Viral marketing is a dangerous thing for to start focusing on, if you haven’t done any kind of marketing before.

Still as someone new to online marketing I would like to get my hands on a copy.

You raise an interesting and fair point about the viral element of Online Marketing. Just to echo what Brandon has already mentioned, getting something to go viral is as much about luck as is about careful planning.

I would hate to think that a readers first campaign was dependent on something going viral. If it did, great, but the chances are pretty low.

Only once they have a rock solid program in place, with a bit of momentum, would it be time to start trying to develop viral campaigns.

Over my years as an online marketer, only a couple of times have I had a initiative that I would truly consider to be a viral success – with many, many attempts.

That said — if I ever do find that magic viral formula for guaranteed success with viral campaigning I’ll be sure to share it with everyone.

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The main reason the book only briefly mentioned viral marketing is that I think planning for a campaign to go viral is impossible. You can create quality content and share it across your entire network but there is no formula for success when it comes to viral marketing.

Even advertising agencies that focus on viral marketing tend to have more duds than successes. I more subscribe to David Meerman Scott’s philosophy which is to create quality content and build a relationship with customers and potential customers, and if/when you have content that goes viral GREAT!

If you’re interested in learning how to create quality content that has a great chance of going “viral” check out David Meerman Scott’s new book “World Wide Rave.” He gives real world examples of how real companies created quality content, and relationships, and reaped the benefits from it.

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A: Sharing Excitement

Example: Yesterday, my wife showed me a video that a friend had posted on her Facebook and my wife was so excited about sharing it with me that she got me to actually go to her computer to see it rather than send it to me via Facebook.

B: Strikes A Chord

Example: lonelygirl15

NOTE: Production quality doesn’t have to be great for it to be viral.

C: Leverage linking, tagging, keywords, SEO and every other trick in the book such as posting/seeding, start forum topics and otherwise blab about it everywhere and get people talking about it. By the way, this includes not tipping the viewers off to the fact that it’s “for” something like an advertisement or is “meant” to go viral; that’s the kiss of death.

Of course, this doesn’t mean it will be a success because you can never guarantee a viral video, but the fact that lonelygirl15 was staged is proof that any video can go viral as long as it strikes a cord, has high sharing excitement and it gets linked everywhere by you or others.

While we’re at it, if anyone is reading this, it would be interesting to know what people think the A, B, and C of viral videos are. Let me know!