Where to find an expert that specialises in Social Networks

[Penguin]

Hello,

I have been trying to look for an expert that specialises in viral marketing for social networks. It's been terribily hard to find even though we can afford to pay some good rates. Maybe this niche is just too specialised or it's in such an infancy stage that no experts have really come out from it?

If anyone knows any, please recommend some.

[vite_rts]

why not experiment yourself

[Penguin]

I rather have a proven expert in this field. There's other more important things to attend to.

[openmind]

Hi think a real expert in "viral marketing for social networks" won't start working for another company. Instead they will "live" their own business. If they work for another company, I wouldn't classify them as "experts".

[rogerd]

Openmind, that's the same dilemma a finding a search engine expert. The best often decide to profit from their own sites rather than working for clients. Still, there are credible SEOs who do client work.

The real challenge, I'd say, is the dearth of experts for Penguin's task. An independent expert in viral marketing for social networks has got to be a rare creature, if he/she exists at all. I'm aware of some viral marketing firms that work for record labels and the like, but that's a different kind of task.

It strikes me that really successful viral marketing is all about the right idea - a unique site feature, a capability that others lack, an event, etc. The whole idea of viral marketing is that it has to be self-sustaining and self-replicating. Despite the efforts of agencies trying to do buzz marketing, word of mouth marketing, etc., you can't really push a viral concept into success - the concept has to pull itself.

[OnLineSince1997]

Are you looking to bring someone on board with your company to help make your social network viral, Like an Expert? or are you looking for a source that has tools like software or code to make your social network viral?

[Penguin]

Basically, someone on board to make the site more viral. I have someone in mind already who's an authority in the field but not sure if he has the time.

[openmind]

I think true viral marketing can only happen if the person/people involved 'live' their concept. They have to have a 'burning desire' and simply love their project. If you start thinking about 'viral marketing' then you are missing the core requirement for success which is the question why your potential users should spread the word without you having them to ask to do so. If you have to hire an expert to do the viral marketing then there won't be any viral marketing because this can be only done by your users.

[crak_bot]

Openmind has got it just about right.

Viral marketing experts I think don't exist becuase if you try to devolop a viral campaign you're automaticaly doing it wrong. In fact, you can end up damaging your image.

The best viral examples are ones where people actually tried to devolop something fun, unique, and entertaining...then as as a byproduct it just happens to promote whatever they were selling, doing, etc.

For example, the success the band OK GO had with their homemade music video. They put together a fun, unique video at zero cost and the concept came through and people responded. If that was put together by their record label, or a marketing firm I doubt it would of worked. Like when Microsoft hired a marketing firm who speicalized in "viral marketing" for their XBOX 360 launch. The put together this stupid website where you had to guess a code and answer a riddle to recieve spy pictures of the XBOX. Every gamer on the message boards and ones I spoke to in person thought it was the dumbest, lamest attempt at being cool they have ever seen. And I agreed.

[sodani]

This is a new thought I've had lately with regard to many marketing tactics and I think that it extends to viral marketing as well - there are 2 separate steps - 1)creating the strategy 2)executing it.

Creating the strategy takes experience and brains. However, it may not take too long to throw it together. The execution is tedious and mind numbing. Couldn't an 'expert' take care of the strategy and leave the execution to 'non-experts'? What if an 'expert' were to put together a strategy in a day and get paid $1000, $2000 or whatever. Isn't that a good deal for both sides?

[openmind]

Hi Sodani, I don't think this would work simply because 'viral marketing' means that there is no strategy and no 'marketing' as such. "Viral Marketing" happens when a system, service or product is so good that it doesn't need any marketing nor money to be promoted. People love it so much that they start promoting it themselves. As said before, if you think about hiring a 'viral marketing expert' you haven't really understand the concept of 'viral marketing'. Read the ICQ story or the Hotmail story to find out more about 'viral marketing'.

[AjiNIMC]

Hi think a real expert in "viral marketing for social networks" won't start working for another company. Instead they will "live" their own business. If they work for another company, I wouldn't classify them as "experts".

Very strict definition. IMO this is not all that strictly true. To creating a viral buzz in any industry is different from running a complex business. There are many good minds that work for big companies and have really good mind. Some specialize in viral marketing and you can also respect them with the word expert. Orkut was working for Google when he created orkut.com and it is still a google affiliation. I know my batchmates who are working for various companies and creating some good stuffs.

Who is an expert in this field?
One who has tried and failed many times. The more he/she has failed the better he/she is as social networking has no one mantra of success.

There are two ways you can do viral marketing in any field. I am doing research on the second one.

1. Industry specific viral marketing: Where you need marketing knowledge and then designing the memetic products. This needs a lot of work. And the toughest to do as it is mostly commercial and very niche. People see an auto loan as one, which will try to sell you a loan always. Even their education courses will be perceived similarly. There is more to write about it. Whenever I tried to do an industry specific stuff the biggest problem was to create the simplicity.

2. General viral product: I am still struggling for a proper name for it, I called it an evangelistic marketing but some scholar had a different perception about the word. So surely I need to find a work for it.

   It is about non-commercial stuffs (this is best suited for online marketing because of low cost marketing models). Example, for auto loan industry I can create a non related stuff like google image labeler but the pictures will be more auto loan related.
   The advantages of this marketing kind are its non-commercial tag and large available segment with early adopters. They spread the non-commercial stuff in the social space making some of the social nodes (not customers) active, who visit your business to see the non-commercial stuff. This spreads much faster if the idea is really viral and then all you need is a beautiful lady at your business door to attract them to real business. Some will atleast get introduced to your business.
   

I am trying to write 25 page document in few lines so it will be confusing. So what type of social networking is you targeting at this phase of business. Are you trying to make something like orkut or myspace then it will not be an easy go. You will have to find the unique stuff, which no one else is offering. My blog has a lot about orkut’s memetic strength.

Please excuse grammatical and sepeleing mistake :) as I am not rechecking the post.

Thanks,
AjiNIMC

[edited by: AjiNIMC at 1:42 pm (utc) on Nov. 4, 2006]

[sodani]

'viral marketing' means that there is no strategy and no 'marketing' as such.

I disagree. Some people are better at generating campaigns that spread virally than others. There are also ways to encourage word-of-mouth behavior.