Viral Marketing: How to Spread the Word via Mobile Device

Broadly defined, viral marketing is the process of encouraging honest communication between pre-existing consumer social networks (Phelps et al., 2004). More specifically, it seeks to increase brand awareness exponentially, through processes similar to the spread of a viral epidemic. Thus, the concept of viral marketing fits into the metaphor construct because it highlights information transmission as if it were an infection in living organisms. In a way, this term helps us to comprehend human relationships as a physical bond that can be connected, and therefore also contaminated, by a ‘buzz’. Buzz is another metaphor, and describes ‘contagious’ commentary, about products, services, brands, and ideas, that catches the attention of ‘noisy’ enthusiasts who spread the word via electronic or face-to-face conversation in social networks. Thus, the buzz helps firms to give people reasons to talk (often in entertaining and/or informative ways) about their products and services, and makes it easier for that conversation to take place. In a sense, this is the major benefit of using this metaphoric term.