Unleashing the Ideavirus

Unleashing the Ideavirus
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 www.ideavirus.com
Sneezers Are So Important, We Need To Subdivide Them
There are two basic kinds of sneezers:
Promiscuous Sneezers
This is your uncle the insurance salesman. These are members of a hive who can be counted
on to try to “sell” their favorite ideavirus to almost anyone, almost any time.
1.
Promiscuous sneezers can be motivated by money or other inducements.
2.
Promiscuous sneezers are rarely held in high esteem as opinion leaders, but if they’re
promiscuous enough, they can be extremely effective.
DEFINITION: HIVE People are not one amorphous mass. We’re self-organized into
groups, or hives that have several things in common: a way to communicate among
ourselves; spoken or unspoken rules and standards; a common history; fashion leaders. Some
examples: Fraternity brothers at a college, orthodox Jews, readers of 
Fast Company
,
Deadheads.
Many of the Net businesses that are now being organized around ideaviruses are targeting
this group (people who are willing to sell to their friends for personal gain). Companies like
Mercata, All Advantage and even Amazon are offering inducements to customers that
compensate them for spreading ideas to their friends and acquaintances in an attempt to
acquire new customers. As the value of creating ideaviruses increases, we’ll see more of this,
and we’ll also see more and more people becoming promiscous sneezers—basically, we’re
paying folks enough to corrupt them into spreading ideas in exchange for cash.
 Powerful Sneezers
The hat business is near the end of an eighty-year downward spiral to total irrelevance. Each
year has brought worse news, with one manufacturer after another going out of business, and
most towns left with one (if they’re lucky) haberdasher.
In the midst of all this dismal news, about twenty years ago there was one bright spot.
Harrison Ford. With a bullwhip. Wearing a hat.

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