Here is my current theory on Viral Marketing:

The whole point of  "social media marketing" is to get people to promote your site by tagging it so other people will look at it too. Getting people to spread your info/promote your brand is a very basic definition of viral marketing (word-of-mouth, not actually new).

You don't have to have write a blog or build a website on MySpace or Facebook to be marketing "socially" - although it helps. All you need a to send out something that people will want to share with your info included in the immediate area. For this example, I used a heart illustration for Valentine's Day.

People, being social creatures, send out notes to friends all the time. Why shouldn't your logo/link back be on it? ;-) The trick is in whom to send it to - you have to actually have some friends/associates because it is formed of relationships, not opt-in boxes. Of course, if you already have a generous subscriber base or contact list you are ahead of the game.

The neat part is that your brand and message are being referred by a friend to a friend and the internet crosses many paths. Just send your message to a few who send you things and all kinds of people you never met will send your picture (and your logo) onward to more people.

That heart picture went out today to 3 known "friend loops" and it will travel far. Will I control who sees it? No. Will it generate big numbers, no, not big ones but the people who come will already be pre-qualified because of the targeted content. In this case, they will be qualified to like a pretty picture but you see my point.

Caveat: You are not allowed to email harvest from your friends' friends; that would only generate spam. (Duh!)