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I don't know how many people realize just how powerful viral marketing is.  Obviously, you have technologies/websites like Twitter, Digg, reddit, Facebook, trackbacks, etc. to help promote your links, images, videos, etc.  But the general idea is just amazing even in simple forms.  Let me bring up an anecdotal that occurred at work the other day.

Our snack chief put up a sign on the refrigerator saying (more or less), "If you're missing your favorite drink, please email me."  My friend Kevin wanted a certain type of tea.  He sent a private email with a link to his favorite brand of tea to a group of us to vote for his item.  Almost immediately, everyone starting responding to an email that he sent out to us (again) with our snack chief's name on it.  The votes came in with a slightly robotic enthusiasm (although one guy humorously claimed to not have been paid off...).  I think around 20 emails shot over the wire within a 2 minute time span (some were irrelevant, smart mouth remarks).  Nonetheless, my friend is going to get his tea shortly.

Viral marketing/sharing is just the in thing these days.  At work, people go nuts in sending their favorite youtube clips.  I shared a link to a humorous cracked.com article and got her addicted.  Then you had that recent web singing sensation Susan Boyle.  Given the way the entertainment industry works, normally a person like that (or should I say, looks like that) never would've stood a chance.  I can go on about other examples on this subject as well.

However, it occurred to me that at this stage with the web and the numerous technologies we have at our disposal, we naturally have become a viral marketing society.  At a green conference I attended back in January, one of the more interesting take home messages from an expert was how the game has changed and that we are becoming a more tightly integrated eco-system with responsibilities that we need to share.  Viral marketing is part of this as we make ourselves more aware of our ecosystem.  Sure it was ideal in the way he put it into words; but it was an interesting perspective, nonetheless.