I never liked the term Viral Marketing. It just sounds like bad karma. Viruses are associated with diseases and death. Do you want to associate your product or service with that?

It also sounds too easy. All these marketeers being asked for, or offering, a quick ‘Viral Campaign’ by clients. That is like asking for a quick number one music hit or a quick successful start-up. Wishing for it doesn’t make it so.

Anyway. I have found a better word: Reverberate

Reverberating, according to my dictionary, means: To resound in a succession of echoes; reecho

I like that! This is exactly what a good marketing campaign does. It reverberates through the blogosphere, on Twitter and offline. With every reecho of your message a new echo is born. You can hear the whispering bouncing off the walls in dark alleys. Your message, reverberating from individual to individual. Constantly changing in form, just like a real echo. The underlying message, the concept, always strong and carrying your echo, but maturing as it passes along.

Just like an echo your marketing campaign will die out, eventually. That isn’t bad. It will be replaced by your actual product or service. People will be prepared for it because they have heard the echo. Maybe not even conscientiously. They might not even know they heard the echo. But they did, and they recognize it.

Forget Viral. Aim for a message that will reverberate.