Brian Solis: 'There is no viral marketing'

NEW YORK--Blogger and new-media publicist Brian Solis struck down one of the biggest marketing buzz terms of the past few years in a panel on Wednesday morning at the Web 2.0 Expo here.

"There is no 'viral marketing' per se," Solis said, referring to the marketing trend of creating a catchy online gimmick and hoping it will spread like the latest cat-does-something-funny video on YouTube. Rather, Solis explained, it's the people who make it viral. Getting a grip on online marketing is an ongoing strategy, he said. "This isn't a campaign. This is something new, this is something we have to do every day."

Getting brands onto social networks is one of the hottest topics of the marketing world these days, from partnerships with MySpace and Facebook to "appvertising" on their developer platforms.

Solis' tips for the audience: get to know bloggers as well as traditional journalists, be aware of what people are saying about your company or brand on blogs and social networks, and know that there's more to the Web than a Facebook fan page. "This whole thing is bigger than Twitter, (and) this whole thing is bigger than Facebook," Solis said.

"You're not a marketer anymore, you're not a public relationships professional anymore, you're just a person who knows what you're talking about, so you're just able to jump in and cultivate relationships," he said. "We're humanizing our story."

Idealistic, for sure, and Solis acknowledged that the rules of "social-media marketing" are by no means set in stone. Things can change fast, and companies need to be ready to adapt.

And the underlying truth is that this is all still advertising, marketing, and public relations, and too many attempts to mask it as "conversation" can come across as a gimmick. Indeed, Solis said that a lot of people are screwing it up.

"They're creating profiles on every social network and they're 'friending' everyone like it's going out of style," he said, talking about Twitter spam and showing a PowerPoint slide of the cartoon incarnation of trying too hard, Wile E. Coyote. "It's not about shilling, it's not about pushing, and it's not about faking it."

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[lacykemp]

He's right. It's about creating an actual relationship with people who are interesting and interested. I can spend all day tweeting and facebooking spam (not that I would do that, but I'm just sayin'), but in the long run the conversations that are taking place are going to be what actually makes a difference.

[benjaminstraight]

Informative article.

[tomposer]

I have found that without true, helpful information that you can share with your audience there is no point in pursuing online connectivity. Once you drive viewers to your site you have to have the content that encourages them to come back, share your info, or use your services.

Tom Poser
http://www.sanfranciscotenantrep.com

[joshcarr6]

A virus kills it's host.

There is something to that. In order for any new media campaign to be successful it can't be a campaign. It must be a conversation. New markets are old again. Mass media advertising is on it's way out. New Marketing will be about conversations and not interruptions.