What is the secret of success for viral marketing on the Internet to work? Why do you think Friendster and Myspace grew so quickly, while other sites which might have a similar concept did not... Please explain it to me . Thanks.
I think it has more to do with innovation than anything. Most of those successful website doesn't even have any marketing campaign, just think when was the last time you seen an ad about google, thefacebook, or friendster? It's all word of mouth pass on between users. But if you look at those website, the common similarities that they share are the fact that most of them are one of the first of their kind, and they all have the easy to use user interface and powerful software. And I believe those 2 factors alone can decide how successful those kinds of websites are going to be.
Thanks for your reply. But is the Friendster or Myspace software really that powerful? How do I get the word-of-mouth going if I start my own site (other than illegally pimping it here on the BBS) ?
Yes, I think they are powerful. The scripts they use are reliable, secure, and stable. They does their jobs and does them well. Some new imitater scripts may have many more fancy but unnecessary features, but they are not nearly as reliable. I think the best way to let people notice your site is to have good contents. If people likes your stuff, they will tell their friends. Of course, you could start it off by send your site to your friends, or post it on the online communities that you are part of (with cluth's permission of course ).
Public Relations. It wasn't just viral marketing that made those sites successful. People forget that PR is actually more powerful then marketing.
What kind of site are you thinking of putting up? I think the key to viral marketing is to have something really cool on your site that makes people think, "Hey, I want to show that to my friends." But I'm just stating the obvious, aren't I.
facebook is simply amazing. I remember within a week of facebook opening up to my unversity nearly everyone had an account. It was big news across campus "wow we have facebook now!" was pretty much everyone's reaction. There have even been multiple articles in the school paper about the website...it's just insane. I don't know if they are making any money, but I've never seen a website grow in popularity as quickly as facebook.
I don't understand it, though - I tried it out, and perhaps I missed it, but I can find NOTHING special about it... which features are there which are really so outstanding?
Think of the dial-up days with AOL. Despite its **** service, they had a strong marketing campaign and built on its early success to draw in more. Those coasters worked for the same reason why they were annoying. There's also Pareto's Principle at work. Diversity plus freedom of choice creates inequality, and the greater the diversity, the more extreme the inequality. They got lucky. Got good funding. Their service was adequate enough for a crowd that didn't like changing services.
