This presentation is from the Business of Community Networking conference (#bocn) delivered by Lena L. West in March 2009, Boston, MA. You can't "go viral" without groups of people sharing your marketing material. You can't get groups to share your marketing material without "going viral". Viral marketing is oft misunderstood and yet contains valuable leverage for marketers and business owners. Lena L. West is an award-winning social media consultant, blogger, speaker, journalist and technologist and in this session she will teach you: * the three things you need to kickstart your viral mojo * a handful of things you'll need to know along the way to "course correct" * the top-level take-aways of the best and worst viral marketing campaigns like Blendtec's "Will It Blend?", Burger King's "Whopper Sacrifice" and BMW's "The Hire" * how to plan for success otherwise known as: what the heck to do when you get what you ask for

1. The Chicken or the Egg? The Real Deal About “Viral” Marketing

2. Who am I? award-winning social media consultant, blogger, speaker, journalist and technologist experienced social media strategist and developer columnist and blogger for Entrepreneur Magazine expert blogger for FastCompany

3. Any marketing tactic or content that encourages “pass along” sharing, which then changes that message’s level of influence. Definition

4. A.K.A. “ buzz marketing” “ word of mouth” or “WOM” “ creating a buzz” “ media leverage”

5. 3 concepts to grasp 7 critical criteria 3 imperatives The 3-7-3 Approach

6. Concept #1 Viral marketing is created - not born.

7. People hate the term “viral marketing” and probably always will. Concept #2

8. Not all viral marketing is positive. Just ask Nike and Chevrolet. Concept #3

9. Criteria #1 Free and short rule.

10. Criteria #2 Doesn’t force behavior change, but does allow for it.

11. Criteria #3 It’s not just entertaining, but people can see themselves doing it .

12. Criteria #4 Feeds off how people work.

13. Criteria #5 Scalability is hard wired.

14. Criteria #6 Facilitates easy sharing.

15. Criteria #7 Leverages O.P.S.

16. Listen RSS feeds/email subscriptions Google Alerts search.twitter.com TweetBeep Conversation monitoring tools (Buzzlogic, Radian6) Imperative #1

17. Set your kill switch. Imperative #2

18. Imperative #3 Once your campaign “goes viral” it no longer belongs to your brand.

19. Questions? Interactivity

20. xynoMedia www.FriendFeed.com/LenaWest 914.377.0600 Connect