Viral Marketing – Can it Effect Your Employment Brand?

A Three Part Series – The good, the bad and the ugly

Part 1 – The “Good” The impact of a good product experience

Part 2 – The “Bad” The impact of Bad work Environments

Part 3 – The “Ugly” The impact of Lay-off’s, Restructures or Downsizing

Absolutely! Viral marketing refers to marketing techniques that use preexisting social networks to produce increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.

Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages.

It is claimed that a satisfied customer tells an average of three people about a product or service he/she likes, and eleven people about a product or service which he/she did not like. Viral marketing is based on this natural human behavior.

The goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to identify individuals with high Social Networking Potential (SNP) and create Viral Messages that appeal to this segment of the population and have a high probability of being passed along.

The term “viral marketing” is also sometimes used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns the use of varied kinds of astroturfing both online and offline to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm.

Ok, so how does it work? First, the “Good”

Today, I received an email from a friend of mine – Subject: Guitar Hero Expert. “Bob, This kid is amazing… He is definitely my guitar hero”.

http://kotaku.com/350157/pre+teen-guitar-hero-wails-on-the-ellen-degeneres-show?autoplay=true

So, I clicked on the email and watched the video. Outstanding! This kid was amazing. In fact, I called my two boys in who are avid “Guitar Hero Players” to watch the video. I then forwarded the video to all of my friends.

This was happening all over the country. In fact, this young “Guitar Hero” racked up an impressive 3.8 million hits on his Utube video which later caught the attention of the Ellen DeGeneres show that later yielded a live perform on her show.

Ok, what does this have to do with and how does it impact an employment brand?

The viral marketing wrapped around this 11 year old caused a surge in product popularity. This bodes well for all “brands” involved.

Red Octane, the publisher, developer, and distributor of Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has been catapulted into the limelight. The success of these products creates demand which impact sales, profits, brand recognition, top of mind awareness, and employment opportunities.

Red Octane has now become the place to be in Sunnyvale, California for young and upcoming software developers.

PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system console from Sony Computer Entertainment, Xbox™ video game system from Microsoft, and on personal computers (“PC”) are also benefiting from the craze both financially and “brand” wise.

The viral hype positioned their corporate brand and proprietary brands in the forefront as leaders in technology and innovation. All important “Brand Attributes” when recruiting top tech talent.

Not to mention the “brand” impact on the video game peripherals and accessories business who have won awards for the Ignition® Dance Pad, the Guitar Hero SG® Controller, the Wireless Guitar for PS2, the X-plorer Wired Guitar for the Xbox 360, the Kramer Striker Wireless Guitar for PS2 and the Les Paul Guitar for the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PLAYSTATION 3.

As you can see Viral Marketing can impact your brand in many ways and is considered one of the strongest forms of marketing known.

In part 2 and 3 we will explore how this form of marketing can also be an “employment brands” worst nightmare.

Closing note: All of you that clicked the link I provided about, have now participated in a viral marketing movement.

About MYJOBENGINE: http://www.myjobengine.com

MYJOBENGINE.com is the internets first “Employment Branding” job board and marketing tool designed specifically for Corporate Staffing professionals seeking effective and efficient ways to promote their “Employment Brand” and corporate career site.

Image taken on 2008-11-14 03:25:01. Image Source. (Used with permission)