Several thoughts... First, search engines are changing their valuation of sites that have a significant amount of likes/tweets/plus-ones/etc. From the perspective of the search engine, these validations are actually far more relevant/valuable than "backlinks" (which is an older way of increasing...
Without some more information on what you're trying to achieve, I'm not sure you'll find many experts who can weigh in. Your question is somewhat vague. Consider booking a meeting with an expert in the open source or social media industry. I'm sure they would love to help. All the best, -Shaun
Well, when you have viral marketing, then it helps to spread the word about your business like wildfire on it's own. It's a self-perpetuating loop. So rather than you paying for advertisements, people will share your content or tool or something else because it's so cool or does something valua...