a web developer or a webmaster, who does he think of while developing a website, and I am sure the reply would be “Search engines and humans”.

Websites were always meant for humans. But as time progressed and the number of pages on the internet started growing exponentially, it became difficult to locate them. There entered the Search engines and something happened that changed the way people used internet: Google.

Fast forward to the present scenario. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) became more of a norm than an option. Any serious webmaster or business owner will make sure to put as much efforts as possible to please the Google algorithm to hog the maximum attention by getting in the first page of search results. I do not mean to belittle SEO efforts in any manner whatsoever. It has remained and will continue to be an important tool to get your website closer to netizens.

But somewhere down the line the real target audience (humans) of the web took a backseat and it was the search engines for which majority of efforts were directed to, sometimes at the cost of content. Therefore I always like to call SEO as online marketing for search engines.

But then web evolved further and we had social networking sites and social book marking sites. Social networks are a rage, anybody would testify to this fact. Millions of users around the world visit orkut, facebook, myspace. Just imagine the kind of ready audience available at these platforms. I strongly feel in near future marketing on social forums would be a prime method of marketing and not just an option. Webmasters and business owners should concentrate on putting quality content on their websites, which is appealing to the audience and warrants attention and repeat visits. And then having done that, put efforts to devise sustained market campaigns on these forums with equal vigor as they do in their offline marketing campaigns currently. And this especially will benefit to service providers who are ready for customers from a global marketplace.

And who knows if search engines start indexing and searching social network pages in near future, the marketing possibilities on these networks will rise exponentially.

Why not share!