Social and viral marketing is a trust issue – not a trust in you – more a trust between friends. It just needs the seeds. For any issue to become viral, the word needs to be spread, and that is done through trust, or at least perceived trust.
Social sites are everywhere and on many of these sites, your online friends are also your offline line friends, relatives or acquaintances. You may have five of these friends who each have another five friends. I need not go on – you know the story. One person says something positive (or negative) and it starts to spread.
What most people don’t realize is that many people will also accept recommendations from complete strangers. This happens frequently throughout the various social sites. Here the emphasis is often either weight of numbers, or the quality of the recommendation.
Take as an example, an individual who asks “who sells the best green widgets”. One friend may say company A. Fifty complete strangers may say company B. One stranger may say company C and provide examples – a good testimonial. As all three have levels of trust, who would you buy from?
I am not going to over analyze this – the answer is either A B or C. And that is my point. When it comes to social and viral marketing campaigns, you can trigger the viral component either through a close friend, or by simply having someone provide a good recommendation; we just need to be able to capitalize on it.
