Viral marketing and adverising is a non-traditional “word-of-mouth” online and internet marketing tactics and strategies that utilize your social networking to raise awareness for your company or business. It can be a very powerful marketing tool as your website or business information can get passed through social networking onto others, from consumer to consumer.

Here are some articles that explain the concept of viral marketing for your Las Vegas business or company:

Tips for Optimizing Viral Marketing Campaigns
By Brady Brewer, ClickZ

Viral marketing, or “refer-a-friend,” email campaigns have received a lot of attention in the media recently. These campaigns, which encourage recipients of promotional emails to forward the messages to their friends, have garnered both positive and negative reviews from consumers, privacy advocates, and industry pundits. read more.

Viral Marketing Articles, Online Viral Marketing Tactics – www.geocart.com

Everything that we’ve been taught online and off says that we should prevent rather than spread viruses…right? Well, when it comes to creating a buzz about your online business, spreading a virus—or more accurately—leveraging the power of viral marketing, could be just what the doctor ordered. read more.

Viral Marketing Ideas – Out of the Box Viral Marketing Tactics – palmerwebmarketing.com

If I were to rank the effectiveness of each marketing avenue for most businesses I’ve worked with, here’s how they stack up. Word of mouth, Email Marketing, Organic SEO, Paid Search, Display Advertising… read more.

Where to find powerful online partnerships

Online partnerships have assumed increased significance over the years, especially when listed on your Las Vegas website. And while it may be prudent in pointing out that at times, this strategy may not be a huge business generator, on the whole, a lot of people have reported fair successes with forming partnerships with related Las Vegas businesses.

So, how do you go about finding online partnerships for your business website that you have recently launched? A lot of people have been struggling to find an answer to forming business partnerships – while the objective may seem easy, but the way you go about it is slightly complex.

The very first thing you should do after launching your website is to speak to fellow business owners that you know that have complimentary services to your business. Ask them if they would consider partnering with you so that you could refer business to each other and could trade links to each others websites. Chances are that some of your business associates may not have websites and if that’s the case, ask them if they could refer any of their business associates for a partnership.  Bottom line is, as a professional Las Vegas business owner, you should be able to find potential partners in your own network.

If the above isn’t enough of a network to form business partnerships for your business, consider:

• Advertising online (website, craigslist, message formus, etc.) to find potential partners.
• Visit social networking websites like facebook, linked in, myspace.
• Join a business networking group in Las Vegas and meet other business owners who may compliment your business services.

Simply put, there are many methods to finding business partners that can help you promote you business services. In fact, you could use one or many of the methods indicated above. With that being said, you need to understand one thing clearly – Partner with the people and businesses that you meet. Importantly, partner with people who are of the same niche, because that is the prime method which will help promote your business in the Las Vegas community.

Las Vegas is definitely a city I love, however doing business here is sometimes challenging.  People are transient, businesses sometimes seem untrustworthy. With this said, if you’re looking for form powerful business partnerships with fellow business people here in town, please do your homework.

Business partnerships are definitely important in promoting your business and online partnerships are important as well. If you partner with the right complimentary companies here in town you can have a trusted network of fellow business owners and companies with services that are complimentary to your business but don’t compete.

So, wow do you go about finding online partnerships for your business and your website? 

The first thing you should do after starting your business or launching your website is to networking with your friends and family, after all, they are already people you trust and know and they trust and know you as well.  Many of them will have websites that you can exchange company descriptions and links to your website with.

Next, network yourself out into the Las Vegas community. You can join Las Vegas business networking groups, Las Vegas area chambers of commerce, social networking websites, or search on the internet and do some research to find companies in town that you might consider partnering with. 

Simply put, there are many ways to find trusted and true business partners for your Las Vegas business. In fact, you could use one or many of the methods indicated above. With that being said, you need to understand one thing clearly – Partner with those companies and websites, who have a great degree of respect in Las Vegas and out on the internet.

You may have heard of Social Networking before but do you know what it really means and what impact it could have in growing your business?

In case you don’t know what Social Networking means, I thought I’d start by defining it. Social Networking is the grouping of an individual person into specific groups via websites.

On Social Networking websites, you can create a profile, upload your photo, fill in your stats (personal and/or professional), state your interests, then find other members that have some sort of common thread to add to your own personal networking community. You can find and add contacts that have similar business interests, live in your zip code, connect with people you went to high school or college with – create your own online community.

Here are some free Social Networking websites you should definitely join:

• facebook
• myspace
• LinkedIn
• twitter
• jigsaw

Once you have your profiles set up, search for people you know, or search for people you don’t yet know but that have similar interests and add them to your networks. Participate in these online communities, let your contacts know what you’re up to periodically, check in with people, socialize and network!

Benefits to Social Networking:

• You will make new business contacts in Las Vegas
• You’ll meet up with people from your past that can help market your business or company
• Provides you and your company visibility on the internet
• Gives you an awareness of what is happening in your community
• Your contacts can learn about your business which give your business “mindshare”

Sometimes business owners and marketing professionals get so caught up in launching websites, developing marketing collateral, running ads, creating direct mail campaigns, and managing the various expenses of a business that we can forget that there are common sense and fool proof methods to marketing your company that are completely free.

With a looming recession, rocky stock market and budget cut backs, there are always completely free marketing tactics we can take to promote our business, so I thought I’d list them out to remind everybody, especially with turbulent economy:

• Hand out your business cards. Keep them not only in your office, but your home, your car, in your purse, in your wallet. Such a simple tactic that we sometimes forget.
• Always keep brochures handy.  You never know where and when you will run into someone interested in your products or services, again, keep your brochures everywhere you are.
• Talk to people you meet everyday.  Not a hard-sell sorta person here myself, however, hard-sell or not, talking to people and simply asking them what they do for a living, where they live, etc. can open the door for other people to ask the same questions about you.
• Network at parties. You have friends (I hope), you go to parties, dinners with friends (I hope) and this is an excellent opportunity to remind your good friends what you do.  I always make a casual mention that if they know of anyone who is in need of a marketing consultant, a website or graphic design services, that my company handles all of that and more (see www.perkolate.com)
• Volunteer for pro bono work within your community (my hood is Summerlin/Las Vegas).  It’s always nice to give back to the community and help a worthy cause by donating some of your time to a charitable cause once in awhile.  Makes you feel good (it does me) and you can meet some great people in your community that will keep your company’s products and services in mind down the line.
• Utilize social networking websites.  Websites like linkedin.com, facebook.com and myspace.com are powerful networking and community building websites.  You can find friends, add them to your contacts and remind them of what your company does.  You can also add photos, blog feeds and links to your company’s website.