Unleashing the Ideavirus

Unleashing the Ideavirus
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 www.ideavirus.com
2.
The importance of smoothness.
In addition to being persistent and cool, an ideavirus spreads the fastest when it’s smooth.
Persistence matters because the longer people are sneezing about your idea, the more people
they infect. Cool is critical because if it’s not virusworthy, it’s just not going to take off. But
smooth is essential because if you make it 
easy
for the virus to spread, it’s more likely to do
so. In viral marketing (for products like the Polaroid camera and Ofoto.com) the ideal
solution is to build smooth transference tools right into the idea—which can be difficult.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Amazon tried with “Member Get a Member”
promotions, in which they bribe members to tell their friends to buy books from Amazon
(
get $5 for your friends and $5 for you!
). ZDNet puts a button next to every story they
publish on their website: 
click here to send this article to a friend
. Smooth.
Tupperware built an entire company around the smooth transfer of product enthusiasm
from one friend to another. When you have a Tupperware party you are simultaneously
hanging out with friends, demonstrating products you like, selling them 
and
recruiting other

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Unleashing the Ideavirus
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 www.ideavirus.com
people to do the same to their friends. By focusing obsessively on how to make it smooth,
you can dramatically increase the velocity of the ideavirus.
3. Turning trial into persistence.
Sooner or later, you’ve got to turn momentary attention into an embrace of your idea, and
then, hopefully, into conversion of the user into a sneezer.
Permission marketing becomes a critical tool in working people through this transition. The
Hare Krishnas have grown their sect by inviting people to eat a vegetarian dinner with them.
Intrigued or just hungry, people give them momentary attention and then permission to talk
to them about this new way of life.
Sometimes people leave, having done nothing but eaten dinner. Sometimes, people listen to
what’s being said and decide to embrace the ideals being discussed. And sometimes, they
become converted and turn into sneezers, volunteering to go out and invite 
other
people over
for dinner the next night.
Note that they didn’t start by walking up to a stranger and proselytizing about their religion.
Instead, they used a gradual technique to sell their idea effectively and turn it into a virus.
Are there religions that are 
not 
viruses? Sure, the Shakers were. They didn’t try to convert at
all. That’s why there are no Shakers left.
On the web, this multi-step process is too often overlooked by companies facing short-term
financial pressure (combine this with the legendary short attention span of entrepreneurs and
you can see why this happens). Instead of building a virusworthy cool product or service,
identifying a hive, promoting an idea, and making it smooth and persistent, they just spend a
few million dollars to buy advertising.
The hope, of course, is that somehow by spending enough money on clever ads, they’ll
magically create a critical mass of positive energy that will turn their idea into a virus.
They’re looking for a shortcut, and as a result, leading their companies to doom. Building a
virus takes insight, talent and most of all, patience.

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