‘Viral Marketing’ —

Catch It!

By Scott Ahlsmith, CTC

“Viral marketing” is the best new business phrase and it is the worst new business phrase. It’s the worst because viruses are undesirable and make us rush to wash our hands and spray essential lavender oil everywhere. It’s the best new phrase because it describes the contagious nature of new marketing techniques that produce exponential results for little or no cost.
Viral marketing, much like the advent of Web sites, levels the playing field. Viral marketing concepts and tools can be used by big corporations and by Home Based travel professionals. In fact, Home Based travel professionals have a distinct advantage when initiating viral marketing campaigns. That’s because they don’t have to form a committee to evaluate and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of viral marketing to present an economic impact report to the marketing and finance departments so someone can fire the traditional advertising agency. Home Based viral marketers can simply get started “spreading the word.”
And, “spreading the word” or “creating the buzz” is viral marketing’s central theme. In fact, viral marketing is nothing more than word-of-mouth advertising that becomes an epidemic. The epidemic, another unfortunate term, has spread due to the Web’s ability to connect individuals and organizations into social networks. From massive peer-to-peer music sharing networks to relatively small Yahoo groups sharing raw food diets for pets, social networks and their Internet connectivity elevates word-of-mouth advertising to epidemic and pandemic proportions.
All viral marketers are created equal and the one with the most interesting stories and the best command of the viral marketing tools, wins! Budgets, stockholders, TV commercials and reputation have little to do with viral marketing success. Many times, the small gal wields the advantage. She can move faster, understand her audience better and implement new viral marketing tools faster than large corporate entities.
One of the keys to successful viral marketing is identifying and infecting “sneezers.” The term “sneezers” was created by Seth Godin who wrote “Unleashing Ideavirus “(www.ideavirus.com). Seth defines sneezers as your best storytellers: those who have an eager audience of listeners and can craft an engaging story. Sneezers are also people who need to justify their consumer behavior by talking about it. Sneezers are the viral marketer’s megaphone. They talk about their travel experiences and tell better water cooler stories on Monday morning than anyone else.
Blogging and casting (also known as podcasting) are two new viral marketing tools. Savvy travel professionals are beginning to use these tools to virally market their services and communicate with prospects and customers. [Author’s note: The reason I refer to “casts” rather than “podcasts” is that, as much as Apple wants you to think otherwise, you do not need an iPod to listen to a “podcast.” Therefore, the generic term: “cast” is appropriately nonpartisan and noncommercial. Additionally, you may see the term “blog” referred to as “web log.” I prefer the contraction: “blog.’”]
On the surface these tools appear complex and daunting, but learning them is like learning to ride a bicycle. After you’ve done it once, it gets easier and easier.

Viral Blogs and Casts
In their simplest forms, blogs and casts are viral marketing tools that share your knowledge, ideas, and thoughts with others. Blogs share your knowledge, ideas, and thoughts in written form while casts share them audibly. The contents of blogs and casts range from practical and useful information to insane ranting and raving. They range from serious opinions to laugh-out-loud comedy routines. Readers and listeners range from just you to anyone in the world with an Internet connection.
If word processing software empowered you to self-publish, blogs and casts give you the ability to distribute your messages throughout the world at little or no cost.
Additionally, blogs and casts are free from set time constraints. In broadcast media this phenomenon is called time-shifting. VCRs and TiVo enable time shifting in the broadcast arena just like blogs and casts enable it in the online arena.
Time-shifting means the reader or listener can interact with the content on her or his schedule (anytime) and in any location (anywhere) they can access the Internet or an MP3 player. Several radio and television news programs, like ABC’s “Nightline” and NBC’s “Meet the Press,” convert their programs to blogs and casts to reach an audience that refuses to be controlled by fixed locations or set schedules.

Promoting YOU! the Brand
If you can write or talk (blog or cast) you can start a viral buzz. One of my favorites is produced by Home Based travel agent, Barry Kantz. It is called, “Home Based Travel Agent Podcast” (http://hometravelagent.blogspot.com) and is a written discussion coupled with a verbal cast describing what it’s like to be a Home Based travel agent. It features information about destinations, travel news, travel tips and “sound seeing” tours.
Barry is building his personal brand every time he makes a blog entry or records a cast. He is communicating his branding message (his promise to his customers) in a consistent and low-cost manner. Furthermore, people, like me, are telling others about Barry’s blog and casts, which is the essence of viral marketing.
Barry also understands how “sneezers” spread the viral message. He devotes casts to interviews with recognizable industry personnel so they will they will tell others about the brand of Barry Kantz. Additionally, Barry taps the social network created around blogs and casts and includes others’ blogs and casts in his own.
The community spirit nurtured by viral marketing encourages peer-to-peer sharing of interesting information as opposed to the proprietary and litigious nature of traditional advertising media.

Viral Marketing Benefits
An August 2005 survey, conducted by Six Apart and Gawker Media, found that nearly 50 million Americans, or about 30% of the total U.S. Internet population, visited blogs during the first three months of 2005. This represents an increase of 45% compared to the first quarter of 2004.
This means blogs and casts help us reach people, above all, those who are abandoning network television, radio, direct mail, telephone solicitation, newsletters and newspapers. People who read blogs are wealthier, younger and probably thinner than the rest of the world. And, most importantly, they represent nearly a third of online Americans.
Another and maybe the most important aspect of blogging and casting is that Google loves blogs and casts. It consistently ranks them very high, which means they rise to the top of search results. This is because the founders of Google are champions of the little guy. They believe in the social network of the Internet and the Web and want to do everything they can to preserve and promote the individual’s ability to communicate his thoughts, opinions and branding statements.
The cornerstone of blogs and casts is personal “opinion and knowledge,” and we know from consumer surveys, conducted last summer by Galileo International, that leisure travelers want and will pay for a travel professional’s knowledge, expertise and recommendations.
Finally, blogs and casts help travel professionals compete against large online travel sites. When Barry Kantz offers his opinion, his customers know it is based on his experience and expertise. When large online travel Web sites offer opinions, the traveling public senses those opinions might be based on supplier payments for positioning and promotion. Even the so-called “consumer opinion” travel sites are peppered with shills and authors receiving stipends from destinations and suppliers.
Viral marketing and its sneezers, blogs and casts, help you create the buzz and talk directly to your customers about something that interests them with anytime and anywhere distribution.

Scott Ahlsmith, CTC is president and CEO of Magellan360, a host agency specializing in processing and fulfillment services for travel professionals. He also just launched a new venture called You! the Brand. that creates blog and cast entries that travel professionals use to sell themselves. Additionally, he volunteers his time to serve as the chairman of The Travel Institute, which sets professional standards and bestows professional certifications for the travel industry. scott@magellan360.com