When you do things right, it’s amazing what can happen.

Keeping in mind that word of mouth is still the most powerful form of marketing, why don’t more companies focus on giving their customers a reason to be evangelists for their cause? It’s a simple formula: Give the people who already care about your company a bit of incentive to tell their friends about you, and they just might create a viral marketing phenomenon on your behalf. As I keep seeming to repeat in each of my posts (stop selling, you snake!) Tell Ten Friends is based around the principle that if you use this logic, and use some of the available technology online, you can make magic happen for your company, for your brand, and of course for your bottom line.

Let’s recap the events of yesterday: Chris writes a blog. It’s a good one, and it’s about Movie Marketing. Big studio contacts Chris, and empowers him to talk about their upcoming film. Mack takes notice, and is blown away by the vision and cooperation of said studio. He encourages others to spread the word, and we do (We’re not used to that kind of treatment from big business, you see. I’d love to see the number of resulting links from each one of these posts, when the dust has settled on this one).

So now a slew (I counted them. It’s officially a slew) of bloggers are spreading the word on behalf of a studio with a marketing budget big enough to move mountains all on its own. All because they had the good sense to throw a bone to the people most likely to tell the world about them. Mack says it best in his post from today:

“We talk, we spread ideas, and enjoy doing so. We especially love to talk about companies that are smart enough to talk to us. The question your company needs to ask itself is: Why didn’t you give us a reason to talk about you?”

Well said. And this doesn’t just apply to the blogging community. Every company worth its weight in salt knows that it’s more expensive to find new customers than it is to retain existing ones. To the tenth power or so, if I’m not mistaken. So here’s what I suggest…Even out that ratio a bit. Spend a bit of time and effort, and maybe even some cash to empower your existing customer base to tell ten friends about you.

To quote Seth for billionth time (I’ll have to paraphrase in this case, I’ve searched enough urls in this post as it is): Being remarkable doesn’t have to be too difficult. You just need to give people a reason to make a remark about you. It’s really that simple.

Thanks once again to Mack Collier and all of the members of the Viral Community for participating in this shining example of what’s possible when you make the effort, and please the right people.

Okay Mack, I’ll bite.

A while back, I talked about how blogs are becoming more and more influential, and as a result, smart PR people would start pitching bloggers in the same way they’ve pitched traditional media for eons. I know this, because I’m one of those PR guys contacting bloggers, and occasionally someone deems me worthy of being one of those bloggers with a suitable audience, and I’ll get pitched.

Well, in the world of movie marketing, they don’t get any more influential that Chris Thilk. Chris is a MySpace friend, and I’ve been a subscriber to his Movie Marketing Madness for some time, although the guy posts so frequently that I’ll have to admit, I can’t keep up. But Chris’ efforts have not gone unnoticed by the likes of Universal Studios, who contacted him and offered all of the info on how they’re marketing the upcoming feature length remake of Miami Vice.

Back to business: To some, this might not sound all that odd. Doesn’t it make sense that the most popular movie marketing blog would be the target of studios trying to get a bit more “press” for their films? Yes, it makes perfect sense, but the precedent thus far has been anything but cooperative from the studio side. Summary: Paramount Pictures doesn’t get it…and if you must see Transformers the movie, download it!

And so today we applaud Universal Studios, and remind the world that not all bloggers are evil critics, waiting to lash out at any business willing to put themselves out there (I applaud Dell for finally starting a blog, especially when they knew they were going to be shell-shocked for the first few weeks).

Keep up the good work Chris, and big thanks to Mack for this post, too. Although writer’s block isn’t a problem these days, it’s nice to sink my teeth into a story/cause where I can feel like I’m making a difference.

Update:: Chris is keeping a running tally on bloggers that have sank their teeth into this item. We look forward to his column on Miami Vice!

Update #2:: So is Mack. This is a perfect example of viral marketing at its best. Universal, you are setting a good example, and reaping the benefits of “getting it.”

Tell Ten Friends has its first “employee,” not counting Rob, who is his own man, and is more the boss of me than the other way around.

Meet Sigrid the Intern, who joined Tell Ten Friends yesterday evening and is already putting her time in. She was already a blogger, on both Friendster and MySpace, and now has her own home (mandated by me) on WordPress as well. And a snappy new email address: tellsigrid@gmail.com.

It would sure be encouraging for this energetic, young and underpaid new marketing intern if you drop by her new blog to say a quick hello. Maybe even subscribe (the feedburner feed is still coming, so watch for that announcement) to find out what she’s up to, and what she learns along the way.

Now, I must send her a handful of ebooks to catch her up on what we’re up to here at Tell Ten Friends.

Welcome Sigrid, and big thanks to my wife Alex for finding me an intern who works through the night!