Last week I wrote two posts about ‘Free’ & Viral Marketing , the first was merely questioning whether free was necessary for viral marketing to work, the second simply shed some insight that came from discussing the first post with a prominent Kiwi Blogger. This is the follow up:
After all this discussion what was the consensus?
Free is not 100% necessary for viral marketing…but it sure does help.
‘Free’ certainly lowers the barriers which prohibit viral activity, but it’s likely that you can still have viral activity whilst charging a price. A somewhat obvious and simultaneously abstract example is the chain letter e.g. You send $10 to 25 friend asking them to do the same, in exchange for the prospect of thousands of dollars coming back to you, if both your 25 friend and some of their friends all do the same all of a sudden thousands of dollars have been exchanged in a viral interaction.
Ok not everyone will buy into this crapy form of scam marketing but it upholds the point that viral messages do spread even when the cost is not $0.00. Free is not necessarily a prerequisite for the viral effect, but tiz perhaps the ultimate acceleratant.
The fundamental idea behind viral marketing is that value of spreading a message must always be greater than the cost associated with spreading it. Which means that because there is always time involved in spreading a message, and time=$$$, the cost of spreading a message is never truly ‘free’. Therefore people will spread a message if the value of spreading it significantly out weighs the cost of spreading it. – Viral interaction’s natural foundation is value!
So perhaps instead of using $0.00 to gain the benefits of viral growth – you could focus on adding overwhelming value to reward sharing and reducing other costs (such as time).
This is a guest post that I wrote for Social Media NZ last week – enjoy
I’m not usually big on talking about best practice or making rules for social media. People who try to place rules and constrictions on things as dynamic as social media are usually proved wrong and made to look rather foolish over time….but when SocialMedia NZ asked me to write this piece I thought it’d be a great chance to mash together some of the best practice that I’ve seen with some of the insight from my research to try and make it useful for others.
If you suck – stay on the curb - I don’t mean this as an insult…to put it simply if your marketing sucked and people hated you prior to social media coming along then don’t think it’ll be the easy fix you were after (this vid explains it nicely). Stay off the band wagon and take the time to get your house in order before jumping head first into the socialweb. – One of the most common comments from my research participants was “oh but it kinda makes sense coz they’re a crap company anyway”.
It’s all about community – “It’s not a monologue, it’s a dialogue” – @Ophil. Embrace your community encourage them to share with each other and maybe your community will take on a life of its own – the more open the platform you provide the more co-created your social media efforts will be and the more engaged your community is likely to become.
Add value – I know that this seems rather ambiguous as there are so many different things that people find valuable. Thinking about what you find valuable and why is always a good place to start. Your value add could be…terrific insight, aggregated info, humor or even just pretty pics – and if all else fails then just try and bring some joy to the people around you.
Find Your Purple cow– Every single participant in my research seemed to believe that having a distinguishing and obvious “reason for being” was critical to successful online interaction.
Reference sources - retweets, mentions for twitter – hyperlinks and trackbacks for blogs. Why? Well it’s not about proprietary info and it’s not just about courtesy…it’s about placing yourself within a wider conversation. It gives your viewers/readers the chance to watch what you’re watching and read what you’re reading and then form their own opinions.
Talk about more than yourself – There are loads of experts who get this so wrong. One who gets it right is Guy Kawasaki – he doesn’t just tweet about AllTop he tweets about all sorts of interesting things, bits of news, funny vids and posts from sites that aren’t related to AllTop in the slightest.
Try not to patronise– All bloggers are egomaniacs by definition – we think we have something important to say and that the world should listen – what a bunch of jerks we are! My research tells me that the more street-cred you’ve got the more condescending you can afford to be e.g. I often find Seth Godin’s ramblings quite belittling…but then if I take a step back and consider the wicked experience and insight that back up his posts all of a sudden it doesn’t seem quite so bad…so in the end it’s probably just a value judgment about how cool you think you really are.
Be transparent– easier said than done – if you mess up admit that you messed up and be willing to laugh at yourself. Flickr are pretty dam good at this…if you want proof check out their post tittled “Sometimes We Suck“.
Don’t be afraid to be human and have a personality – tiz always a struggle to suppress the inner bot but try to have fun…professionalism is great but no body wants to engage witha stiff- if you’re looking for inspiration this is a great collection of funny bloggers.
Be a real person – This might sound stupid but my research tells me that pseudonyms and fake avatars are a no no if you’re wanting to build cred! “If you’re gunna say something have the balls to sign your name to it, or don’t say it at all” -research participant #6
Online/Offline cross-over is key! Being able to link your offline world with your online persona is key to building cred and making what you say tangible. This is might be tricky for those who only live in the online world…but my research participants seemed to believe that this was one of the keys to developing your own Purple cow.
Tweet, post and comment regularly– social media aint no one night stand, to be good at it you need to give it consistent love and attention it deserves. Click here to read about why this can be so important…but remember no one likes a spam artist.
Write well– once upon a time it was cute to have typos in your blogs posts – it was part of the real-time human interaction…no more is this the case. Sloppy writing leads to disinterested viewer. For my site iThnk we started off pretty sloppy but then I found out about the Typo Eradication Advancement League and we decided to put a proofing process place. – eeeek hopefully there’s no typos in this post.
Ask for feedback & use it – One of the biggest benefits of social media is the real-time feedback that you can get free of charge – whether you do this in a poll, an add-on service like uservoice or through examining your comments is irrelevant, the point is, that if people care enough to tell you about what they want to see then you should care enough to listen – it could turbo charge your business.
Experiment with new tools to understand the mediums – One of my research peeps put this better than I ever could…”people don’t understand how easy it is to make their posts dynamic, if they did they wouldn’t just expect it they’d demand it”. – So try to insert polls, vids and other saweeeeeet tools…
Sexy Matters – Just ask Apple….sex sells – always has and always will, so spending the time to make your social media assets sparkle is never a waste. Anyone who tells you otherwise has probably lost their soul. (looking for inspiration…check these blog designs).
Say Thank You – reward your community, make them feel special give them preferential treatment and they’re more likely to keep coming back.
The truth is social media is tough to get right. Hell, I just tested myself against these points and only just passed. Some of these insights are easier said than d0ne, while others are newish insights whcih I haven’t had time to put into action (watch this space).
Now I must have missed something along the way so fill me in/tell me I suck and lets start a conversation about how social media could be done better in NZ!
This morning I published a very quick post that simply asked the question ‘Would Viral Marketing Work Without Free‘. The idea of this post wasn’t to showcase my knowledge of free, it was simply to gain insight into what others thought.
As often happens with these things the response to the post came through a less conventional means (email). Unfortunately, this great piece of feedback from another kiwi blogger was not available to you the public…so in order to free it up and gain a wider perspective on it I thought I’d re-hash two of the questions that were put forward*. I’m sure my answers are far from definitive, so please chime in and give us your thoughts.
Q1: If the idea/product/service wasn’t free it couldn’t be viral (otherwise how does it spread?)
My Answer: Viral marketing was called WOM before the Internet, so viral still happened but perhaps it wasn’t as traceable (or as explosive) as it is today. So I’m not 100% sure that free is necessary for all forms viral marketing. I guess it depend on your definition of ‘viral’….
What do uthink?
Q2: With management’s motivation for free (a post by @Ophil), that’s fine – but how can you justify Free to the shareholders of a public company? (wicked question huh!)
My Answer: For shareholders it would obviously depend on the business model – for Google shareholder’s it would be easy – the more free products we make that enable people to generate content – the more advertising space we have – the more AdWords clicks we get – the more $$$ you get – easy sell!
But for a traditional business selling widgets it might be trickier – however I believe that the rationale would be much the same – give away something (a platform) that results in enhancing the consumers experience in your industry and set up a process to make sure that you are able to collect revenue (directly or indirectly) as a result of this increased user experience/involvement in your product area – it could be a hard sell to shareholders, but definitely not an unreasonable task.
Once again, what do uthink?
*Please note that questions have been paraphrased & answers have been polished.
The above vid has been around for a while and it’s pretty popular (180,000 views). It preaches a wicked message but I wonder…have they missed a crucial feature of viral marketing.
What do uThnk? Is free the vital component in viral marketing? If so was there such a thing as viral marketing before the web brought the free economy to life?
Most companies still refer to their customers in a ‘them versus us’ sense. How much more money can we get off them? How can we get more of them to buy our products or services? We need to research them so we know what they want. Why have they switched brands? We need to get them back.
If history has taught us anything it’s that everything good comes about due to successful relationships. This mantra can be applied to war, parenting, sports teams…almost nothing comes down to the pure success of one individual. Trusting and valuable relationships are the basis for most anything that it successful.
I know what you’re saying, relationship marketing isn’t a new concept. Everyone practices relationship marketing these days.
The relationship between a company and a customer has the same basic needs as the relationship between romantic couples might have. Both parties need to feel trusted and need to receive trust, both need honesty, attention, respect, love and admiration, both need to feel as if they are really truly desired. Do you feel like this with any company?
The concept of Lovemarks has sought to do this and sure many people love, trust, and desire and give plenty of their attention to their Apple computers. Does Apple give this back to their customers. Is there any form of personal interaction with this company, a company that expects such respect from their customers? Of course the relationship can’t be as personal and intense as a true romantic relationship but companies sure could use a bit of a rough guide.
Throughout my long, frustrating and arduous search for a job during the past few weeks I have come across one company that I believe respects me in a way that no other employer or recruiter has, ever. Over just one meeting and one phone conversation I have created a lasting bond with this company. They trust me enough give me their time, to send me off to some of their best clients for interviews. This trust in me builds my trust in them immensely. They have given me plenty of attention, making sure I know what is happening every step of the way. Going out of their way to chat with me about myself and not just how I would be suited to a particular job. I in turn have chatted with my recruiter about herself and I feel she is more than just a recruiter, she’s someone I can respect as a person and not because of her career status. Moreover the attention I am given makes me feel totally desired. Not like I am just another CV in that darned huge pile, “let’s not bother writing back to each person that has applied, it will take too much of our time, they’re not worth it”. To those companies that haven’t made me feel in the slightest desired, trusted, admired, attended to, or respected, I will never again interact with your company so don’t worry about me being a nuisance any more.
Companies need not only to have knowledge of the concept of relationship marketing. They need to practice it. Try and treat your next customer or potential customer as you would someone you truly desired.
Would you leave them waiting in line while you chatted to your colleague about the weekend events?
Of course not! As soon as you saw them your face would light up with happiness and your attention would turn to them.
Would you ever be left wondering why they had left you for a more improved version of yourself?
No if they were that important to you they would never have left.
Would you try and push them into buying something you knew they didn’t really want or need only to have them dissatisfied with their purchase and you afterwards?
Never! you would talk to them until you had an understanding of what their real need was and then you would help to fulfill that need the best way that suited them.
Would you have to do background research to know their needs and wants?
No you wouldn’t your daily interaction with them would give you a better idea of who they really were and what they truly desired.
Go give your customers a hug today…you won’t regret it!
Don’t uthnk becoming a fan is a big step to take.? Well I do. I struggled to become a fan of anything on Facebook for a long time. I thought “yea I’m into that, but FAN is a big call. I’m hardly fanatical about it.” So I took a seat on the fence and decided to commit to not committing to anything fan related.
The main reason I didn’t pop my fan cherry was out of fear of adding to the amount of Facebook fannies. We’ve all seen the trail of update Diarrhea - “Jenny became a fan of eating toast”. Wow Jenny your life sux. Or “Barry became a fan of morning sex”. Yuk Barry, we don’t want to know! Etc.
Maybe Fb needs to introduce some more low key pages. “Become somewhat interested in. ….” or “Andy indicated he thought … wasn’t bad”. That would be pretty weak though. Probably best to stick with the status quo this time.
Eventually I got over my Fanphobia and got fanned up to a few Fb pages. I now believe being a fan is a good way to attach whatever it may be to my personality. Usually to provoke a reaction like this: “Oh I see Andy is a fan of the internet. He looks like he would be into that kinda stuff”. But more important to me is the ability becoming a fan has to give those who are doing something ithnk is cool some recognition (or mad props).
I’m not suggesting we all be like Jenny or Barry and fan everything you can, these people give us legit fans a bad name. I’m just saying don’t be afraid to let others know what you’re into – especially if it helps get interesting stuff out there. Or don’t, it’s up to you; but you should definitely become a fan of iThnk on Fb right now!
marketing to work, the second simply shed some insight that came from discussing the first post with a prominent Kiwi Blogger. This is the follow up:
