There's a lot of buzz about viral marketing, especially viral videos, and they are quite effective at spreading a message for little or no cost.
Word-of-mouth is essential for public relations, no matter what medium you're using. Any form of communication -- the text of a speech, a photo, a news story, an oped, or a video -- can be forwarded and shared these days by e-mail or social media.
This concept wasn't suddenly invented when the Internet went live. People have always shared new ideas, gossip and interesting clips.
Technology has simply made it much easier today. You don't have to cut out a newspaper story and mail it to your friend. You can forward just about anything, instantly, sing your smart phone today.
Here's an example of a great viral video by a non-profit:
Stop the bullet. Kill the gun.
They didn't need to spend millions of dollars to show this as an ad on television stations. They put it on youtube and it went viral.
It's brilliant because they know their audience.
There's no point in preaching to the converted, to people who already agree with their position.
They wanted to target gun violence, and it's young men who are typically responsible for most violent deaths by firearm. Young men are also the most likely to search Youtube for videos of "bullets blowing things up in slow motion." And this is one of the first videos that pops up, because it's quite well done.
The non-profit is also smart not to drown their video in words or hit the viewer over the head with their message. There's no text at all until the very end, and even then there's barely anything -- just enough to identify the group and what they're trying to do.
A good viral video, or photo, doesn't need words. You get the message through powerful images, which have a more direct route through the brain to emotions than words alone.