I've got a viral sickness. This is unrelated to my recent stays in the hospital; I'm talking Viral Marketing.


I love– no, L-O-V-E– viral marketing. A bunch. I don't pretend to be a total expert on it, or anything (ok, well maybe a little), but I know what I like and I love the awesome effectiveness of virals.
Here's the thing that got my head a-jumpin' today; I was visiting my buddy Paul McEnany's blog and saw the latest viral music video for the new song Pork and Beans, by Weezer. Aside from being an awesome video from one of my favorite bands, it was also a wonderful spoof/ homage of all the recently popular "viral videos" that have popped up on YouTube, Google and MySpace over the past few years and worked their ways into our lives (or at least our email inboxes).
The fact that Weezer (or at least the folks who produced the video for them) embraced this idea is incredible, but it shows just how "mainstream" the potential effectiveness of viral videos can be. Heck- if a monolith like a record company can embrace such a concept, there might be hope for the rest of the planet.
Like blogs were a few years ago, viral videos represent a great leveling of the playing field. You don't have to have a slick, polished production like the Weezer video to be effective- you just gotta try (and being really funny helps sometimes). Small and large companies can benefit from generating viral videos that appeal to their target audiences. But here's the rub- and what Weezer's video producers were savvy about; you have to know your audience and what they like or find entertaining/ interesting. Sounds familiar doesn't it? It's the same stuff we've all been preaching about blogging over the years. Easier said than done, I know. BUT– learning about your audience is very easy if you just participate in their worlds and simply– get this– ask some questions or answer a few from other folks. That's it. It's as "easy" as that.
Knowing communities and how they work, think, play, interact will always help you when you are trying to reach them. Just ask Mack Collier- the King of Community- and he'll tell you; "it's the community, stupid!"
So let's all get a little sick with the fun and potential of all things Viral (just don't follow me into the hospital doing it).