This post continues my response to question #6 in The Importance of Viral Marketing, a podcast interview I did with AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorkland. The podcast was based on NextStage's research into WOM, viral and buzz marketing and is good listening (my opinion, of course).
This arc provides a text version of that interview. There was a lot more in the podcast than appears in this arc, save a few last questions we didn't have time for. Each post in this arc will have one question (regular type) followed by my response (italics). Question #6 was "Some viral messages keep re-appearing and become annoying. What are some ways you can control how long a message is out there? How can the message get distorted?" I shared the first part of my response to "How long can a message be out there?" in Part 6 of this arc and promised a Big Money Take Away in this post.
Here’s the big money take away for your listeners regarding this: Think of products or services which had no social contagion or impact factor – ie, didn’t allow this individual to share something with that individual – and you’re looking at things which the audience quickly became immune to.Anybody remember the Newton? How many people are reading from eBooks? Part of the success of the iPod is the same as the success of BMWs. The product brands the owner – hence you’re automatically sharing the iPod or BMW experience with other brand owners – simply by listening to your iPod on the train as you commute to work or walk down the street.
PCs didn’t catch on because VisiCalc came out. PCs caught on because I could do something with VisiCalc then share it with others, “Hey, Look at this! Did you know we can increase our…decrease our…reinvest our…”
If you want to invest in something, look for products that will have a social contagion or impact factor. Is anybody who invested in cellular technology crying these days?
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- 3 Rules for Creating Buzz
- The "AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorklund interviews viral marketing expert Joseph Carrabis, founder of NextStage Evolution" arc
- Holmes&Watsons
- Social Networks and Viral Marketing
- The Importance of Viral Marketing Podcast on AllBusiness.com
- Viral Marketing blog posts
- Why Some Viral Marketing Doesn't Work
- Yes, You Can Predict Viral Marketing
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