seth godin - unleashing the ideavirus (ebook)

7/24/2019 Seth Godin - Unleashing the Ideavirus (eBook)

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http://www.ideavirus.com/


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2. The import ance of smoot hness.

In addit ion t o being persistent and cool, an ideavirus spreads t he fastest when it s smoot h.

Persist ence mat t ers because t he longer people are sneezing about your idea, t he more peoplet hey infect. Cool is cr i t ical because if i t s not viruswort hy, i t s just not going to t ake off . But

smooth is essent ial because if you make iteasyfor t he virus to spread, it s more likely t o do

so. In viral market ing (for products l ike t he Polaroid camera and Ofot o.com) t he ideal

solut ion is to build smooth t ransference t ools r ight into t he idea which can be dif f icult .

But t hat doesnt mean you shouldnt t ry. Amazon tr ied with Member Get a Memberpromot ions, in which t hey bribe members t o t ell t heir fr iends t o buy books from Amazon

(get $5 for your fr iends and $5 for you!) . ZDNet put s a but t on next t o every story t hey

publish on their website: cli ck here to send this art icle t o a fr iend. Smoot h.


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people t o do the same t o t heir fr iends. By f ocusing obsessively on how t o make it smoot h,

you can dramatically incr ease the velocit y of t he ideavirus.

3. Turning tr ial into persist ence.

Sooner or l ater , youve got t o t urn moment ary at t ention int o an embrace of your idea, and

t hen, hopefully, int o conversion of t he user int o a sneezer.

Permission marketi ng becomes a crit ical t ool in working people thr ough t his t ransit ion. The

Hare Krishnas have grown their sect by invit ing people to eat a veget arian dinner wit h t hem.Int rigued or just hungry, people give them momentary at t ention and t hen permission t o talk

t o t hem about t his new way of lif e.

Sometimes people leave, having done nothing but eaten dinner. Sometimes, people listen to

whats being said and decide t o embrace t he ideals being discussed. And someti mes, they

become convert ed and t urn int o sneezers, volunt eering t o go out and invit e ot herpeople over

for dinner t he next night.

Not e that t hey didnt st art by walking up t o a st ranger and proselyt izing about t heir religion.

Instead, t hey used a gradual t echnique to sell t heir idea effect ively and t urn it int o a virus.

Are t here r el igions that arenot viruses? Sure, t he Shakers were. They didnt t ry t o convert at

all. Thats why t here are no Shakers lef t .

On the web, t his mult i-st ep process is t oo oft en overlooked by companies facing short -t erm

financial pressure (combine this wit h t he legendary short att ention span of entr epreneurs and

you can see why t his happens). Instead of building a viruswort hy cool product or service,

identif ying a hive, promot ing an idea, and making it smoot h and persist ent, t hey just spend afew million dollars to buy advert ising.

The hope, of course, is t hat somehow by spending enough money on clever ads, theyl l


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Aft er a consumer is int erested enough t o visit ZDNet or Google.com or some other neat new

sit e, what should t hese sit es do to augment t he ideavirus? Three t hings:

1. Get permission to f ollow up: make it easy for me to l earn about why I should embrace this

idea over t ime. All t hose ads you ran are a great way t o get someone t o your sit e, but it might

cost your sit e $100 in market ing expendit ures to get t hat one visit fr om just one consumer. If

you dont get permission t o follow up, the entir e $100 is wast ed.

2. Make as many supporting manifestos available as possible, in whatever forms necessary, tot urn consumers f rom skept ics int o convert s. This can include endorsements, press reviews,

even crit icisms and commonly made object ions. Think of t he Hare Krishnas at dinner . The

more t hey can expose you t o during t hat hour, the bett er t he odds of spreading t he virus.

3. Make it easy f or consumers t o spread t he ideavirus by providing a mult it ude of t ell-a-

fr iend t ools, as well as overt rewards for becoming a sneezer.


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Ten Quest ions Ideavir us Mark et ers Want Answered

1. Have we chosen a hive were capable of dominat ing?2. How likely are the powerf ul sneezers t o adopt our virus?

3. Do we know who t he powerf ul sneezers are and how t o cont act t hem?

4. What can we do t o our product t o make it mor e viruswort hy?

5. Are we rewarding promiscuous sneezers sufficient ly t o get t hem on our side?

6. Have we figured out what we want t he sneezers t o say? How are we teaching t hem t o say

it ?

7. Even if our product isnt purely viral by natur e, is it possible to add more viral market ing

element s to it (or t o our market ing approach)?

8. Do we know how t o get permission from people once t heyve been touched by t he virus?

Do we know what t o say aft er we get permission?

9. How smooth is t he t ransfer of t he ideavirus?

10. Is our off ering good enough to wow t his hive?

11. Do we have t he resources and ti me to dominat e this hive before others r ush in t o fil l t he

vacuum?

12. Have we built in mult iple feedback loops so we can alt er t he virus as it moves and grows?

13. Have we ident if i ed the vect or we want t he virus t o move in, and have we built t he tools

and plans t o keep it moving in t he vect or wed like?


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Five Ways To Unleash An Ideavi r us

Of t he five ways t o unleash an ideavirus, t he most i mport ant element t hey share is that forbest result syou must build this t hinking in fr om the very beginning. If youve got an existi ng

product or service and youre hoping t o build a virus around it , your job will be more

diff icult . The ideas behind the light ning fast success stor ies have all worked because t he

ideavirus concept was baked in fr om t he start . Thats one of t he reasons more est ablished

companies are having so much t rouble compet ing in the new economy t heyre restr ict ed

because of t he standards and syst ems they built in years ago.

The five t echniques, in order of sheer market power, are:

1. Go full vir al. The more you use it, t he more you market it (whet her you want t o or not ).

In essence, using t he product i s t he same as market ing it .

2. Pay off t he promiscuous.

3. Make it smooth for t he powerf ul.

4. Digit ally augment word of mout h.

5. Al t ru ism reward t he f r iends of t he promiscuous.

1. Go full viral. This is the holy gr ail of ideavirus market ing. The beauty of vir al marketi ng is

t hat if you properly constr uct t he virus, you can grow like a weed and dominate t he

market i f you can do it before the compet it ion.

Polaroid and Hot mail are the post er children for vi ral market ing, but t here are a few other

t hat are wort h looking at :


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successfully, youve got t o send itt o someone. Of course, once someone receives t he card, if

t hey like t he idea, t heyre just a click away fr om sending someone else a card!

Even though t he cards feat ured by Blue Mountain Art s could charit ably be called cheesy,

t he virus caught on. People got t he idea that it might be fun t o send elect ronic cards to t heir

fr iends and t he idea spread. The company star t ed small, wit h no real advert ising. Just a

few people sent t he fir st bat ch of cards.

But t hen the magic of vir al marketi ng kicked in. Let s assume t hat each person sends cards tofive people. Lets also assume that t hose recipient s have a 50% chance of being interest ed

enough in the concept t o go to t he sit e and send cards t o five of t heir fr iends. If we start wit h

t en people, t he generations look like t his:

10 people send 50 cards

which means t hat 2 5 people get t he virus and send 125 car ds

which means t hat 6 3 people get t he virus and send 315 cards

which means t hat 162 people get t he vir us and send 810 car ds

which means t hat 40 5 people get t he virus and send 20 25 cards

Now, that may seem like a slow start , but if y ou assume t hat each generat ion t akes t hree days

t o occur (I send out t en cards and within t hree days, five f r iends show up and do the same

t hing), then youd have 58 mil lion users in 54 days!

Of course, t hat doesnt really happen. Its unlikely youll be able t o continue t o get a 50 %

conversion rat e. And it s cert ain that y oull soon hit duplicat ion, wit h individuals st art ing to

get cards fr om differ ent people. But t he math is nevert heless stunning.

The key number in t he equation is t he percent age of people who convert . If y ou lower i t

f r om 50% in t he Blue Mountain Art s example to 30 % , t he number of users drops from 58


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Int ernet. But t hey were also unable to imagine a world in which cards didnt cost money so

t hey made t he cards t hey sold online available for a f ee.

As a result , no virus emerged fr om t he Hallmark si t e. If someone was charmed by a card and

came t o t he sit e to send a few, they discovered that t heyd have t opay t o do that . They didnt

convert . Conversion fell below the magic number and t he virus never i gnited.

You can comput e t he magic number by mult iplying t he number of cards t he average user

sends (in t he example above, its 5) by t he percentage of people who convert (50 % ). In thiscase, t he magic number is 2.5, which is how much bigger each generat ion will be t han the

one befor e. Unt il t he magic number exceeds 1.2 or 1.3, it s hard f or a product t o get viral f ast

enough t o beat t he compet it ion.

By focusing on smoot hness (it s only t hree clicks t o send a card and it s fr ee, so go ahead and

t ry it ), Blue Mountain built an amazing conversion machine. As a result , t he site gr ew and

grew unt il Excit e bought it for nearly a bill ion dollars wort h of st ock. Whatever Blue

Mountains goal t o make a lot of money, t o aff ect a lot of people or t o spread their idea far

and wide t heyve succeeded.

Hallmar k and Ameri can Greet ings have seen t he light , and now t hey, along wit h Yahoo! and

ot hers, off er fr ee greet ing cards. The challenge that t hey face is t hat t heres no longer a

vacuum, so their ideavirus cant spread as fast , and t heir magic number is f ar lower t han t hat

which Blue Mountain Art s enjoyed at it s peak (t he number must go down as the populat ion

of unt ouched people approaches zero).

Another example of vir al market ing wort h looking at i s Ofot o. Ofot o is an Internetalt ernati ve to Fot omat. Instead of dropping your f ilm off at t he corner, you send your digit al

camera fi les t o Ofot o and t hey send back beaut iful pr int s.


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t here are just no easy media channels Ofot o can use to spread it s message in a cost -eff ecti ve,

fast way t o the tar get hive: digit al photogr aphy users.

So Ofot o also launched a digit al phot o album. This album let s you post your f avorit e digit al

photos online, for fr ee, and invit e fr iends t o come see them. Heres the good part : a digit al

photo album wit h no one looking at it is wort hless!

Thus, once you upload your phot os, youve got t o moti vate your f r iends and relat ives t o stop

by and see t he photos. You become Ofot os # 1 market ing weapon.

Take pict ures of your ki ds soccer t eam. Upload them. Tell everyone on t he t eam where t o

find t he photos.

Some of t he parent s will l ike t he phot os so much theyll click a but t on and buy a print .

Ofot o has a new customer. Int erest ingly, the content was creat ed by someone else not t he

person who bought t he phot o. This is an eff ect t hat never happens t o Kodak.

Even bet t er, some people who see t he phot os of t he soccer t eam will r ealize t hat t hey too

would like t o be able t o post pict ures for fr iends. So t he tor ch passes, and Ofot o has added

anot her phot ographer t o it s ever growing stable.

It s wort h not ing that t he conversion rat e for Ofot o is almost cert ainly going t o be lower

t han it was for Blue Mount ain Art s. First , it s much less smooth. In order t o spread t he word

t hat youve posted someones pict ure, youve got t o find t hat person and tell t hem about i t ,

and t hen t heyve got t o hust le t hemselves to a comput er and go look at i t not as clean as

t he all-electr onic approach of Blue Mountain.

Second, the vir us is less smoot h. If I want t o buy a print , Ive got t o enter my name and

address, AND Ive got t o pay for it . If I want t o upload phot os, Ive got t o figure out how t o


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Despite t hese obstacles, Ofot o has a very positi ve magic number as demonstr ated by t he fact

t hat t heyve amassed more t han 500,00 0 users in l ess than 12 weeks.

The astut e reader has probably not iced a crit ical diff erence bet ween Hot mail and Blue

Mountain Art s vs. Ofot o.

Hot mail and Blue Mountain Art s are self-r eferencing ideaviruses. The virus spreads wit h t he

use of t he product whether t he user wants i t t o or not. When you fir st st art using Hot mail, the

self-pr omoting signature li ne promot ing Hot mail is aut omat ically included in every emailyou send. You didnt choose t o do t hat (t hough you can t urn it off ), it just goes along

anyway.

In t he case of Blue Mountain, the symbiot ic r elationship bet ween t he product and t he

market ing is even more obvious. The card is t he market ing, so using it is, by definit ion,

promot ing it .

Ofot o, on the ot her hand, does no such thing. You could quit e happily use Ofot o for

developing, sort ing and st oring your phot os and never r ecommend it t o anyone.

Clearly, if t he market ing element is benign and tot ally int egrated int o your offer ing, your

magic number is going t o be much higher; t he symbiosis pays off wit h big dividends. The

product has 100 % eff iciency every user becomes a promot er. The challenge is t his: it only

works for a very select group of product s and services probably not y ours.

Why have I gone to great l engt hs to point out t hat vir al market ing is merely a subset of

ideavirus market ing? Because while very f ew of us will ever be lucky enough t o enjoy the full

fr uit s of a viral market ing campaign, most of us can unleash an ideavirus.

2. Pay off t he promiscuous.


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Some people call it network market ing or mult i- level market ing. Ot hers think of i t as a paid

celebrit y endorsement. But it can be as simple as member-get -a-member f or your local healt h

club.

The basic idea is simple: If your recommendat ion is going t o help my business, Im happy t o

pay you t o recommend me.

The implement at ions vary all over t he map. When Nike paid t he coach of t he Duke

Universit y basket ball t eam millions of dollars (for him, not Duke) to coerce his t eammembers t o switch t o Nike shoes, they were t urning a formerly powerf ul sneezer i nt o a

promi scuous one. Why? When people see what t he Blue Devils wear, t hey might decide t o

wear t he same t hing.

On t he Net, t echnology makes it easy t o t ake this model and make it much more personal.

Amazons aff il iat e program, in which Amazon pays users a port ion of t he book r evenue t hey

generat e thr ough refer rals, is built around t his model.

Go t o www.perm issi on.com . There, at t he bot t om of t he page, is a link where you can buy a

copy of Permi ssion Market ing. Click on it and it will t ake you to Barnes & Noble or

Amazon right t o t he page on t he sit e that sells Permission Market ing.Bot h stor es give me a

kickback on every sale.

Did I send you t o Amazon just because Im going t o get a kickback? Nope. It doesnt do me

any good t o recommend a bookseller where you wont end up buying the book Ill end up

wit h no kickback and no book sales eit her. I recommended Amazon because youre likel y t o

have one-cli ck shopping already set up, increasing the chances t he book will get sold. I also

recommended Barnes & Noble, because their aff ili at e program is at least as good, and some

of my cust omers would prefer t o shop t here. But t he kickback st ill inf luenced my decision,

and has clearly moti vated hundreds of t housands of individuals and businesses t o set up links


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This approach is f ar less r isky t han Nikes. Nike has no idea if t he Blue Devils act ually sell

shoes. They also have t o pay for t he endorsement in advance, wit h no refunds if t heyre

wrong.

Amazon and other aff il iat e market ers, on the ot her hand, are using the power of t he Net t o

cr eate a deal wit h no losers and no downside. You can set up an affi liat e link in a few

minutes. For f ree. If it works, you get paid. If it doesnt work, you dont. And it doesnt cost

Amazon a dime.

Because of t his risk model, aff il iat e programs are flour ishing. Be Free, a leading provider of

services to market ers using this approach, calls it Perf ormance Market ing. They current ly list

235 websit es that are offer ing aff i l iate programs.

While it may be int erest ing to earn a dollar or t wo on a sale (int eresti ng, t hat is, if you can

sell t housands a mont h), some companies are t aking a diff erent t ack.

Woody Chin, founder of Refer rals.com, t hinks hes found a way t o change t he way people

int eract when it comes t o job hunt s and ot her sort s of business-t o-business commerce.

Inst ead of paying people a nickel or even a buck, hes paying people $1,00 0 t o $5,00 0 each

for t hat pr iceless commodity: a r eferral.

Heres how job fil l ing works befor e Referr als.com: Hire a conti ngency headhunter. Off er t o

pay a thir d of t he final salary, but only if you hire someone t he headhunter brings along. So

t he hunt er stands t o earn $20,00 0 or more.

Now, t he headhunt er hit s t he phones. She calls everyone she can, and basically begs f or l eads.

Theres no obvious benefit t o t he referr er, except for t he possible goodwill t hat occurs when

you find a fr iend a job.

i id t ( d b t d ) Th k h


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company insiders or super-agent s (and anyone can be a super-agent read on). The key here

is t hat t he referr als are f rom people whose opinion she values. The descript ion includes a

bount y she is willing t o pay for a hire as well as a limit t o how deep and how wide a referr al

t ree she desires.

It s fascinat ing t o see t hat Referr als.com is building in alimit t o t he ideavirus! They dont

want any given job search t o get out of cont rol and st art being passed fr om fri end t o fr iend

ad infinit um. Instead, t hey art if i cially limit how deep a job search can go int o t he

communit y. This limit ensures t hat employers can focus their searches on a cert ain hivewit hout it running amok t hroughout t he ent ir e population. The web has t urned what might

have been a mult i- level market ing business into a carefully r egulat ed ideavir us.

Anyone who gets i nvolved in referr ing can sign-up t o be a super- agent . Once you sign up

as a super- agent , your perf ormance ratings will be available t o hir ing managers (in recr uit ing)

looking to fi nd expert s to help wit h their search. And of course, you get f irst crack at t he new

job l ist ings.

Lets say t he company want s a CTO. Lets say t heyre willing t o pay $5,00 0 for a successful

hire. And lets say t heyre only willing t o go two levels down t he referr al t ree.

Now, a super-agent can send an email t o fi ve people he knows who might be perf ect for t he

job. I f one o f t hem t akes t he job , t he super -agent get s $ 5,0 0 0 just f or sending f ive emai ls.

But let s say none of t he recipients want t he job. But one of t hem knows someone who does.

Bang. He for wards t he mail a second time, and this t ime it lands on t he desk of t he perf ect

hire. Assuming t his guy get s the job, t he fir st super-agent and t he second referr er split t he

money.

All of a sudden, youve monet ized word of mout h! Refer rals.com could cr eat e a class of


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Of course, it goes deeper t han t his. If it works for headhunt ing, maybe it works for finding

new client s for Viant or f or people who are looking t o t ake a cruise Or what about real


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new client s for Viant , or f or people who are looking t o t ake a cruise. Or what about real

estat e? If everyone could become a contingency broker, doesnt l ife online get int erest ing? If

t he Inter net succeeds when it monet izes previously random analog events (like garage sales at

eBay) t hen t his may just be the killer app for t his space.

Does Refer rals.com work ? I act ually have no idea. Its just launching. We dont know if t he

promiscuous will overwhelm t he powerful and pollut e t he whole syst em. We dont know t he

velocit y of t he idea or how long t his part icular virus will last. But it s clear thatsomethingwill

replace t he current model of headhunt ers spamming powerf ul sneezers and essent ially

stealing their rolodex.

Alladvant age.com want ed t o t ake the mult i- level market ing approach instead. Each person

t hey signed up got a commission on t he revenue generat ed by t he people t hosepeople signedup. And so on.

They got of f t o a very hot st art , signing up millions of users in a very short period of t ime.

But now, according to t he Wall St reet J ournal, t heyve discovered that maybe t hey were

paying t hese promiscuous sneezers t oo much t o make any money in t he end. So Alladvant age

just announced new r ul es in t he way t hey pay t heir sneezer s.

The result was predictable t heir most import ant sneezers were outr aged. When you pay

people t o refer on your behalf, youve got t o expect t hat t hey are indeed motivat ed by

money, and when t he money goes, so will your sneezers.

Multi-level marketing has gotten a bad reputation among powerful sneezers. Why? Because

individuals are encouraged t o suspend their judgment and embrace t he idea that several

generat ions down t he pike, theyll be ri ch.

somet hing that isnt necessarily i n her best int erest . If she agrees, t hen person A sees a

significant ret urn, while person B inevit ably sees LESS of a r etur n. If she resists, t he

fr iendship is st rained


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fr iendship is st rained.

If t he pyramid is st eep enough (if t heres enough money promised at t he end of t he tunnel),

t his sort of approach can work. But it usually leaves scorched eart h in it s pat h, and

disappointment s in t he form of br oken friendships or f inancial promises not reached.

To dat e, very few companies online or off have f igured out a way t o t urn net work or

multi-level marketing into a large, sustainable business. Those that have, like Rexall, Amway

and perhaps Alladvant age, now have t o work even harder t o undo the bad reput ati on t hat

t his approach has earned.

3. Make it smooth for t he powerf ul.One of t he most elegant ways t o t ake advant age of t he new t ight networki ng among

consumers is t o identif y t he powerful members of a hive and make it as easy as possible for

t hem to t ell each other about an ideavirus.

When online content sit es first debut ed, t hey were ext remely hesitant about sharing t heir

art icles. Some of t hem went so far as to make it impossible t o copy and past e t he text in anart icle. They were petr if i ed t hat one person would copy an art icle and no one else would

come to t he site and see t he ads.

What t hey soon learned, however, was t hat t he easier t hey made it t o share, t he more likely

people were t o t ell t heir fr iends. And if someone came in t o read one art icle, t hey were likely

t o read more. ZDNet .com was one of t he first sit es I encount ered t hat used this t echnique.

In one promotion my f ormer company Yoyodyne did for t hem, t hey found t hat more t han

20 % of t he people exposed t o a compelling piece of content actually for warded it t o a fr iend.

founder Bill Taylor has writ t en for t hat magazine. Theyre all t here, unabridged, and you can

read them for f ree.


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But t he smoot h part of t his wannabe ideavirus is the l i t t le but t on on t he bott om that says

Click here t o send this page t o a fr iend. All you have to do is t ype in their email address

and your email address and boom it s done. If his art icles cont ain ideas that are

viruswort hy, t he Fast Company sit e is doing a good job in helping t hem go viral.

Inside.com, which sells subscript ions to it s online media newslett er and websit e for $2 00 , is

happy t o have people send these pricey art icles t o non-subscribing fr iends. In fact , t heres a

big send to a fr i end butt on on the bott om of every art icle. The reason is obvious. Once

youve read one, you might be willing t o pay for more. All t hey need is a few of t he ideas

t hey publish t o become viral and suddenly t he business of selling subscript ions will get a lot

healthier.

In essence, Inside.com is hoping that it s readers will market t he site f or t hem, spreading ideas

t hat might go viral and then bringing in new paying cust omers as a result.

4. Digit ally augment word of mout h.

This is a really int eresti ng way of looking at t he fundamental change t hats occurri ng, and

underst anding how word of mout h is diff erent fr om an ideavirus.

If I was delighted by a movie in t he old days, Id tell a fr i end or t wo. My comments would

end up influencing thr ee or four or six people.

There are plent y of books on this t opic and market ers have always been enamored by t he

potent ial of word of mouth. Alas, wit hout amplif icat ion, it usually peter s out .

Today, if I l ike a movie, I can post my comments on a variet y of online movie sites. Or I can

Using a service li ke Epinions.com, I can go online and search out opinions on everyt hing

fr om BMW motor cycles t o summer camps.


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Whats neat about digit al word of mouth (let s call it word of mouse) is:

1. It is ext remely persist ent. Unlike a comment at t he wat ercooler or over t he phone, a

comment i n a newsgroup, on Epionions or Amazon last s for ever.

2. It has much greater velocit y. The number of r ipples my st one makes when dropped in

t he pond of public opinion is far gr eat er online. Why? Because if I t ell you I like my car,

it might be mont hs befor e t hat sort of car comes up again in conversat ion. But online,

conversat ions are happening 24 hours a day, and t he conversat ion on any given web

page is precisely about what t hat page is about. As a result , t he number of int eract ions

multiplies geometrically.

3. It can have more credibilit y. At f irst , t he opposit e was t rue. An anonymous st ock tip or

ot her f orm of online recommendat ion was tot ally suspect . The sneezer could be a paidmole, or worse, someone wit h horrible t aste. But now, t hanks t o rat ing systems and t he

presence of powerful sneezers, it s possible t o know how congruent your t astes are wit h

t hose of t he sneezer, so it ends up having a t on of credibilit y.

Amazon is now rat ing the reviewers! A visit t o

www.amazon.com/ exec/ obidos/t g/ cm/ member-r eviews/ - / AFVQZQ8PW0L/ 102- 7235345-29 94 55 4 shows me t hat Harr iet Klausner is t he top ranked reviewer on t he ent ire sit e.

Harri et , a ret ired librar ian, has writ t en more t han 500 reviews and has received more than

5,000 votes fr om other folks who agree wit h her t ast e. If Harr iet l ikes a book that you l ike,

youre cert ainly going to give her sneeze some credence in t he fut ure.

5. Altr uism.

Several year s ago, a hot chef in Chicago decided to go out on his own and open his fi rst

rest aurant . Realizing how compet it ive t he market was, he did a neat t hing. He never opened

If you want ed t o get int o Les Nomades, you had t o be a member. And how did you do t hat ?

Well, t he fir st 500 people were given memberships because t he chef knew them as regular

customers at his old job, and he personally i nvit ed them.


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Then he told each member t hat t hey were welcome to sponsor ot her members. All t hey had

t o do was vouch for someone and hed make t hem a member t oo.

So, what s in it for t he member t o nominat e someone else? Simple. They scored points wit h

t heir f r iends as powerf ul sneezers because t hey could get you in t o t he hott est restaurant in

town.

Of course, t his wouldnt have worked if t he restaurant hadnt been spect acular. But it was.

And it was exclusive. But by allowing his members t o do his market ing for him, by giving

t hem an altr uisti c t ool t hat increased t heir power as professional sneezers, the chef was able t o

get out of t he way and let his customers sell for him.

SECTION THREE: The Ideav ir us Formula


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STEAL THIS IDEA!

Heres what you can do t o spr ead t he word aboutUnleashing t he Ideavir us:1. Send t his f i le t o a f r iend (it s sort of big, so ask fir st ).

2 . Send t hem a link t owww.ideavir us.com so t hey can download it t hemselves.3 . Visitwww.fastcompany.com/ ideavirus t o r ead t heFast Companyart icle.4. Buy a copy of t he har dcover book atwww.amazon.com/ exec/ obidos/ ASIN/ 0970309902/permissionm.5. Pr int out as many copies as you like.

Managing Digit ally- Augmented Word Of Mouth

That s what I would have called t his book if i t had been published by t he Harvar d Business
http://www.ideavirus.com/http://www.ideavirus.com/http://www.ideavirus.com/http://www.fastcompany.com/ideavirushttp://www.fastcompany.com/ideavirushttp://www.fastcompany.com/ideavirushttp://www.fastcompany.com/ideavirushttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0970309902/permissionmarkethttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0970309902/permissionmarkethttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0970309902/permissionmarkethttp://www.ideavirus.com/http://www.fastcompany.com/ideavirushttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0970309902/permissionmarket


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Review. And you probably wouldnt be reading it now! Words mat t er. Underst anding

exactly what were t alking about makes it far easier t o act ually do something about t he world

around us. Thats why I t ake such great pains to i nvent new words and get us all t hinking

about exactly what t hey mean.

If we bump into each other at some convent ion and you ask me to t alk about your business,

Ill inst antly st art using words li ke hive and sneezer and velocity and smoothness. Why?

Because these shorthand phrases make it easy for us to communicate. By using words that

indicate we both underst and t he underlying f actor s t hat l everage an ideavirus, were f ar

likelier t o act ually get somet hing done.

The ideavirus f ormula has eight co-ef fici ents. Each one represent s not just a concept , but avariable that you can t weak t o make your product or service more viral, to creat e the

element s you need t o drive your idea int o t he communit y.

Tweak The Formul a And Make It Wor k

It may be possible to wr it e down t he key element s of building and spreading a virus as a


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mathematical for mula. No, I dont t hink youll use it . But underst anding t he co-eff icients

makes it far easier t o see whats import ant and what s not. They also help you see the wide

range of f actor s t hat can help an idea go viral; focusing on the most highly leveraged factor

for your idea is a fir st st ep in launching t he virus.

Mult iply t hese f ive factors:

[ reput ati on benefit t o powerful sneezer of recommending virus]

[ selfish benefit t o promiscuous sneezer of recommending virus]

[ smoothness of sharing the virus wit h a fr iend]

[ power of t he amplifier used t o spread posit ive word of mouth]

[ fr equency of int eract ions among hive members]

Divided by the sum of t hese two fact ors:

[ number of t imes you need t o expose someone in t his hive in order for t he virus to cat ch]

[ number of dif ferent sneezers who have t o recommend a virus t o a given individual for it t o

ignite]

And t hen mult iply t hat by t he product of t hese four f act ors:[ percentage of infect ed hive members lik ely t o sneeze]

[ number of people t he infect ed sneezer is likely t o cont act]

[persistence of the virus (how long does a sneezer sneeze?)]

[ number of people infect ed / (divided by) number of people in the hive]

Comment s on each component:

[ reput ati on benefit t o powerful sneezer of recommending virus]

Torvald, Paul Newman, Ruth Reichl, Randall Rothenberg, Andy Hertzfeld, Chuck Close,

Spike Lee, Bill Taylor, Don Peppers, Peter Mayles, Alan Greenspan and Yo-Yo Ma. You may

not know all of t hese names, and t here are plenty of hive-based sneezers Ive never heard of ,


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but what t hey all have in common is t hat t heyre perceived as insightf ul and alt ruist ic. Once

people t hink t hey can be bought off , t heir power plummets.

[ selfish benefit t o promiscuous sneezer of recommending virus]

As we saw in t he Amazon affil iat e example, if you can make t he benefit t o t he individual

both significant and easy t o achieve, people will r espond t o it . Amazon signed up hundreds

of t housands of affil iat es wit h a simple off er (get a percentage kickback on everyt hing you

recommend) and backed it up with a t wo-minute procedure for qualif ying and act ually

gett ing started.

[ smoot hness of sharing t he virus wit h a fr iend]

Once I want t o t ell someone about y our idea, how do I do it? If it s got a dumb, hard-t o-say

name, or an embarrassing impli cat ion, Ill pr obably pass. On t he other hand, Hotmail i s

smooth indeed, because every t ime I send email Im t alking about t he idea.

The Polaroid camera used t his smoot hness brill iant ly. Aft er all, t he only r eason to t ake a

pict ure is t o show it t o ot her people, and if you can make t he showing (and t he wait ing) t urn

int o a discussion of t he idea, so much the bett er.

The beaut y of Vindigo is similar. In order t o t ell you about Vindigo, Im going t o pull my

Palm out of my pocket and show it t o you. But once I show it t o you, Im only one but t on

away f rom act ually giving it t o you. The thing I want t o show you is how easy it is t o give

you, so t he virus self- reinfor ces.

Ideally, youll f igure out not only what a sneezer should say t o someone when t hey t alk about

your idea, youll also make it easy and aut omatic f or t hem to do so.

ot her hand, made her f ort une squeezing oranges. Point is t hat once she conquered t hat hive

of a few judges, the news was amplif ied far and wide. And t he amplif icat ion (as per Zipf s

law) gave her t he foundati on to cr eat e a career.


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A challenge in tailor ing your ideavirus is t o make sure t hat when you do conquer an

individual or dominat e a hive, the good news is amplified as far as possible, prefer ably at no

cost t o you.

[ fr equency of int eract ions among hive members]

Some hives (like t eenage girls) int eract wit h each other f ar more fr equently (and wit h much

more intensit y) t han ot hers like senior cit izens. By underst anding the frequency of hive

int eracti on and t hen t ry ing to focus on moment s of high int eract ivit y, you can dramat ically

increase t he velocit y of a virus.

Trade shows, for example, bring sneezers t ogether f or int ense periods of infor mation

exchange. By doing somet hing as simple as handing out hat s wit h your logo on t hem, you

make it more likely that youll reinforce your message during t his crit ical t ime.

[ number of t imes you need t o expose someone in t his hive in order for t he virus to cat ch]

Some viruses are smoot h indeed. See them once and you underst and them. It only t ook oneexposure t o t he Macarena to get it . In general, the simpler t he idea and the lower t he risk, t he

more likely someone is t o get inf ect ed. Most of all, t hough, this variable is driven by how

viral t he idea is to begin wit h. Meaning: is it cool, wonderf ul, import ant, dramatically bet t er

and fun?

[ number of diff erent sneezers who have to r ecommend a virus for it t o ignite]

Not all i deas have Medusa qualit ies. We usually need t o hear f rom ext ernal sources befor e

were willing t o buy into t he new thing, especially for r isky i deas. Bestseller list s for books


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They lose t ouch wit h the hive and fall in love wit h t heir own t aste.Wit hout t he feedback loop

t he hive provides, t hey lose their t ouch. Someone who had a seemingly hot hand st art s

failing.

Warren B ffet is a br i l l iant stock market in estor ith an e tr aordinar abil i t t o nderstand


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Warren Buffet is a br i l l iant stock market investor with an extr aordinary abil i t y t o understand

what ot her people are going to want t o invest in. But when Int ernet mania st art ed to hit t he

st ock market , Buffet lost his abilit y t o predict what t he hive would predict . I think he DID

know, but over rul ed his sense of what would happen wit h his own common sense. Buff et left

bill ions of dollars of prof it on the t able because he refused to believe that t he Int ernet st ockideavirus would spread across t he hive of invest ors.

They stop t hinking of t hemselves as fashion edit ors and st art t o believe t hat t hey are fashion

makers.Rather t han act ing like someone who has a sense as to what virus will hit t he hive

next, t hey believe that t hey are respect ed enough by t he hive to FORCE t hem to accept t he

next virus.

Fashion designers are f amous for t his, as are r ock groups, aut hors and product market ers.

Take a look at New Coke t he biggest flaw in the int roduct ion of t his product was t hat

Coke believed t hat i f t hey willed t he consumer t o adopt a new formula, t he consumer would

do as they were t old. Inst ead of spreading like a virus fr om a respect ed hive member, t hey

t ried t o ram t he formula for New Coke on the hive. The hive reject ed it .

The challenge your business faces is finding or training a fashion editor. Launching products

t oo ear ly is just as bad as launching them too late i f you miss the t iming, you fai l t o f i l l t he

vacuum with your vi rus. Miss the t iming and the profit belongs to someone with bet t er

t iming and bett er fashion sense t han you.

To t hose dedicat ed to t he idea that your business is a factor y, all t his must sound like heresy.

A few years ago, there was plenty of cherr y wood t o go around. People werent making much

fur nit ure out of it ... it wasnt i n st yle. Then a fur nit ure designer named Thomas Moser

decided t hat his f ashion sense was t elling him t hat cherry wood would make a comeback.

That once people saw how beautif ul t he wood was, t he idea of fur nishing your house in t hiswarm, comfortable wood would spread through his chosen hive.


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Moser built an ent ire company around cherry wood fur nit ure, and bought t housands of acres

of pr ime cherr y in ant icipat ion of demand. Today, Thomas Moser has grown more t han

30 % a year f or t he last t en years, wit h showrooms in New York and overseas selling $5,000

t ables and $3,000 chairs. Not because the fur nit ure is great (which it i s) but because hecr eated a fashion t hat r esonated wit h his hive, because he launched an ideavir us.

The Money Par adox

The sooner you ask for money, t he less youll make.

The single biggest mist ake idea merchant s make is t hat t hey ask for money t oo soon. On one

hand you want t o charge early and oft en so you don t wast e t ime on people who are just


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hand, you want t o charge early and oft en, so you dont wast e t ime on people who are just

looki ng, and so you can maximize your income befor e your idea fades. Take t he money and

run is a cl ich for a reason.

But t his st rat egy intr oduces fr ict ion into t he syst em. Many market ers require people t o payt he most when t hey know the least. For example, why dont movie studios run a day of f ree

sneak previews t o get t he virus start ed, and then charge more once everyone want s t o see t he

movie? Today, if you want t o t ast e a new movie, youve got t o pay $8 f or t he pri vilege.

On the Internet, dozens of new businesses have discovered how important this model is. A

company called eFax offer s a service t hat l et s you get f axes delivered t o your email box. They

launched it as a tot ally fr ee service. Why? Because its scary enough to be one of t he fir st

people t o t ry somet hing as flaky as eliminat ing your fax machine. And it s even scari er t o pay

money f or t he pri vilege as well

So eFax has a plan: get people hooked on a fr ee syst em. Build an ideavirus. Then upgrade

people to a paid syst em that offers al l sort s of ext ras.

1. Fill t he vacuum

2. Achieve lock-in

3. Ext ract revenue

They can fil l t he vacuum by get t ing in fir st and fur ious and spreading t he virus. They can

achieve lock-in by making it hard f or people t o swit ch to a compet it or (what a hassle to keep

Will eFax be guarant eed an easy upgrade path t o paying cust omers? I have no idea. Some

businesses (li ke email) will be st uck at FREE for ever, t hus making t he whole journey hard t o

just i f y. I n t hi s case , t hey could o f f er f r ee f axes wi t h an e ight -hour delay bef or e y ou get t hem,

but f or $5 a mont h, you get t he faxes instant ly. So it s free for me to t ry out , free t o spread,

but prof it able aft er lock-in is achieved


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but prof it able aft er lock in is achieved.

The challenge, of course, is t o figur e out which businesses have a payoff at t he end. The

challenge is also t o be patient enough to wait , to int roduce the fr i ct ion of charging at just t he

r ight moment .

Watt s Wacker cat apult ed his career by writ ing The 500 Year Delt a. Aft er t he book came out,

people st art ed t o hand it around, t o embrace his ideas. This led t o larger audiences and a

dramatic increase in bookings for speaking engagements. In a few months, Im confident he

made more in speaking fees t han he had fr om royalt ies on the book. By let t ing t he ideavirus

grow before t ryi ng to ext ract much profi t , he was able t o make more money in the end.

In very t ransparent market s like the Inter net, t he fear is t hat all ideaviruses will be so

compet it ive that youll never be able t o extr act money. Thats why t he race t o fil l t he vacuum

is so intense. If you can fil l t he vacuum aggressively and permanent ly, it is far easier t o ext ract

money.

Think Like A Music Executi ve (Somet imes)

There are plenty of lessons you can learn about viruses fr om folks in t he music industr y

(current behavior notwit hst anding, but more on that later) .

First indust ry execut ives realize that nobody buys a CD because t hey like t he qualit y of t he


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First , indust ry execut ives realize that nobody buys a CD because t hey like t he qualit y of t he

polycarbonat e disc. If you dont like t he idea of t he music, youre not going t o buy it.

Second, t hey realize that making money later is way more import ant t han making money

now. They learned t his t he hard way. Consider r adio for a second. Befor e radio, music saleswere t iny. Why would you buy a song for your Victr ola if y oud never heard it before? How

could you know if it was any good?

At f ir st , r adio might seem l ike a threat t o t he recorded music industry. Aft er al l , they play t he

ENTIRE song, not just a few not es. And if i t s a hit song, you can hear it night and day on

t he radio every f ew minut es if youre so inclined.

For a while, the music business fought t he idea of radio st ati ons playing songs for lit t le or no

compensati on. Then, in t he 195 0s, t hey realized how valuable air play was so valuable t hat

a congressional inquiry discovered t hat music labels were bribing disk jockeys t o play t heir

records.

Fast for ward a few decades t o MTV. Once again, t he music labels balked at support ing

MTVs insistence t hat t hey provide expensively produced music videos for fr ee! It t ook a

year or t wo for t hem to discover that MTV made hits t hat giving away t he music for fr ee

t urned out t o be the best way t o sel l t he music.

Music execs know that youll pay not hing to hear a song on the radio, but if you like it ,

youll gladly pay $15 f or t he CD. And that if you love t he CD, youre more li kely t o pay $40

For some reason, hist ory i s repeat ing it self. Rather t han embracing Napst er, t he soft ware t hat

let s millions of people list en t o each ot hers CD collect ions, music moguls, fr onted by t he

hard rock band Met allica, are once again complaining about t he fr ee distr ibuti on model.

Even if t he record companies are able t o beat Napst er in court (a likely out come) it wont

matt er. There are already dozens of t echnologies (like gnut ella) wait ing t o t ake it s place, and


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y g ( g ) g p ,

each will be harder t o st amp out t han t he one befor e.

Pat ience! Inst ead of hassling Napst er, t hey ought t o figur e out how to li cense Napst er and

t he ot hers, probably in exchange for int ensive promotion of t heir hott est act s. Why not letme subscribe to my f avorit e bands, paying for live perfor mances or at t ending private concert s

or buying T-shirt s. Im cert ain that if t he Grat eful Dead were st ill around, t heir primary

income source would be souvenirs, followed closely by l ive concert s. Is that what t he record

companies want? Doesnt matt er. It s what t he net work is going to deliver, r egardless of how

t hey f eel.

Is t he CD going t o disappear? Absolut ely, r egardless of what happens to Napst er. What wil l

deter mine the fut ure of t he record business is whet her music execs are able to r edefine t heir

jobs ar ound what happens af t er t hey ign it e a vi r us over Napst er or i t s successor .

Is That Your Final Answer?

When a sneezer i s r eady t o spread your ideavir us, what should he say?

It sounds like a simple, almost sil ly question, but i t goes t o t he core of how smooth you can

make your vir us. If you give sneezers easy-t o-foll ow, effect ive instr uct ions, t heyre likely t o


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y y g y , , y y

follow t hem, because, aft er all, t heir goal is to spread t he virus.

On Who Wants t o Be a Millionaire? t he producers insist t hat Regis Philbin repeat t he

catchphrase, Is that your f inal answer? almost t o distract ion. But now it s become apowerf ul, smoot h t ool for sneezers who want t o spread t he virus. I must have heard t he

phrase fift y t imes and read it in dozens of newspaper columns befor e I saw the show for t he

f i rst t ime.

By giving loyal wat chers a five-word cat chphrase, t he producers created (int entionally or not )

a powerf ul short hand for refer encing t he show. Hot mail did the same t hing wit h t he sig fi le

in t he free email each person sent . Right t here at t he bot t om of each email, wit h no

addit ional work on t he part of t he sneezer, were specific instr uct ions on how t o get Hot mail.

Buff alo Springfield and the Beatl es did t he same t hing wit h some of t heir songs. It t ook just a

few not es an invest ment by t he l ist ener of seconds, not minut es for t hem t o expose t heir

idea t o a new listener. By working so hard on the fir st chords of t he song, pop music

producers (and Beethoven for t hat matt er) made t heir products far smoot her. Its easier t o

share t he song when you can hum t he rif f.

For most i deas, t he web can be a powerful t ool t o help with t his. What might a website f or

sneezers look like?

The f irst t ouch, the f irst impression and f irst visit , must go beautif ul ly. I t s got t o be fast.

The site should also be fil led wit h tools t hat make it really easy for a visitor t o become a

sneezer.Get out of t he way. Give t he sneezer somet hing t o share. Do lik e Tom Pet ers (at

www.t ompet ers.com) and include all your Powerpoint slides. Dont r equire regist rat ion or

permission at t his stage. Let t hem in, sell t hem on the idea, then give them t he (free) t ools to

share.


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A Dozen ideavir uses Wort h Thinking About

Company Big idea How you spr ead t he vir us (t he

medium)

Polaroid Instant photography HEY! Look at t his, you say att he par ty.

Tupperware The best f ood storage devices Get your fr iends t o sel l t heirfr iends mult i- level market ing


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f r iends mult i- level market ingFax machine Document s delivered by phone The more you sell t o your

business associat es, the bet t eryour machine works.

Home Shopping Net work Shopping via cable TV Hey Madge! Look what s onHome Shopping, you say t o

your f r iends on the phone.Fast Company Journal o f the new economy Company of F r iends month ly

meetings of local fans of t hemagazine.

Carmines Rest aurant To ns of f o od, t o ns of g ar l i c Si x- per son minimum f orreservat ions you need t o sel lyour fr i ends to get i n.

Beany Babies Col lect i bl e t eddy bear s If ot her peopl e st ar t col lect i ng,your collect ion increases in

value.Gamesville Super st icky games on the web Word of mouse email yourfr iends and invit e them over.

Hotmail Fr ee emai l Tot al ly vi ral...ever y mail yousend promotes it .

Tommy Hilfiger Urban preppy chic Logo virus t he more you weart he logo, t he more people see it.

The Cathedral and theBazaar

Open source progr ammingworks

Enabling powerf ul web sneezerst o spread t he word by giving

t hem a powerful manifesto t heycan share.Vindigo Zagat s on my Palm Give it t o me, and a fr iend

can beam it over i n seconds.

Why I Love Best seller List s

One of t he crit ical moment s in t he spread of an ideavirus is t he question t he consumer asks

before diving in: Is i t wort h my t ime/ money?

Of course, your r ecommendati on is import ant t o me. Of course, I want t o look as good as


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you, be as smart as you, have as much fun as you. But I also care desperat ely about everyone

elses opinion. Aft er all, none of us is as smart as all of us!

The most common way t his popularit y is r einforced is t hat t he user will hear about a newideavirus f rom more t han one person. Usually, we hear about somet hing fir st fr om a

promiscuous sneezer, someone who has some sort of benefit fr om making the

recommendat ion, or at t he least, someone whos always recommending st uff . We all know

somebody who eat s out every night or li st ens to every CD or is int o what ever bizarr e

conspiracy t heory has gripped insomniacs t his week.

But then, sometimes we hear about the same ideavirus from someone else. And then another

person. Finally, we realize that somet hing is really going on, and we investigat e.

In t he real world, t hese reinfor cement s are usually caused by sightings or physical

int eracti ons. Riding t hrough t he New York subway last year, I encount ered a kid weari ng

what appeared t o be a black st ocking on his head. But along the hem were t he words,

Tommy Hilf i lger. I t seemed l ike an odd aff ectat ion and I let i t go.

A week lat er, I saw four more Hilf iger skull caps. In t he week aft er t hat, a dozen. If I were in

search of genuine urban chic, I cert ainly would have bought one at t hat point , if only t o

protect my t rademark bald pate fr om the wint er chi l l .

The same thi ng happened wit h t he VW Beet le. First t here was one in my neighborhood (a

Online, the rules are very diff erent. There is no physical world t o bump into. Instead (and

even bett er for t he st ati st ician in each of us), there are actual digit al count ers and accurat e, up

t o t he minute best seller li st s. No guessing. No infer ences. The real scoop.

Amazon.com has a bestseller l ist more t han a million t it les long. Visit any t it le and you can

see where it st ands compared t o every single ot her t it le in t he world. Wow. Now we instant ly


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underst and what s hot and what s not.

MP3.com has done the same thing wit h music. As a tr ack gets played more and more oft en,

it moves up their digit al best seller list . And yes, Zipfs law works here t oo t he t opmostt unes are downloaded far oft en more t han t hose just below t hem.

We use the same math when we look at t he MediaMet rix list of t he most visit ed websit es, or

Vari ety s tally of t he weekly box office numbers (some people saw Tit anic just because it

seemed t hat everyone else was). Various or ganizations also t rack best selling cars, best selling

vodka and highest-paid executives.

One of t he best ways to f acilit ate adopt ion of your ideavirus is t o find a bestseller list t hat

makes sense and t hen dominat e it . If t hats impossible, figur e out how t o creat e your own

bestseller listand popularize t hat!

This isnt just conjecture. A breakt hrough paper by Stanfor d Business School professor Kirk

Hanson demonst rat ed this in a really prof ound way. His t eam art if i cially boosted t he

bestseller st atus of fil es for download on t he web (t hey downloaded one file over and over

again, incr easing t he counter of how oft en it had been downloaded). The result ? Heavily

downloaded files get downloaded more often! Nothing was changed but the counter, but

users were more int erest ed in seeing the most popular fi les. Simple, but t rue.

Want t o launch a new drink using your companys chi-chi li quer? Why not identif y t he right

Of course, sampling doesnt always lead t o t he spreading of a vir us, but wit hout sampling,

youve got no chance, do you?


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How A Parody Of St ar Wars Outsol d Star Wars

Accordi ng t o USA Today, a parody called George Lucas In Loveis curr ent ly out selling t he

new St ar Wars movie on video on Amazon. How is t his possible? How can might y

Twentiet h Centur y Fox be beat by a nine-minut e, $8 handmade fil m?

B h d i id i A d b h di f h N i h f l


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Because t he parody i s an ideavirus. And because t he medium of t he Net is t he perf ect place

for t he word t o spread.

In t he old days, if y ou made a movie, you needed movie t heat ers across the countr y t o show

it . Thats way outside t he reach of an entr epreneur, r egardless of how clever his movie is.

Videot ape leveled t he playing f ield a bit (Blockbust er can carry hundreds or t housands of

t i t les) but i t s st i l l very dif f icult , t ime-consuming and expensive t o force your way int onationwide distribution.

So distr ibut ion is t he easy part . But how to spread the idea?

Well, t he parody f il ls a vacuum. In this case, the vacuum was funny and interest ing news

about St ar Wars. Cert ainly, t he launch of t he videot ape was a yawner, t he mania about t he

fil m version having largely subsided. Would many people buy t he video for t heir li braries?

No doubt But it wasn t news


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No doubt . But it wasnt news.

But now, heres an email t elling me t hat someone has seen t he funniest lit t le video. Its

hyst erical, my fri end says. So I click on over t o Amazon (using his affil iat e link, I noti ce hemay be a powerf ul sneezer, but hes also making a profit on t his virus). There, I not e more

t han 100 reviews, all of t hem posit ive. I see t hat it s a bestseller. I r ealize t hat t heres almost

no risk here, cert ainly wort h t en bucks and a few minutes of my t ime. I buy it .

And aft er I see it , I l l tell f ive fr i ends. This time using my affil iate r elationship.

A classic ideavirus. Yes, it would have grown fast er if t he filmmaker had just put t he video

online for fr ee, but he was st uck in t he mindset of making money now. Yes, t he charge and

t he wait for shipping definit ely slowed t he virus down, but at t he same t ime, it was a nice

balancing act a slight ly slower vir us in exchange for t ens of t housands of dollars (and

probably a contr act f or a real movie fr om a st udio).

If it were me, I probably would have post ed a low-resoluti on excerpt of some of t he funny

part s online it s going to happen anyway, so t he filmmaker might as well do it and thus

contr ol what t he sneezers say while also increasing t he velocit y of t he virus.


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magical tipping process took place. It happened because a smart, focused, powerful ideavirus

st art ed and spread across a concent rat ed hive of investor s and pundits, and this led a t iny

company t o have a huge stock market valuat ion.

The reason I point out t his myt h is t hat it s dangerous. Dangerous because it leads idea

merchant s t o believe that if t hey just wait long enough, somet hing will happen and make

t hem tip like Yahoo! or t he At kins diet or Nike or t he Macarena. I dont buy it . The odds

are wit h you if you focus on small hives, fil led wit h pre-chasm sneezers, and then obsess wit h

i t h h f t ibl If t i t h t b


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crossing t he chasm as fast as you possibly can. If you t ip, t hats a bonus.

The Compounding Effect

One of t he factor s t hat makes t he tipping point myt h seem more real is t he power t hat comes

fr om multi ple sneezers. While one or t wo recommendat ions might make for a smoot h

t ransit ion, t heres no doubt t hat as the number of powerf ul sneezers recommending an idea

t o you increases, t he chances that youre going to use itdramat ically incr eases.

This is a genuine side effect of t he t ipping point. As you are surr ounded by hive members

h l dl b t id t h t h f t l t t i t h id


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who loudly sneeze about a new idea, t he great er your chances of at least t ryi ng t he idea.

Rather t han decreasing ret urns, as we find in advert ising, there are act ually increasing retur ns

fr om an ideavirus. The more people who have it, t he more you want it .

Are t here iconoclast s who fight every t rend? Of course. They wouldnt be seen in a hip car or

a hip rest aurant or list ening t o a pop tune. But f or most individuals, in most hives, t he

compounding effect is quite st rong.

Thus, one of t he most essential t asks an idea merchant can accomplish is to br ing all positive

news to t he for efr ont. They make every hive member t hink t hat every ot her hive member is

already convert ed t o t he virus, t hus creat ing the self- fulf il l ing prophecy that leads to success.

Publishing houses do this when t hey print lot s and lot s of copies of a book and ship it out t o

st ores. If t here are t ons st acked up by t he cash register, many people think t hat t his must bet he hot new book, so t hey buy it . On t he basis of t his t r i al, the book shows up on the

bestseller li st s soon aft er being published. This, of course, leads t o more people t ryi ng it ,

because, aft er all, its on the best seller list . So, wit hout any genuine word of mout h, t he

book has established a much larger f oundati on. It wont get any bigger unless t he idea is

viruswort hy, but at least t he book got a shot.

On Eri c Raymonds page promot ing his essay The Cat hedral and the Bazaar, he list s and

Most market ers focus on get t ing organic word of mout h going wit hout t aking t he t ime to lay

a fr amework f or t he compounding effect . Music Direct , on t he other hand, goes t o great

lengths t o leverage powerf ul sneezers. On t heir sit e (www.amusicdi r ect .com ) they l ist t he

recommended recordings of several high-end stereo magazines. Each one is linked directly to

t heir onli ne ordering servi ce. Thus, you can read a revi ew in St ereophileand know that your e

only a click away fr om buying it on their sit e. Look at a few of t he lists and youll noti ce that

t he same record shows up more t han once. Boom. Even if y ou werent consideri ng buying

t hat t i t le, the fact t hat t hree tr ust ed sneezers have recommended it makes it much more l ikely

t hat you ll consider it


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t hat youl l consider i t .

The folks at Telarc Records learned t his lesson early on. Unable to compet e wit h t he big

boys at t he other cl assical music labels, they r ecorded the Cincinnat i Orchest ra playing

dramatic rendit ions of songs t hat only a st ereo lover could love. Big cymbals. Cannons. You

get t he idea.

Then, they worked hard t o get high-end st ereo shops t o use the CDs t hey were r ecording to

demonstr ate t heir equipment . Thousands of consumers who might never have rushed out t o

buy anot her recording of Tchaikovskys 1812 Overt ure now discovered that Telarcs

recording was being used anyt ime t hey listened to $5,00 0 speakers or $3,0 00 amplif iers.

Hey, if you were willing t o drop 20 large on a st ereo system, cert ainly it was wort h a few

more bucks to have the best CDs t o play on it, wasnt it ?

Bill Gates Biggest Nightmare

One of t he repeated mant ras during the Microsoft anti- t rust sideshow was t hat middleware

t hreat ened t he very essence of Micr osoft s cash cow: the Windows OS.

Basically, middleware is soft ware t hat sit s on t op of t he operati ng syst em on your comput er

and t alks to t he Int ernet or ot her programs. Once you develop a killer piece of middleware, it

doesnt mat t er what operating syst em youre running t he middleware works t he same. The

fir st successful example of middleware was t he browser but you can be sure t here will be


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f ir st successful example of middleware was t he browser, but you can be sure t here will be

more.

Today I spoke t o a woman named Louise Wannier who developed a piece of soft ware called

enfish. You can find it at www.enf ish .com .

What if t here were a piece of middleware t hat was designed for people who had an always

on connect ion to t he Net. And what i f t hat software let you aut omat ical ly t rack your st ocks,your email, your calendar, your inst ant messages all t he st uff y ou spend t ime doing online,

but in an organized way, and all at once?

If youre l ike me, t hat accounts f or t he vast major it y of t ime you use the computer.

Suddenly, Windows is obsolet e.

Sounds like it s t ime for Louise t o st art shopping for a new Porsche, no?

But t here are some problems. And all of t hem are r elated t o t he idea shes created and how t o

t urn i t into an ideavirus.

Problem # 1 In order t o use enfi sh, you have t o download code. Experi ence has shown us t hat

t his is a huge amount of f r ict ion wit h which t o saddle a new idea. Basically, you cant enjoy

Product s like Shockwave and various f orms of wallet s have shown us t hat i t can cost as much

as $100 in direct t o consumer market ing expendit ures t o get someone to download a piece of

soft ware. In t he case of enfish, t his is way, way t oo much.

Solut ion: Get rid of t he download if possible. If not , make it swift and painless.

Problem # 2: This is a pri vat e experience. Unlike ICQ or Hot mail, which are both based on

communicati ons and are t hus prett y vir al, enfish saves you t ime by organizing your l ife and

your dat a, and so you re not naturally inclined to spr ead t he idea. In ot her words, it doesn t


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your dat a, and so youre not naturally inclined to spr ead t he idea. In ot her words, it doesnt

do it s own sneezing, nor does it reward you f or sneezing on it s behalf.

Solut ion: Make it public. Let people post t heir bookmarks and layout s for t heir co-workers.

Figure out how t o t urn it int o a communicati ons tool because communications t ools are t he

most l ikely to go viral.

Problem # 3: It s not very smooth. It s awfully dif f icult t o describe what enfish does, because

it s not simple. It s biggest str ength t hat i t solves a problem you didnt know you had is

also a huge hassle when it comes t o marketi ng the t hing. Free Email is smooth indeed.

Automat ed organizer for always-on Int ernet k nowledge workers t hat saves you t hree hours a

day is not .

Solut ion: This is t he hardest one. Breakt hroughs frequent ly have t his problem. Figure outhow t o t each the sneezers what t o say even if i t means giving them a pre-writ t en email t o

forward t o fr iends.

Problem # 4: Theres no existing amplifier. There are plent y of sit es where people t alk about

cars or hobbies or r estaurants. Find a hive and you can talk t o t hem. There are magazines

about gar dening and star t ing Int ernet companies. There are TV shows about cook ing and

t he weather. But t heres no nat ural way to amplify a message about t he problem that enfish

Problem # 5: The ideavirus isnt a nat ural monopoly. In ot her words, once t hey do a great job

of spreading the virus, it s not cl ear t hat enfishs solution will be the only one to t r iumph.

One of t he amazing t hings about ICQ, for example, is that t he bet t er t hey did, the bett er

t hey did. In ot her words, t here were net work effect s that creat ed a natur al monopoly.

Unfort unat ely for enfish, there isnt an obvious reason why an enfish knock-off couldnt be

as good as enfish.

Solut ion: The same communicat ion t ools t hat made it go viral will also support it s posit ion


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g pp p

as a monopoly.

The good news is t hat once it catches on, enfish will be ext raordinarily persist ent. It will sit

on your desk for years, saving you t ime and making enfish a profit as they go.

The ot her good news is t hat because the benefit deliver ed by enfish is so awesome, once the

virus st art s to spread t hrough a hive, it ought t o spread wit h high velocit y, and wit h the

support of t he very best kind of powerf ul sneezers. This is a product t hat can easily att ract

t he at t ention of sneezers on t he left side of t he chasm (t he early adopt ers) but also off ers very

real benefit s t hat wil l make it fair ly smoot h t o t ransfer t o t he r ight side of t he chasm.

So what should enf ish do?

My recommendat ion is t hat t hey focus on a single hive: people who t rade stocks online.

Why?

Well, t he hive is prett y easy t o t alk t o. There are eight or so online brokerage companies who

could all benefit by sneezing about enfish to t heir best customers. And online t raders t alk t o

each ot her const antly , meaning that t he message can spread t hrough this communit y wit h

Theres also a vacuum here. Nobody else is offering this value proposition to this audience.

And finally, because online t raders t end t o be more t echnically astut e, the fr ict ion induced by

t he download will be less of a barrier .

Aft er infect ing the t rader hive, will t he enfish virus jump to ot her hives? Perhaps. But in

order t o do that , enfish needs t o make t wo significant changes to t heir product (r emember,

t he best ideaviruses are int egrat ed r ight into t he product , not t acked on at t he end by t he


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market ing depart ment) .

The fir st change is t o create significant benefit s to users t hat derive fr om enfishs scale. In

ot her words, creat e a network eff ect so t heres a nat ural monopoly.

The second change is t o creat e clear and obvious incentives f or exist ing enfish users t o

evangelize and bring in new enfish users. These could be simple bribes, but it s much, much

more effect ive i f t he incent ives are relat ed to t he product making it work bet t er when you

have more buddies involved.

If t hey can accomplish t hese two t ricky t asks (so tr icky youll notice I havent even t old you

how t o do it!), t hen t he odds of t he virus jumping from t he tr ader hive t o t he Net audience

at large increases dramat ically.

Hey, Skinny!

One of t he most successful books of t he last five y ears has beenThe Atkins Diet . Dr. At kins

has sold more t han seven million copies of his books...wit h almost no advert ising.

How does a market ing phenomenon like t his happen? Convent ional market ing wisdom says

t hat he would need t o spend tens or even hundreds of milli ons of dollars t o moti vate t he one

out of every 40 Americans who has rushed out and bought his book.


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The secret t o t he books success is that t he diet was viruswort hy. Unlike other diet s, it r eally

generat es remarkable result s in a very short t ime (let s leave t he health discussion for anot her

book).

But being viruswort hy isnt enough. It was also smoot h. All you had do to t ell someone what

diet you were on was say one word, Atk ins. Because t he aut hor became synonymous with

t he diet , it was easy t o spread.

But t he real secret was amplif icati on. Word of mouth could never generat e seven million

conversions, not wit hout being amplif ied.

So what was t he amplif ier ? Your skinny ness! Whenever t he diet wor ked, nosy and proud

fr iends would ask t he diet er, Hey, skinny! You look great. Howd you do it ? And t he diet erwould proudly respond: Atk ins.

This self-f ueling virus saved Atkins milli ons. And it would never work f or t ranscendent al

meditat ion, St . Johns Wort or r eflexology. Nobody is going to not ice your inner peace, aft er

all. Yes, we may be obsessed wit h t he way we look, but i t also leads t o powerful v ir uses.

If you doubt t he power of t his, take a look at all t he tat t ooed kids on t he beach.

Get Big Fast ? The Mist ake So Many Companies Make

Why was there so much bloodletting among consumer etailers this spring? How did

Boo.com burn through more than a hundred million dollars in start up cash? Why is

Salon.com, arguably one of t he most lit erat e sit es on the web, floundering?

The answer for almost all t hese high profile sit es is t he same: Get Big Fast isnt always t he

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Remember, an ideavirus adores a vacuum. So many companies, especially t hose racing t o be

t he first t o fil l a vacuum, spend a huge percentage of t heir funds tr ying t o prime an ideavirus

by buying huge amounts of poorly execut ed, poor perfor ming interr upti on advert ising.

Big-spending inter rupt ion market ers hope the foll owing:

1. That sheer bulk will make this bad advert ising work.

2. That sheer bulk will scare off t he compet it ion.

3. That an ideavir us will be spawned and t hey will become inst ant ly and permanent ly

popular.

4. That once t hey are a cent er of an ideavirus, t heir t ruly f lawed business model will

magically make sense. Sort of t he AOL effect you cant be profit able if youre small and

illogical, but i f y oure big and illogical, you can make a for t une from t he companies t hat

pay you because you have a huge mark et .

They also fear :

1. That someone else will come along and spend more and move fast er t han t hem.

2. That i f t hey t ake t heir t ime, t he market wil l real ize t hat t heir business model is t otal ly

flawed and t hey wont be able t o get any more f unding.

Alas, t he pursuit of an ideavir us has confused t heir analysis. Inst ead of viewing t hemselves as

1. The ideavirus space for online merchant is already fil led. It s fil l ed by Amazon, and to a

lesser, more twisted degree, by eBay and Priceline.

2. Given that t he big space is fil led, t hey ought t o underst and t hat t he virus theyre going t o

spread is going t o be far smaller and far mor e quirky. Thus, the win is smaller, but t he good

news is that t heyll need far less money t o get t here.

3. Once you accept t he second point , you can realize t hat gr owing a virus slowly is act ually a

bett er st rat egy. Why? Because you get t o perfect your business model as you grow, and you

get holist ic, organic virus growth, inst ead of t he forced growt h a Super Bowl ad brings you.

In other words, you act ually get t o earn t he people who visit your sit e.


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Diamond Organics (www.diamondorganics.com) is fol lowing t his approach, and it s

working. Inst ead of t ry ing t o be a category ki ller and spending t ons of money t o persuade the

world t hat t heir or ganic vegetable-by-Federal-Express business is a good one, theyre inst ead

focused on delight ing one customer at a ti me.

By spending lit t le and scaling a lot mor e slowly, Diamond is able t o build serious sneezers,

sneezers who are quite powerful and need lit t le addit ional inducement t o spread the word.

By get t ing their systems int o shape t hey avoid t he pit falls t hat st ruck ToysRUs.com last

Christmas.

But doesnt t his fly i n t he face of t he ideavirus mant ra? In many ways it does. It also

challenges t he permission market ing idea t hat once a consumer solves a problem, theyre notin any hurr y t o find someone else t o solve t he same problem, so vendors can achieve lock-

out .

The problem with implement ing the grow-slow str ategy is t hat you might not get t he

chance. If y oure a CEO or mar ket ing execut ive in a new business, youre subject t o t he

Catch-2 2 of rapid business development . You cant grow (and you cant get funded) if you

dont make promises, but t hose promises might not be able to be kept. And if t he promises

So, t here has t o be a middle ground. And t he middle ground t hat makes t he most sense to

me is t o not launch a business t hat cant sustain a

seth godin - unleashing the ideavirus (ebook)

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