The popular social networking site, facebook, is a good example of the users of viral marketing techniques. Thousands of applications are available on this site [rumoured to be 5,500 in number as of October 11, 2007] which is said to have risen from a ranking of 60 to a ranking of 7th best social networking site on the Internet. These applications include tools for sending candy, free gifts, and even virtual clubs where you can have an online fight with another user.

The only way most of these applications can be added to a member’s profile page is by inviting non users to add these applications to theirs. Some applications also reward ‘money’ which users can spend online on that particular application’s products. There are a number of private individuals who hold the ownership rights to such applications distributing them free. To what purpose you might ask. Well, when one user adds it and uses it, his friend can see how it works and try it himself, in the process making it available to a hundred more on his list.

Viral marketing thus is commercial word-of-mouth advertising at its best. A wonderful mix of interaction, low cost development and speed, online viral marketing’s usefulness in e-marketing circles is succinctly explained by Martina Zavagno, founder and editor of Adverblog.com. According to her, "An advertising concept, in order to work in a viral perspective, needs to add value to the user’s experience. This value can be explicated in something entertaining, in something educational or in something rewarding."

The advertising material has to be small in file size, mobile and should have a high consumer recall quotient, while allowing it to be passed on swiftly through peer-to-peer file sharing programs and e-mails. The quality of the viral material has to be such that it has to possess the ability to inspire users; as ultimately, it is this group that decides the material’s value.

Clear Media Online sees the market value that any successful e-marketing campaign places over a simple but effective concept like viral marketing. Our strategies are time-tested. Our innovations break-through.