Viral marketing: A powerful marketing tool

Viral marketing is any marketing technique that induces websites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users, creating a potentially exponential growth in the message's visibility and effect. It is an amazing way to generate a huge amount of buzz and brand awareness among customers online. It is a strategy that encourages or compels others to share or pass long your message. In the past, viral marketing was called “word of mouth” marketing. The speed and reach of the internet has lead to the term viral marketing, as message can get disseminated as quickly as spreading a cold virus. Initially, online viral marketing occured mostly through e-mail and the sharing of links. Through this paper, an attempt has been made to throw some light on conceptual parts of viral marketing, like, its meaning, history, principles for viral marketing, pre requisites for it, its value, methods used, its distinction from word of mouth and ways to make it effective.