Exit Desert Ocean Presents an Spring Valley Lake Home at Schooner Drive.

What is Viral Marketing? We all know what constitutes marketing but what's this viral thing? Well, for sure you needn't worry about catching it, that is unless you really want to. Basically viral marketing is a strategy that encourages the person you are involving in the message to pass it on to others. Like a cold. Even been in a place and people are coughing and sneezing? If you have been been you know that you are on the receiving end of "their message". Well, let's not pass our germs around but in business today it is essential that our message is one that gets passed around.

So how does one do that exactly. Suppose you have a listing on a property in the MLS and an agent sees it and send the listing out to his client. In effect your listing is said to be viral. Well, not too viral if one one agents sends it out, I suppose, but you are starting to get the idea. But what happens to that listing that others send out? Anything? Probably not. In this case then we would say that viral message was pretty week.

Your objective is to see your message multiplied over and over( just like that cold bug you got an airplane. Everyone you come in contact with is getting the benefit of what you picked up). OK, Benefit is probably not the right word here, but for marketing purposes, it is about benefits.

So we now know that to have an an effective marketing message today it should be viral. And it is has to have a benefit for the person that receives it. Now the trick is to get that benefit ( your message) passed on to others.

You might ask, why would someone would do that? Why wouldn't they just want to keep it themselves? Lets add a another word in to the mix. Shared benefit.

How do you craft something that others want and then they want to share it with others?We are in the real estate business and what sort of message or thing could you create that others want and then they will compelled to share it?

I have just such thing but before I share it and you say, hum, hadn't thought of it, I want to teach you something. In the big picture, we get so caught up in our professions that we forget that we are first human beings with family and friends and real estate for others is not the only thing important in their life. Knowing that and wondering what that statement has to real estate is exactly the issue.

Most people will grant that most of those in real estate know something about it. But with a gazillion mailings and all the Internet sites why does a consumer select the individual they want to hire. Many times and increasingly so they are looking for something different. Someone that stands out. Someone that proves they care about the consumer. Someone whose message is " Sticky", meaning that the consumer relates with it and holds on to it.

2 years ago, I happened on a product / service that was so affordable I couldn't get over it. Meeting the owner over telephone and e-mail conversations I would quickly learn that the standout product was even more than I realized. As I began to explore the possible uses of the product that were not real estate related, I was discovering that people were gravitating to it and sharing with friends and family and all the while my real estate message was being sent out over the Internet , over and over.

Now reflect back to the discussion on Viral marketing. What is it supposed to do be to successful. It is to cause you exposure not to one but to other people who like the message and send on to others, just like the germs of a cold virus. And they will want to share it and they will send to their friends. Over and over.

This product was meeting the challenge of viral marketing better than anything I had ever encountered. And basically free to use any way I desire, after subscribing to the product/service.

The messages being sent out where sometimes personal in nature, sometimes professional and often emotional. They could even be a combination of all those traits. There is just no limit. It can easily have all the elements when created with the right content. Even a year or two after sending out the first piece, I have been asked to please send it again and again.

At the risk of being to personal, I am going to share an example and then allow you to decide about the message. This particular item has been sent back forth many times already and it has nothing directly to do with real estate, yet the message I am sending with it, is clearly about real estate. Getting a referral because of it says it all.