Viral marketing, a colloquial name given to a subset of social media marketing, is growing like a wild weed. Traditional marketing giants like Unilever and Comcast, to name a few, are increasingly active in using the SMM tools to promote their brands and interact with consumers. One has to wonder: is it just a flu or has the virus spread so deep as to become a reality?

I firmly believe we are on the way to a pandemic (sorry for the self-promotion), and SMM will rule modern marketing. Yes, we are infected (in a good way) and there is no vaccination. However, I still feel the virus is just showing its symptoms, and a few things need to happen before it settles in and becomes reality. Let me give you the reasons why I believe we will get irremediably sick, why that is a very good thing, and what I think will have to happen for us to get there.

There are plenty of reasons to explain why SMM will be huge. I know everyone has favorites, so I will dare to give you mine:

• Word of Mouth: Every marketer’s dream (especially traditional marketers) is for their product, brand or campaign to generate WOM. It is one of marketing’s basic rules for success. The best way to get the message through effectively is by having people recommend it to one another. The problem has always been the cost of generating high volume WOM. With the internet, this problem is pretty much solved. One example of this is bloggers, who have become a trustworthy source for information. If you get a big blogger to talk about your product, the impact this may have on sales can be greater than a regular TV campaign.

• Targeting: So far I have not seen a more effective targeting tool than the internet. Advertisers are confident their message is reaching relevant audience, which makes each hit more efficient in delivering a message.

• Engagement: With the possibility of better interaction with the audience, marketers now have the obligation to change the way they approach their target market. New marketing has to be engaging for the audience to stick with it. And by engaging, I mean it has to add value to the consumer either by being funny, instructive, informative, or whatever it is that makes it worth the audience’s time.

• Cost: Please bear in mind that by cost I don’t mean cheap. However, SMM is not exclusively for deep-pocketed advertisers. SMM can be ideal for any kind of budget. Advertising is now within reach of everyone, and for the first time quality will be what differentiates good marketing from average marketing.

It would look like infection is imminent. However, I think some things need to be accomplished for SMM to settle in as one of the most important trends in marketing:

• Involve Traditional Marketing: For SSM to become big, it is imperative that the big brands get involved with it, understand the benefits of using it, and help to further develop it. SMM has been making big efforts to differentiate itself from traditional marketing, but I fear this has also led to traditional marketers not understanding this new language and therefore not engaging with it.

• Metrics: The SMM community needs to agree on the way impact is measured. Just as traditional media’s metrics are standard (GRP’s, SOV, TRP’s, etc.), Social Media needs standard ways to measure the impact of different campaigns. We need to be able to tell advertisers how their money is doing, and they need to be able to compare these results both against what their competitors are doing, and against what other agencies offer.

• Academia: It is important for this new trend to start teaching and researching; to unify concepts, debate them, and generate new ones. Social Media Marketing can no longer be an empiric subject, and we need to make sure we get it into universities and colleges.

Well there it is; my vision of Social Media Marketing. Again, I feel we are infected, and it will keep on developing to be very big. But then again, the challenges are big and it is time for the SMM community to start having these discussions. I open it up to you to share your thoughts…