Is this marketing or what?

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I was reading Dale King’s post, The Power of Article Marketing. Here’s what he said about articles:

If you write articles and allow them to be freely published, your articles become viral, meaning your articles can literally spread like a virus and have the potential to be viewed by millions (yes millions) of Internet users.

I started wondering… could you have the same effect with hardcopy articles?

So, I’m not really clear on this “viral” marketing thing, guess that’s why its not my job. Here’s the question I’m trying to answer: Could a magazine article be “viral”?

What is Viral, Anyway?

My understanding is that it is a form of marketing that spreads without intention. Yeah, that’s about all I know. So I decided to consult “the experts.” Here’s what I managed to get out of Stoney and our new viral marketing guru, Ed:

Viral marketing is essentially some kind of marketing that explodes into the marketplace and gets a lot of attraction “naturally.”

It’s something that gets passed around because each person thinks this will give someone else value.

Something becomes “viral” once it’s spreading exponentially.

That said, I asked if it was possible for a hardcopy article to “go viral.” Here’s some tips on making your article viral:

• Print up copies and pass it around.
• Print copies for your customers.
• Blog about the article
• Write a press release about it.
• Get news exposure for the article
• Make it a really good article.
• Wait, and wait some more.

Unbelievably, it can happen. Look at all the New York Times articles that go viral. The best example is underground magazines for bands and events. One person makes a copy, passes it on, the next does the same, and so on and so on. It’s a virus!

P.S. Yeah, I wrote that beautiful masterpiece up there. I’m bragging. Just a little.

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Tags: Search & Marketing
Posted in Search & Marketing