Viral marketing is being used heavily nowadays. While some see this as spamming, there are others who advocate its useage.

Do you think viral marketing is useful and seen in good light?

Hello. First of all - what do you mean under vrtual marketing?

It's a pretty broad term to be using.
If it is done properly than it is not spam, it is word of mouth.

As with anything it's only as good as the ground swell that picks it up.

If something as inoccuous as the million dollar home page can make someone rich, then I assume almost anything is possible. Something that is so worthless and yet made someone so rich.

It is not Vrtual but Viral Marketing.

More information is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing

Probably you are right but in the world of today many people have jumped on to make quick money. They don't care much about conveniences or inconveniences of other people.

Why i started this thread is to discuss over a particular case and may be have extensive dicussion over other possibilities related to the same.

As it so happens that a couple of days earlier while i was on my desk working my way into client's scripts, pops in a person telling me about a new product. I politely decline only to face a question "Why"? I some how manage to get rid of this over-enthuthiast sales person or advertiser. Hardly few minutes have passed and pops in another person advertising products. This happned atleast thrice within an hour and i was so much distracted that i had to switch off messenger, something i was using to get in touch with client whose script i was working on. As if it was not enough, i find my mailbox loaded with emails from diff. companies and for products i never subscribed to. There runs a footer guiding me to unsubscribe but funny part is that if i go to unsubscribe, i will be making them sure that the email address is valid and working. Just in case that was all, i went to a forum where i find database of emails being sold for paltry $40. So, its all turning out into spam now to the extent that i am thinking of changing my email address, something which i had maintained for past three years.

What do you say in situations like this?

Hi bandboy, everything your describing is clearly spam. I hate that, but wouldn't concider it viral marketing. Viral marketing has nothing to do with a company selling anything, it's more like networking, only on a theoretically larger scale. I went to this nice quite little place yesterday for lunch, I was only there about a half hour, but within that time I counted 6 people that walked in off the street and went to the cashier guy (who happened to be the owner) trying to sell him whatever. That's the same thing as what you were describing. It's anoying and I HATE it!
Now, take the same owner after work, driving in his car, making phone calls talking with friends, etc., etc. Calls a friend of his and asks if they knew anything about getting his company on the Internet. The guy tells him, yes, go with XYZ company, the hottest new thing in town. Everyones talking about them, etc., etc. Somehow the "xyz company" created a "buz" and got people talking about them. They do no selling, no knocking on doors, no crap phone calls, nothing. It's just word of mouth, only again, theoretically, on a larger scale.

I agree Jim2Macs. His example was clearly a case of spam. Viral marketing is more like a super cool ad/clip that gets popular and people keep referring other people to, which, as a side effect, promotes a brand.

bandboy, I would also like to point out that actual viral marketing has been in place for a loooong time. It's not something new.

Yeah, I agree with Jim2Macs.