Viral and loyalty are two words you don’t often see right next to each other as a single unified marketing concept. Viral marketing is almost exclusively associated with acquisition and loyalty as closely tied to retention, so they are natural opposites…right? Wrong! If you read my previous post on the syndication revolution being driven by the natural response of Web businesses to users spreading their time and attention all over the Web with the help of search, the inherent value of the web syndication model begins to emerge. What if you could virally attract users to your content and then hold them there? This IS syndication, whether it is RSS, podcasts, gadgets, toolbars, etc. Syndication at its heart is two simple concepts: distribution and subscription. It allows you to follow your audience to the farthest reaches of the Web by virally distributing your content, and then it allows your potential audience to sign up for ongoing, deeper engagement through subscription. How cool is that!