Ethics in Viral Marketing

Something as new as viral marketing calls for a framework of ethics that will act as a guideline when it is implemented. Many have already begun working on this. Here is a thought about the ethics that I feel should be incorporated by the players of viral marketing to ensure fair and professional practices.

What is Viral Marketing?

Before you think this is some kind of virus doing the rounds, let me define viral marketing for you in simple words. This is a marketing tool that uses an idea to spread through pre-existing social networks. The plan is to actually help market one’s business or cause while spreading this idea. This marketing technique encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others to produce exponential increase in brand awareness. It is called viral because like viruses, such strategies get rapidly multiplied and thus, help send the message across to a large number of customers.

To make it more simple, viral marketing can be described as online referral marketing used by marketers to get new marketing leads. When used off the internet, ‘word-of-mouth’, ‘creating a buzz’, ‘leveraging the media’ and ‘network marketing’ are the more commonly used terms for viral marketing.

Content

To start with, it is very important to create specific content keeping in mind the community you are writing for. Just don’t be in any rush to write generic content with the sole aim of submitting it to every site. This will only mislead people and will have negative impact on your brand image in the long run. Create content with the thought of making it successful even if everyone is aware of its purpose of being created specifically for viral marketing.

‘Knowing what people are looking for and providing them with relevant information’ is the key to successful viral marketing.

Participate in social marketing sites

It is our ethical obligation to participate in the community not only for promoting self interest but also to benefit the community. This is a great way of building ones reputation too!

You can help the community you believe in by inviting new members. Giving your profits a back seat for once, you can find useful content for the community. By extending support to the members and their activities on a community, you can help add value to the community without any hidden selfish motives.

Vigilance

Though tough, but keeping a check on your employees and clients for unethical practices will help maintain the viability of these communities as markets in the future for you.

It is in your interest to ensure that employees and clients are not creating multiple accounts, purchasing or trading votes and in any way trying to harm competitor’s content or accounts. Go with the notion that if someone is harming these sites and communities it will, in the time to come, harm you and your business as well.

Here, I would also like to mention a new set of rules introduced by The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) for the use of online referral, or viral marketing. These guidelines relate to the kind of marketing where personal information about a prospect is taken by the marketer.

As per the rules, the marketer must disclose intended uses of the information when taking any reference. The referring individual should also be informed that their own contact information will be provided to those they have referred to the marketer. Also, the recipient should be given the option of opting out from any future communication in the first and any subsequent e-mail communications.

Also, it is the moral responsibility of the marketers to take prior permission from the referred person before selling, renting, sharing, transferring or exchanging a referred e-mail address.