I've spent a fair amount of time this past month on viral marketing/social networking sites, for reasons which will become apparent in the next several weeks. As you might have guessed, I'm working on plans for my next book, THE DEAD WHISPER ON, scheduled for release summer of 2007. And, as you might have also guessed (if you've visited this site much), I'm trying to come up with some off-the-wall marketing ideas. Specifically, yes, viral ideas.

Of course, creating a killer viral idea is somewhat akin to building a better mouse trap; there's a certain amount of hit-and-miss involved when you try to tap into a cultural zeitgeist. Sometimes you play rainmaker and it rains; sometimes you play rainmaker and the drought continues.

But I think a few key concepts can help those of us interested in marketing in general (as I am), and book marketing in specific (guilty again). And that starts with an exhortation of sorts, related specifically to the publishing industry. Even though publishing is seen as Old School, it has launched one of the most successful web sites ever created (a little thing called amazon.com), and has fueled, in large part, the largest cultural phenomenon to hit the web (another little thing called blogging). Now, you may disagree with my hyperbole, but my point is: publishing and writing have been essential parts of our society since Gutenberg, and continue to be key components of Web 2.0.

So why aren't we in publishing embracing technology? I don't mean ebooks at all; I mean using tech-driven, entertainment-driven, viral strategies to sell our good old-fashioned printed books. We're lagging far behind other entertainment offerings such as film, TV and music, which are being aggressively and successfully marketed with multimedia marketing messages, iTunes, podcasting, MySpace and the like.

We who write and market novels have an opportunity, I think, to stand out simply because so few books harness the power of technology and viral marketing. In our direct competitive circles, we have room to roam. (Yes, I realize entertainment offerings in general can be lumped under the "competition" label, but I would argue that reading--and specifically reading fiction--offers a unique experience.)

So then, suffice to say I think those of us marketing our novels can and should devote some thought to viral marketing. Which brings me to the four key similarities the best viral marketing ideas seem to share.

1. They're monkey-button simple. This means the idea or hook is simple, as well as the execution. Technology offers us a gazillion bells and whistles we can use, but that doesn't mean we should use them. Great viral marketing efforts are easily understood by the average Joe Six Pack with a quick glance. Take a look at Method's comeclean.com. Oh, I get it: you "come clean" by entering a confession and washing it away. Easy. Or subservientchicken.com. Hey, tell the chicken what to do, and he'll do it.

Note that a simple concept can actually involve a rather intricate process, however. One of my favorite social marketing/viral sites right now is the "Celebrity Look-alikes" portion of myheritage.com. The concept is simple: upload your photo to find out what celebrities you look like. The execution isn't quite so simple, but it's still not too difficult to figure out how to go through the process. But the facial scanning technology and database hooked into this concept are far from simple. (By the way, according to myheritage.com--photo attached--I'm 63% John Ashcroft and 58% Karl Marx. That may explain a lot of my neurotic tendencies. Or perhaps those are better explained by my 53% Uma Thurman and 51% Monica Bellucci scores.)

2. They're new. I'm not saying all great viral concepts are web apps developed from the ground up; indeed, in most cases, great viral campaigns put a new spin on an old standby. Consider beer.com's virtual bartenders, who will take your order (so long as it's beer) and respond to messages you type into the "order" box. Hey, doesn't that idea sound horribly familiar? It should; it's pretty much a re-tread of the subservientchicken.com idea. But it's virtual bartenders, which is a perfect match for the beer.com site. Of course, since beer.com's primary demo is twentysomething-year-old men, it doesn't hurt that the bartenders are women in tank tops.

3. They reinforce their product. This is a corollary of #2 above, but perhaps the most important key of all, in my opinion. Comeclean.com is offered by Method soap; the tie-in is obvious. If it had simply been a "secret confession" site, it wouldn't have reinforced Method as a product that helps you get clean.

4. They're narcissistic or voyeuristic. Hey, we all thrive on the glory of ourselves and the misery of others; the best viral sites keep that in mind. Myspace appeals to our vain natures by letting us "collect" friends and "show off" our interests. YouTube lets us watch other people make complete idiots out of themselves. A newish site called likebetter.com gives us both those impulses in one. The site lets you rate photos and find out things about yourself based on which photos you choose.

5. They're soft-sells. Even though the ultimate goal of the viral campaign is to get traffic, maybe even generate sales, the best viral sites don't lead with a sales pitch. The sales pitch is almost an afterthought or a "by the way" proposition. Think in terms of entertainment and content, not in terms of marketing. The perfect examples of this, in my opinion, are the "home videos" produced by the band Ok Go--the first a dance routine in the backyard, and the second a choreographed routine on treadmill machines. The treadmill video for "Here It Goes Again," in particular, strikes me as brilliant. This was obviously a band that sat down and said, "How do we do something that entertains?"

So, have I thusly far adhered to my own standards? Well, not entirely. My big "Other Side" project for Volunteer Book Publicists has been quite successful, in my opinion, but I think it's probably too complex to go completely viral outside of my niche market.

But hey, that's what book #2 is for, isn't it?