Goodbye Viral Marketing, Hello Social Marketing

It's crucial to understand the differences between a viral and a social marketing campaign, where participants are both willing and eager to participate. It's interesting how some terms are used in general speech to describe the exact opposite of what they really mean. Take 'Viral marketing' as an example. The term viral marketing was coined to describe the Hotmail phenomenon where every user of the service became an unwilling advocate. Every email sent from Hotmail contained a short advert at the bottom that told the recipient about the free email service. It is therefore important to understand the difference between a viral marketing campaign, where the message is spread involuntarily, and a social marketing campaign, where participants are both willing and eager to participate.