Viral marketing works on the basic principle that people want to share good things with their friends and work colleagues.

Let’s discuss this phenomenon at the hand of an example. Jane buys a pair of shoes and it turns out they are the best shoes she has ever owned. Jane takes some pictures of her nice new shoes and puts them on her Facebook page. She then tells her network of friends about her new shoes and gives them a link so they can look at her pictures. It doesn’t end there because Jane’s friends have their own friends and they pass the link on to them. At this point things have become viral. The information is spreading through the social networks like a virus. There are many social networks, not only Twitter and Facebook. So the marketing information can jump between networks.

This isn’t so different from traditional word of mouth marketing. The difference lies in the speed and the ease with which information moves through social networks.

Does a shoe company have to wait for Jane to come along and market their product? No, it might never happen. If you have a great product or service to market, you should get the ball rolling yourself.

The first step in making it work is to develop something that people will consider worthy of telling their friends about.

Whatever you do create, if possible add your company’s logo and web address on it. Then potential clients will know where to find you.

Videos
The most popular web site on the internet is YouTube. A successful viral video on there can reach millions of potential customers. It however needs to be good as there is quite a bit of competition out there.

YouTube has spawned many clone sites, looking for the same success. For maximum effectiveness post your viral video to as many of these sites as possible.

Articles
While videos have a large initial impact which tapers off over time, articles have longevity. The search engines love articles and there are many sites which will let you post your articles for free. Ezine Articles is a good example. Again include a link to your website.

Create a free Ebook
Say you are selling DIY home equipment. What better way to sell it than to create an Ebook which teaches people how to perform DIY home improvements. Sprinkle ads of your products in the Ebook. There are many sites which host libraries of free Ebooks online. Upload it to a few of them and remember to encourage the readers to pass the Ebook on.

Contests
People love contest. They also love to tell others about contents. Your prize can be as simple as a Tshirt or a gift certificate.

There are many other methods of distributing your ads. Podcasts, digital pictures, free computer and mobile programs, jokes and so on. If you think about it I am sure you will come up with a few good ones.

Remember to keep the content relevant to your target market, that way viewers will consider your company the kind with which they like to do business.