I liked “The Dip” enough to want to read more of Seth Godin‘s stuff. So, I went out and bought a couple more of his books. I recently finished “Unleashing The Ideavirus” and took a few notes along the way. Here are some of my favorite lines/quotes from the book as well as an outline on ‘How To Unleash An Ideavirus’:
“The future belongs to marketers who establish a foundation and process where interested people can market to each other.”
“The smoothest viruses, like Hotmail, spread themselves. Just the act of using the product spreads the virus. A product that’s easy to recommend is often a product that’s easy to get hooked on.”
“We have crossed over a line and gone from being the vast majority who waited for something to become mainstream. We’ve become the early adopters, the folks on the bleeding edge who actually seek out innovation. Because the population has shifted, the sweet spot has shifted. Companies no longer make most of their money harvesting money from the laggards who finally get around to buying something at K-Mart. They make their money the first day, the first week, the first month an idea is out there.”
“One of the most elegant ways to take advantage of the new tight network among consumers is to identify the powerful members of a hive and make it as easy as possible for them to tell each other about an ideavirus.”
“One of the best ways to facilitate adoption of your ideavirus is to find a bestseller list that makes sense and then dominate it. If that’s impossible, figure out how to create your own bestseller list and popularize that!”
“The odds are with you if you focus on small hives filled with pre-chasm sneezers, and then obsess with crossing the chasm as fast as you possibly can.”
“When Hotmail launched their free email service, they did almost everything right. They built a product that was worthy of an ideavirus. They made it smooth. They built amplification right into the product. They approached the right people and started with just enough push to make the thing take off.”
“It’s much easier to raise venture money with a plan that says you’re going to spend $30 million or $60 million dollars on traditional advertising than it is with a plan that says you’ll only spend $3 million but employ elegant but difficult techniques to get the word out.”
“Marketing is going to be changed forever by the connections we’ve made online.”
Step By Step, Ideavirus Tactics (How To Unleash An Ideavirus)
- Make it virus worthy
- If it’s not worth talking about, it won’t get talked about
- Identify the hive
- You won’t get the full benefit of the ideavirus until you dominate your hive.
- Expose the idea
- Expose it to the right people and do whatever you need to do to get those people deep into the experience of the idea as quickly as possible. Pay them if necessary, especially at the beginning. Never charge for exposure if you can help it.
- Figure out what you want the sneezers to say
- You’ve got to decide what you want the sneezers to say to the population. If you don’t decide, either they’ll decide for you and say something less optimal, or they won’t even bother to spend the time.
- Give the sneezers the tools they need to spread the virus
- After you’ve got a potential sneezer, make it easy for him to spread the idea. Give him a way to send your idea to someone else with one click. Let me join your affiliate program in sixty seconds or less. Reward the people I spread the virus to, so I don’t feel guilty for spreading it.
- Once the consumer has volunteered his attention, get permission
- The goal of the ideavirus marketer is to use the virus to get attention, then to build a more reliable, permanent chain of communication so that further enhancements and new viruses can be launched faster and more effectively, under your control this time.
- Amaze your audience so that they will reinforce the virus and keep it growing
- Where are the Cabbage Patch Kids? Why do some viruses burn out more quickly than others? The simplest reason is that marketers get greedy and forget that a short-term virus is not the end of the process, it’s the beginning. By nurturing the attention you receive, you can build a self reinforcing virus that lasts and lasts and benefits all involved.
- Admit that few viruses last forever. Embrace the lifecycle of the virus
- Cats was a terrific success on Broadway. But even great shows don’t last forever. By understanding that the needs of the virus change over time (and the benefits received change as well) the marketer can match expenditures to the highly leveraged moments.
Good luck creating your “Ideavirus”!
Posted In: Small Business
