Advanced Marketing: The Viral Library

Before wasting a single thought on ideas such as SEO or SEM, the viral options available on the internet should be very closely looked at.

The more efforts spent early on the viral market potential of an idea, product or business model, the less money will be needed for costly marketing campaigns afterwards.

No (startup) office should be without a current copy of The Anatomy of Buzz ("Real-life lessons in Word-of-mouth marketing"), best case in combination with a classic such as Unleashing the Ideavirus. Both detail clearly and in practical terms when and how the viral potential of different products and ideas can be fully utilized.

These two books lead our list of five book recommendations on the topic of word-of-mouth and viral marketing:

1. Emanuel Rosen: The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited ("Real-life lessons in Word-of-Mouth Marketing")
2. Seth Godin: Unleashing the Ideavirus
3. Adam Penenberg: Viral Loop ("The Power of Pass-It-On")
4. Adam Bogusky, John Winsor: Baked In ("Creating Products and Businesses That Market Themselves")
5. Martin Oetting: Ripple Effect ("How Empowerd Involvement Drives Word of Mouth")

All of the books take on different aspects of the viral factor and at the same time expose the breadth of this topic, which has become so significant with the advent of the social web.

We welcome any further book recommendations in the comments.

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• The Top 25 Business Books of the Year 2010
• Book Recommendations for 2009
• Published: The Crowdsourcing Book from Jeff Howe

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.

Comments

[The Penny Auction List]

The Anatomy of Buzz is an excellent book. Glad to see it at the top of the list. A must-read.

Josh