viral marketing was a great way to get our product some exposure because everyone is online and on Facebook.

On the Internet, viral marketing is any marketing technique that induces Web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users, creating a potentially exponential growth in the message’s visibility and effect. One example of successful viral marketing is Hotmail, a company, now owned by Microsoft, that promotes its service and its own advertisers’ messages in every user’s e-mail notes.

Some marketing people prefer terms other than viral marketing. In his popular e-mail newsletter about selling on the Web, John Audette asked readers to suggest alternatives, including other terms in current use. Among those suggested have been:

• avalanche marketing
• buzz marketing
• cascading style marketing
• centrifugal marketing
• exponential marketing
• fission marketing
• grass roots marketing
• organic marketing
• propogation marketing
• referral marketing (borrowing a term long used in marketing prior to the Web)
• ripple marketing
• self-perpetuation marketing
• self-propogation marketing
• wildfire marketing