Unleashing the Ideavirus

Unleashing the Ideavirus
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 www.ideavirus.com
Despite these obstacles, Ofoto has a very positive magic number as demonstrated by the fact
that they’ve amassed more than 500,000 users in less than 12 weeks.
The astute reader has probably noticed a critical difference between Hotmail and Blue
Mountain Arts vs. Ofoto.
Hotmail and Blue Mountain Arts are self-referencing ideaviruses. The virus spreads with the
use of the product 
whether the user wants it to or not
. When you first start using Hotmail, the
self-promoting signature line promoting Hotmail is automatically included in every email
you send. You didn’t choose to do that (though you can turn it off), it just goes along
anyway.
In the case of Blue Mountain, the symbiotic relationship between the product and the
marketing is even more obvious. The card 
is
the marketing, so using it is, by definition,
promoting it.
Ofoto, on the other hand, does no such thing. You could quite happily use Ofoto for
developing, sorting and storing your photos and never recommend it to anyone.
Clearly, if the marketing element is benign and totally integrated into your offering, your
magic number is going to be much higher; the symbiosis pays off with big dividends. The
product has 100% efficiency…every user becomes a promoter. The challenge is this: it only
works for a very select group of products and services—probably not yours.
Why have I gone to great lengths to point out that viral marketing is merely a subset of
ideavirus marketing? Because while very few of us will ever be lucky enough to enjoy the full
fruits of a viral marketing campaign, most of us 
can
unleash an ideavirus.
2. Pay off the promiscuous.
Paying powerful sneezers in an effort to make them promiscuous (but have them keep the
power) is an extremely difficult balancing act, but if you can do it successfully, you can turn
it into a billion dollar business.

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