Marketing and all things related

Lately, I've been very interested in viral marketing, so I was intrigued by a post I read on The Viral Garden today that showcases the importance of bloggers in viral marketing.  In his post, Mack talks about a post he learned about from Greg Verdino's blog, which discussed a post on Chris Brogan's blog.  Already, viral marketing has been at work as now I'm writing about Chris's original post, too.

So what was Chris's post about?  Chris wrote about how important it is for companies to leverage social networking online to promote their brands and products.  Chris mentions that he is a loyal Saturn customer and said, "If there were a Saturn Lovers Facebook group, I’d join it. If GM had a community evangelist in that group, asking for YouTube videos ranting about my Saturn, I’d go out and make one. If they wanted to do meetups, I’d probably go." 

Turns out Saturn was watching the online buzz and responded.  Kyle Johnson, Saturn's Communications Director, left a comment referring Chris to online Saturn-owner forums.  A number of comments followed from various readers directed toward Kyle, then a few blog posts were written about the exchange, and what's next?

Bottomline, companies are starting to understand the role the internet and social networking can play in promoting products and their brands, but they aren't proactively finding ways to generate an online buzz.  Saturn's communications team is obviously reacting to posts, messages and more, but they have yet to start their own viral marketing campaign that will create online word-of-mouth marketing organically.  Yes, companies are trying to leverage social networking, but no one has found the right formula yet.  Understanding the importance of online influencers and reaching out to them (including reaching out to bloggers) may be a vital first step.

What do you think?