YOU keep hearing of this virus and that virus affecting humans, animals, plants, computers and the air. Marketing being marketing cannot be left behind in this race for recognition in any form.

Marketing like all the other viruses has many names to add to the hall of fame; blogs, You Tube, twitter etc.

Viral marketing traditionally has been known as word of mouth information. It normally worked best with GNLD, AMWAY kind of marketing.

In today's day and age the word viral has also been re-branded now to 'the digital sneeze'. As every other sneeze this too is infectious, frankly I would say it is the most infectious. I recall reading somewhere that when number One in the market sneezes then number 3 and 4 catch pneumonia.

Likewise if we don't consider viral marketing in our strategies, we shall be swiped out from the fast changing consumer world. YOU TUBE, FACEBOOK, LINKED all have give viral marketing a fresh new face.

They are cheap yet infectious. They have created the 'buzz' and that is what marketing should do; create a buzz around the brands, products or services strong enough to make people want to be part of it. When you watch foreign news you will notice a lot of the clips are sourced from YOU TUBE.

The question then raises 'should we convert to staying put on the web and watch YOU TUBE for real live happenings or wait for CNN or Aljazeera to do it and post it for us to watch?'

Marketing is about the long term but the digital world changes faster than we can say bless you. So how can we keep up? One way to consider is logging in on popular sites monitoring the trends that keep taking place with the youth or keep an ear to ground for what the vibes are and get a feel for what is in.

The advantage that viral marketing has is that once you plant a seed of exciting conversation with the support of a great concept, it moves around like wild fire once the word passes around.

For example, OoLong tea is only available on the net and was endorsed by Oprah for its success in weight loss, this concept of weight loss and further the endorsement of Oprah made it sell like hotcakes. Whether it worked or not is another question.

In viral marketing a small group of influencers are approached who in turn would be the 'advertisers' or 'advocates' for the brand or service similar to how an infected cell spreads the virus from one cell to the other.

They create the razzmatazz, the ethos for success. It is no longer just about a brand or service; it now covers religion, culture, pride of a nation and much more.

To launch a viral marketing campaign one must have a solid concept, a fantastic strategy, an infecting plan and the expected outcome.

So if you haven't caught the bug or rather the virus, wake up before the revolution leaves you behind and you are left looking at ways to reach your current generation consumers.