So how do you achieve success in viral marketing? Green For All contacted around 150 different organizations, large and small, national and local, according to Alli Chagi-Starr, the Grassroots Publicity Coordinator and Business Partners Manager for Green For All. They reached out to everyone from community gardening groups to labor unions to the Hip Hop Caucus. They got the Environmental Defense Fund to recommend the book to its 500,000 members; they got the organization who owns the domain name greencollareconomy.com to promote the book on its website. They contacted big environmental blogs like Treehugger. And they called everyone they knew.
Isn’t having to call up hundreds of orgs and ask them to mail their lists about your book kind of the exact opposite of “viral”?
Good point, Jason. This is successful strategy, but hardly “viral” by most folks’ definition. Michael Gilbert has referred to it as “chaperoning,” which is not all that sexy, but pretty accurate.
Isn’t having to call up hundreds of orgs and ask them to mail their lists about your book kind of the exact opposite of “viral”?
Good point, Jason. This is successful strategy, but hardly “viral” by most folks’ definition. Michael Gilbert has referred to it as “chaperoning,” which is not all that sexy, but pretty accurate.