Unleashing the Ideavirus

Unleashing the Ideavirus
143
 www.ideavirus.com
No, You Go First!
The challenge of the new idea is that very few people want to go first. Who was the first to
swim in the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts after years of it being off limits for
health reasons? Who was the first to give their kid the chicken pox vaccine? Which company
chose to be the first to file its taxes electronically?
One of the key reasons to launch an ideavirus is that you can give people a risk-free, cost-free
way to check out the safety of your idea 
before
they commit. And more important, you can
create an aura around your idea—an aura of inevitability, of invincibility. When everyone is
buzzing about a new technique, tactic, service, musical style, club, food—whatever—it’s far
easier to put fear aside and try it.
But just as people are hesitant to be the first to buy a fancy new product, many are hesitant
to try a fancy new idea. There are plenty of people who want nothing to do with a new song
or a new book… they’re happy to wait until it’s been screened, filtered and accepted by the
mainstream.
So, depending on the hive you choose, you need to make it clear to that consumer that your
idea has 
arrived
. That the water’s warm, the air is safe to breathe and your idea is a
comfortable, tried and true one.
One way to do this is with bestseller lists. And with testimonials. And by exposing the digital
word of mouth record to let them see the countless people who have tried it and liked it. Do
it with the specific objective of reminding people that others have taken the risk and happily
survived. If you work at this and do it on purpose, you’ll be amazed at how much water you
can drain from the river—how easy it is to bring the rocks to the surface, how powerful you
can make the message when you expose the connections that led you from person A to
person B. It’s in this sort of active ideavirus marketing that many brands are able to run rings
around the competition.
Even before you do this, offering your idea in trial-sized, bite-sized portions is critical. Many
companies have created neat, effective online products, only to see them fail because they

---