Unleashing the Ideavirus

Unleashing the Ideavirus
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 www.ideavirus.com
something that isn’t necessarily in her best interest. If she agrees, then person A sees a
significant return, while person B inevitably sees LESS of a return. If she resists, the
friendship is strained.
If the pyramid is steep enough (if there’s enough money promised at the end of the tunnel),
this sort of approach can work. But it usually leaves scorched earth in its path, and
disappointments in the form of broken friendships or financial promises not reached.
To date, very few companies—online or off—have figured out a way to turn network or
multi-level marketing into a large, sustainable business. Those that have, like Rexall, Amway
and perhaps Alladvantage, now have to work even harder to undo the bad reputation that
this approach has earned.
3. Make it smooth for the powerful.
One of the most elegant ways to take advantage of the new tight networking 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.
When online content sites first debuted, they were extremely hesitant about sharing their
articles. Some of them went so far as to make it impossible to copy and paste the text in an
article. They were petrified that one person would copy an article and no one else would
come to the site and see the ads.
What they soon learned, however, was that the easier they made it to share, the more likely
people were to tell their friends. And if someone came in to read one article, they were likely
to read more. ZDNet.com was one of the first sites I encountered that used this technique.
In one promotion my former company Yoyodyne did for them, they found that more than
20% of the people exposed to a compelling piece of content actually forwarded it to a friend.
Fast Company
magazine—devoted to bootstrapping start-ups—does the same thing. Visit
www.fastcompany.com/team/wtaylor.html and you can see a list of the articles that co-

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