Effective viral marketing, an integrated approach - part 1

Since the media theorist Rushkoff described a new concept of how the marketing message could be spread over Internet, viral marketing (VM) or “Going Viral” becomes a phenomenon. But what it is, and more important, how to use it most effectively are not always clear, even to many marketers. Everybody knows that the cost per reach of traditional mass media, including TV, radio and news paper become more costly, but is it really true that viral marketing could help to bring that number down?

Online petition - how effective it is

This is something i wondering about for a while, especially when i see ton of them floating around on my Facebook for a sensitive subject (yah, almost Vietnamese know what it is right now). It is a nice act, but how effective is it?

Facebook, Google and privacy

Honestly, I never worry much about privacy on Internet before. In Vietnam, we do not care much about those things. However, since I came to Singapore, chit chat with some foreign friends, they constant reminding me about this issue.

One of my old habit before accepting any friend request for IM is  do a quick search on who is adding me. Nothing seriously here, i just want to know how could they found my nickname, and how we know each other. And from time to time, it always surprises me on how much information I can pull from Google about that person, not only the real name, photo, and sometimes even contact numbers and everything. I can tell where they live, what their hobbies are, etc. with those information.Not so bad for a trace by just a nickname huh?