Viral Marketing 2.0
I am sitting in the session Viral Marketing 2.0 at Web 2.0 Expo. The speaker is Jonah Peretti from BuzzFeed. Jonah is also the co-founder of Huffington Post.
Why somethings go viral and why others don't? Virual diffusion is unpredictable and hard to control.
Core concept that is important is "the bored at work network. (BWN)". The BWN is bigger than NBC, CBS, or any other traditional media network. This decentralized network enables media to "go viral" if ordinary people enjoy sharing it.
The old broadcast model of media is simple and reassuring with the broadcaster in the center. Broadcaster decides what is important and popular.
The new networked world with Internet connecting everyone involves everyone deciding what is popular.
Who can make something popular? Key research performed by Watts and Dodds, JCR 2007. It's not special people that decide what's popular. Rather it's the network that decides what is popular, not the influential taste-maker.
If network permits diffusion, everyone can start something. Example is a forest fire, early facebook apps, blogs and embarrassing homemade videos. Whether or not something spreads depends mostly on network structure. Network structure is often the most important thing.
Hindsight Bias (unrepeatable in the future): after the fact, influential people seem like the key factor. Read the tipping point book. East Village hipsters wore lots of ridiculous clothes besides Hush Puppies. Jeff Jarvis author of Dell Hell, complained about many many things on his blog besides Dell. The problem with hindsight bias is it is not repeatable in the future.
Another project by Dodds was the music lab experiment. Subjects are shown a grid with MP3s from unknown bands. They were then tracked. In some worlds, there was social information condition where people could see and in other worlds they had independent condition where they didn't know. He found that people don't know what they like. They look around. Different songs were popular in different worlds, i.e. no consistent hits. Social influence increased inequality and unpredictability. Mediocre songs did become number 1 but the worst songs never became number 1 and vice versa.
The big problem is radical unpredictability. We can't predict WHO will make something popular or WHAT will become popular. The web is confusing, counter-intuitive and unpredictable.
Soultions:
1. Contagious Media: Make something that ordinary people want to share with each other. Make it easy to understand, easy to share, and include a social imperative. Make media perfect for the Bored at Work Network
What he created for BWN: A Nike "Sweatshop" Email. He ordered a pair of Nikes customized with the word "sweatshop." He then ordered the shoes. Next day he got an email saying the id "sweatshop" is a slang so they won't send him the shoes. Eventually they said they won't send shoes. He asked for the picture of Vietnamese girl who made them. He forwarded an email which led to a viral cascade. He landed up on Today Show debating with a Nike executive.
He wanted to see if he could re-create it. So he created The NYC Rejection Line which allowed people to give "your number" that would play the rejection message with the option of talking to a comfort specialist. People started messaging each other with that number and eventually it got picked up by media.
Then he created a BlackPeopeLoveUs.com which landed him on Good Morning America. They wanted to have a black person who didn't like the site to come on the show.
BWN trumps influentials.
Limits of Contagious Media: Most things are not viral. He wrote a paper "Viral Marketing for Real World" published in Harvard Business Review. R of 1.1 can be awesome but R of 0.9 can stop viral growth.
Solution #2: Big seed marketing: small seeds lead to failure: 10 people recruit 5 people etc. But sub-viral growth is still growth. Big seeds lead to success: 1 million people recruit 500K people, etc.
He did a campaign with Tide Cold Water for a detergent that could save energy. P&G has a huge email list. They created a map showing how many people have accepted the challenge.
Word of Mouth without tipping points. Tide Cold water seeded with huge email list and got 40K extra people. Huge value without elusive tipping point even when the R was less than 1.
Solution # 3: Multi-Seed marketing: try lots of creative ideas - nobody can predict what will be popular. Test to see what is working using real data. Big seed the stuff that is working best. Bottom line is that more data enables more creativity.
You should remove the bad seeds and grow the good seeds. What can a serious business do?
Solution #4: The Mullet Strategy: Business upfront, party in the back!!! At Huffington Post they have business upfront and party (comments, discussions) in the back. Add, Test, Tweak, Optimize, Remove stories in real time. If the editors see the headline is not gathering interest, they will change it.
The Power of Mullets: The front always looks sharp. No need to find influentials and predict the future, just let the good stuff bubble up. Other examples include Youtube, MySpace etc.
Solution #5: Personality Disorders: The web is ruled by fanatics like Perez Hilton, Apple fans, blog commenters, and other crazy people. Help your audience and users fully express their personality disorders.
Histronic/Narcissistic Personality Disorder is key to success for blogs, YouTube, MySpace.
Obsessive-Compulsive personality disorder is key to success for wikipedia, delicious, online games and comments.
Which is better Judaism or Mormonism? Judaism is a high quality religion but their marketing is terrible. They don't want other people to be Jews. He is showing performance metrics of Jews and Mormons. This means that quality isn't the best strategy. Companies with high quality as their only strategy are doomed.
Solution #6: Learn from the Mormons. Mormons want you to be Mormon! Make evangelism core to your strategy. Focus on the mechanics of how an idea spreads, not just the idea itself.
Conclusion:
1. Contagious media: make media that works for the BWN.
2. Big Seed Marketing - do viral marketing without needing elusive tipping points
3. Multi-Seed Marketing - try many ideas and optimize on the fly
4. Mullet Strategy
5. Personality Disorders - use your audience's craziness to your advantage
6. Create Mormon style media, not Jewish style media.
Excellent session overall. I gotta ask him the name of the disorders book.
Contact: Visit his site at buzzfeed.com (jonah at buzzfeed dot com).
When is BWN most bored network? Look at server logs and analytics. Probably when people at east coast and west coast are both at work. Traffic at websites is highest during working hours.
Why somethings go viral and why others don't? Virual diffusion is unpredictable and hard to control.
Core concept that is important is "the bored at work network. (BWN)". The BWN is bigger than NBC, CBS, or any other traditional media network. This decentralized network enables media to "go viral" if ordinary people enjoy sharing it.
The old broadcast model of media is simple and reassuring with the broadcaster in the center. Broadcaster decides what is important and popular.
The new networked world with Internet connecting everyone involves everyone deciding what is popular.
Who can make something popular? Key research performed by Watts and Dodds, JCR 2007. It's not special people that decide what's popular. Rather it's the network that decides what is popular, not the influential taste-maker.
If network permits diffusion, everyone can start something. Example is a forest fire, early facebook apps, blogs and embarrassing homemade videos. Whether or not something spreads depends mostly on network structure. Network structure is often the most important thing.
Hindsight Bias (unrepeatable in the future): after the fact, influential people seem like the key factor. Read the tipping point book. East Village hipsters wore lots of ridiculous clothes besides Hush Puppies. Jeff Jarvis author of Dell Hell, complained about many many things on his blog besides Dell. The problem with hindsight bias is it is not repeatable in the future.
Another project by Dodds was the music lab experiment. Subjects are shown a grid with MP3s from unknown bands. They were then tracked. In some worlds, there was social information condition where people could see and in other worlds they had independent condition where they didn't know. He found that people don't know what they like. They look around. Different songs were popular in different worlds, i.e. no consistent hits. Social influence increased inequality and unpredictability. Mediocre songs did become number 1 but the worst songs never became number 1 and vice versa.
The big problem is radical unpredictability. We can't predict WHO will make something popular or WHAT will become popular. The web is confusing, counter-intuitive and unpredictable.
Soultions:
1. Contagious Media: Make something that ordinary people want to share with each other. Make it easy to understand, easy to share, and include a social imperative. Make media perfect for the Bored at Work Network
What he created for BWN: A Nike "Sweatshop" Email. He ordered a pair of Nikes customized with the word "sweatshop." He then ordered the shoes. Next day he got an email saying the id "sweatshop" is a slang so they won't send him the shoes. Eventually they said they won't send shoes. He asked for the picture of Vietnamese girl who made them. He forwarded an email which led to a viral cascade. He landed up on Today Show debating with a Nike executive.
He wanted to see if he could re-create it. So he created The NYC Rejection Line which allowed people to give "your number" that would play the rejection message with the option of talking to a comfort specialist. People started messaging each other with that number and eventually it got picked up by media.
Then he created a BlackPeopeLoveUs.com which landed him on Good Morning America. They wanted to have a black person who didn't like the site to come on the show.
BWN trumps influentials.
Limits of Contagious Media: Most things are not viral. He wrote a paper "Viral Marketing for Real World" published in Harvard Business Review. R of 1.1 can be awesome but R of 0.9 can stop viral growth.
Solution #2: Big seed marketing: small seeds lead to failure: 10 people recruit 5 people etc. But sub-viral growth is still growth. Big seeds lead to success: 1 million people recruit 500K people, etc.
He did a campaign with Tide Cold Water for a detergent that could save energy. P&G has a huge email list. They created a map showing how many people have accepted the challenge.
Word of Mouth without tipping points. Tide Cold water seeded with huge email list and got 40K extra people. Huge value without elusive tipping point even when the R was less than 1.
Solution # 3: Multi-Seed marketing: try lots of creative ideas - nobody can predict what will be popular. Test to see what is working using real data. Big seed the stuff that is working best. Bottom line is that more data enables more creativity.
You should remove the bad seeds and grow the good seeds. What can a serious business do?
Solution #4: The Mullet Strategy: Business upfront, party in the back!!! At Huffington Post they have business upfront and party (comments, discussions) in the back. Add, Test, Tweak, Optimize, Remove stories in real time. If the editors see the headline is not gathering interest, they will change it.
The Power of Mullets: The front always looks sharp. No need to find influentials and predict the future, just let the good stuff bubble up. Other examples include Youtube, MySpace etc.
Solution #5: Personality Disorders: The web is ruled by fanatics like Perez Hilton, Apple fans, blog commenters, and other crazy people. Help your audience and users fully express their personality disorders.
Histronic/Narcissistic Personality Disorder is key to success for blogs, YouTube, MySpace.
Obsessive-Compulsive personality disorder is key to success for wikipedia, delicious, online games and comments.
Which is better Judaism or Mormonism? Judaism is a high quality religion but their marketing is terrible. They don't want other people to be Jews. He is showing performance metrics of Jews and Mormons. This means that quality isn't the best strategy. Companies with high quality as their only strategy are doomed.
Solution #6: Learn from the Mormons. Mormons want you to be Mormon! Make evangelism core to your strategy. Focus on the mechanics of how an idea spreads, not just the idea itself.
Conclusion:
1. Contagious media: make media that works for the BWN.
2. Big Seed Marketing - do viral marketing without needing elusive tipping points
3. Multi-Seed Marketing - try many ideas and optimize on the fly
4. Mullet Strategy
5. Personality Disorders - use your audience's craziness to your advantage
6. Create Mormon style media, not Jewish style media.
Excellent session overall. I gotta ask him the name of the disorders book.
Contact: Visit his site at buzzfeed.com (jonah at buzzfeed dot com).
When is BWN most bored network? Look at server logs and analytics. Probably when people at east coast and west coast are both at work. Traffic at websites is highest during working hours.
Labels: buzzfeed, bwn, viral, viral-marketing, web 2.0, web2expo
posted by Frank at 7:05 AM
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