Book Review: Viral Marketing by Russell Goldsmith

Although this book is nine years old, it still gives a good introduction to what viral marketing is and examples of how it's been used. Goldsmith is a UK native and therefore the statistics and survey results that he analyzes in his book are specific to the UK. That said, it's still interesting to read how many people (out of the 800 surveyed) said they would pass along an email to a colleague and what type of information they would be most likely to pass along.

I would bet that most people today would think that they've never been part of a viral marketing campaign or even viral marketing itself, but most likely they have. What do you do when your friend forwards you an email with a joke about the workplace? You send it to colleagues that you think would find it funny. That's viral marketing!

One good point that Goldsmith pointed out during this quick read, is that marketers need to keep in mind the saturation point of a viral marketing campaign. How many times will someone receive the same message from multiple friends before they start to perceive the brand, product or service negatively?

Read this book if you're new to marketing, viral marketing or just want to hear about some clever viral marketing ideas.