Unleashing the Ideavirus

Unleashing the Ideavirus
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 www.ideavirus.com
Bestseller lists are a stand-in for the number of recommendations you need to decide. A
bestseller list says, “There are 24,000 other people who liked this idea.” The reviews on
Amazon are another great example of this. When 50 people post a positive review, it counts
for something.
The alternative, which also works, is actually hearing from sneezers one by one. Some ideas
need only one sneezer to get you try it (like a restaurant) while others might need a hundred
(like switching over to using email or a Palm to run your business).
[percentage of infected hive members likely to sneeze]
Some hives are filled with sneezers. And some ideas make people sneeze more than others.
When John McCain tried to capture his party’s presidential nomination, he discovered an
entire population of people, previously dormant, who were so moved by his candor and
campaign finance message that they started sneezing on his behalf. Not accidentally, many of
these sneezers were in the media, carrying his message far and wide.
Another variable is your ability to increase the likelihood that people who don’t usually
sneeze decide that they’ll make an exception just for you. Focus on the time and place of
your introduction to the hive. Want your employees to spread an important new idea among
themselves? Don’t introduce it at the Friday afternoon beer blast, but rather make it a special
event. Give them the tools they need to spread the word. Reward them for doing so, or make
it clear how the virus will dramatically help your company. It’s not an afterthought—it’s the
core of your marketing campaign.
[number of people the infected sneezer is likely to contact]
This is an especially important metric for promiscuous sneezers. Once you’ve converted
people into spreading your message for their own personal gain, how can you incent them to
spread the word to a LOT of their friends? One way to do this is by offering increasing
returns to the sneezer—the more you bring us, the more we give you (but be careful not to
turn sneezers into spammers, who end up proselytizing strangers and causing a backlash).
Referrals.com aims to do this by turning their best sneezers into super-agents, giving them
better information and more money.

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