Word of Mouth at Speed of Light

Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve objectives such as product sales.  For an example, search  Google for 'YouTube laughing baby'  and you get the understanding of what a viral video can do.  Think about it as word of mouth at the speed of light.  A web site owner with a customized business blog can bookmark their content to social network and social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Stumbleupon and Delicious with the intent of spreading quality content from their blog to a very large audience that has like interests.  From that point, other people may send your content to their online community.  Twitter takes this further and faster.  Imagine being in a town that's snowed in and the power may or not be working.  You receive a tweet on your mobile from a local restaurant letting you know they are open and are having a snow-in promotion going on.  You let your friends know.