Viral Growth- More Than a Buzzword
Like many other companies, we think a lot about “viral growth” - how it comes about and what we can do to get more of it.
The idea behind the term viral growth dates back to 1976 with Richard Dawkins’ publication of The Selfish Gene. This book proposes evolution as a cultural phenomenon, the units composing this evolution being “memes” rather than genes. The major difference between biological and cultural evolution, besides the anatomical one, is that a meme can spread much more quickly than a gene. This is true now more than ever, as the Internet blasts through ever more communication barriers.
What is a meme? It’s a framework for thinking about things– fairly analogous to a thought, or an idea– but it really could be anything. Examples of memes: wearing clothes, wearing white after labor day, wearing a suit to work, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, the phrase “Is that your final answer,” cotton, the story you have about the biggest fish you ever caught, an agent’s reputation. A meme is anything that can be passed on from person to person and whose rate of acceptance varies directly with its ability to entertain, help, or in some way be useful.
Viral growth is when a meme spreads very fast, without the aid of marketing dollars. But how is this growth achieved? Why is one meme selected over another? There are 2 concepts to keep in mind:
1. It’s the audience, stupid. The success of a meme depends largely on its environment. Imagine a genetic disorder that turns blood cells into hard, sickly crescents that clog vessels and deprive your body of oxygen. You’d think it’s a horrible disease that no human would want, but this disorder is a veritable BMOC in one particular setting. It is sickle-cell anemia and is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, where it counteracts malaria by killing off infected cells before they spread. The point is, almost no gene or meme is completely and utterly bad (or good), but the audience needs to be right. On the other hand, electricity seems like a pretty useful thing to [almost] everyone who encounters it in its non-lighting form, but it doesn’t sell in Lancaster, PA.
2. But what does the audience want? The problem is, it’s nearly impossible to know exactly what your audience wants. This is partly because your audience doesn’t know; witness the roughly 80% percent of home sellers that hire an agent after trying to sell their house themselves because they “knew” they didn’t want to pay a commission. But mostly it’s because you’re just one entity with a particular view on the world, which may or may not be in concert with the audience’s desires. The only way to check this ignorance is to innovate continuously, keeping things that work and dropping things that don’t. Instincts and experience can launch a product, but in the absence of exceptional luck, measuring and testing are required to really make it work.
Good luck!
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RealEstateUndressed » Blog Archive » Selected for The Carnival said,
December 18, 2006 @ 5:47 pm
[…] Heather presents Viral Growth- More Than a Buzzword posted at Trulia Blog. […]
Trulia Blog » Carnival of Real Estate said,
December 18, 2006 @ 7:55 pm
[…] This week’s carnival hosted by Seattle Real Estate Professionals and is sure to entertain and educate. In addition to finding our very own Jeff 2.0’s blog on viral growth, you’ll find Teresa Boardman’s post on blogging for leads at Real Estate Tomato, Joel Burslem giving alternatives to YouTube for the would be videoblogger/multimedia marketer (although we tried a few for our vblog and YouTube is the current front runner), and more. del.icio.us this! […]
Sam Chapman said,
December 19, 2006 @ 12:20 pm
Thank you for your explanation of a meme. I was tagged by Jay Thompson the other day as part of the first ActiveRain meme and my comprehension of the word just wasn’t there. Thanks for putting it into simple English with simple examples.
Josh said,
December 27, 2006 @ 9:07 am
A meme is one way to try and understand at viral growth, which really revolves around what audiences want.
The beauty of web 2.0 is that the audience is always telling you what they want, you just need to listen – and that doesn’t require a fancy analytics tool set, or even a Google analytics account, but simply monitoring “memes” through tags or key words on media sites (let them innovate for you).
An example - we’re not real estate people, just a couple selling a place (a furnished reclaimed loft in coastal Maine) who put together a site on our own to supplement our agent’s efforts, using Flickr and YouTube - http://www.MaineLoft.com for anyone interested (go to a page at the top of the site – each page has a YouTube video and a Flickr slideshow).
Simply put, we’ve had numerous people find the site (you can always check by setting up a Google analytics account) through searching for keywords/tags in YouTube itself – same with Flickr – just search for tags, label your content with what is drawing traffic (effective memes) and if you’re feeling really smart, monitor it with an analytics tool and use it as an ear to listen to what memes your audience is demanding.
Trulia Blog » Godin Live @ Inman Connect. Part 2: What’s a Purple Cow? said,
February 27, 2007 @ 10:37 am
[…] Getting people to talk about our product or service to their friends and family - otherwise known as viral or word-of-mouth marketing - is one sure way to get others to turn off their spam filter and let down their guard. […]