Unleashing the Ideavirus

Unleashing the Ideavirus
56
 www.ideavirus.com
jobs. Of course, the act of recruiting your friends is also the act of telling them about
Referrals.com.
Try not to get too obsessed with the magic, self-referencing nature of viral marketing
companies. They’re a very special case—for example, it’s hard to imagine how most books
could use viral marketing. Interesting, though, that line-dances like the Hustle and the
Macarena DID use viral marketing. After all, you can’t do the dance unless you teach your
friends how!

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Unleashing the Ideavirus
57
 www.ideavirus.com
What Does It Take To Build And Spread An Ideavirus?
There are two questions you can ask yourself about your idea before you launch
it…questions that will help you determine how likely your idea will become an ideavirus.
Is it worth it?
Nobody spreads an ideavirus as a favor to you. They do it because it’s remarkable, thought-
provoking, important, profitable, funny, horrible or beautiful. In today’s winner-take-all
world, there’s no room for a me-too offering, or worse, BORING products and services. If
it’s not compelling, it will never lead to an ideavirus.
Face it. Nobody is going to hand out big rewards ever again for being on time, performing
work of good quality, being useful, finishing a project on budget or being 
good enough
.
That’s expected. That’s a given. The rewards (and the ideavirus) belong to the first, the
fastest, the coolest, the very best.
The biggest mistake companies make is that they chicken out. If your idea doesn’t become a
virus, it’s most likely because it didn’t deserve to become a virus.
If you’re now defining yourself as an idea merchant (hey, it’s either that or lose), then you
must accept the fact that being brave and bold in the creation of ideas is the only reason you
went to work today.
Is it smooth?
After someone’s been exposed to an ideavirus just once, they’re not likely to actually catch it.
We’ve made our brains bulletproof and ideaproof. There’s so much clutter, so much noise,
so many ideas to choose from that the vast majority of them fail to make a dent.
Think about the last time you walked through a bookstore (the home of ideaviruses waiting
to happen). How many books did you stop and look at? Pick up? Turn over? And how many
of those books ended up in your shopping basket? Got read? Led you to tell ten friends?
Precious few, that’s for sure.

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