The Science of Viral Marketing Nick Kolenda

Grab free marketing articles at www.nickkolenda.com

COPYRIGHT 2017 © KOLENDA ENTERTAINMENT LLC

ProblemsWiththeCommonStrategy 7..............................

Problem#1:LowInterconnectivity 8...................................................................Problem#2:SecondarySusceptibility 10..............................................................Problem#3:WeakConnections 14...........................................................................

WhyMicronetworksAretheSolution 15..............................

WhatisaMicronetwork? 15........................................................................................TheRoleofMicronetworksinVirality 15..............................................................

HowtoUseMicronetworksinViralMarketing 17.............

Strategy#1:TargetaMicrosegment,ThenScaleOutward 17......................Strategy#2:UseMavenGroupstoPromoteContent 22.................................Strategy#3:TargetCustomersWithHighInterconnectivity 26..................

FinalThoughts 30.........................................................................

Viralmarketingistheholygrail.

Everybodywantsit.

Nobodyknowshowtodoit.

ButimagineifyouCOULDachieveit.

Justtargetafewcentralhubs.Thenbam:exponentialgrowth.

…butit’snotTHATeasy,right?

Viralmarketinghasmysteries:

Whydopeoplesharemessages?

Howdoyougaininitialtraction?

Which“seeds”maximizediffusion?

of 4 30

Thosequestionsirkedme.

IfIcouldsolvethosemysteries,thenmaybe—justmaybe—Icouldreverseengineervirality.

SoIspentweekscombingthroughacademicresearch.

IreadeverythingIcouldbind.Fromnetworktheory.Toepidemiology.Tootherbieldswithcomplicated-soundingnames.

Stufflikethis:

…whichledtothis:

of 5 30

Butintheend—and500+articleslater—theheadacheswereworthit.

Ihadanepiphany:ItISpossibletocontrolvirality.

Thisarticleexplainshow.

of 6 30

PROBLEMSWITHTHECOMMONSTRATEGY

Typically,marketerstarget“inbluencers”withmanyconnections.

AnditCANwork.

However,itrestrictsviralityfor3reasons:

of 7 30

PROBLEM#1:LOWINTERCONNECTIVITY

Thosepeoplearen’tconnectedtoeachother.

Sure,they’reconnectedtothesource—theinbluencer.Butthat’snotenough.Tomaximizediffusion,networksneedinterconnectivity(Lerman&Ghosh,2010).

Whennodesareinterconnected,infectionbuildsWITHINthenetwork.

of 8 30

SupposethatNodeAsharesamessage.ThenNodeBresharesit.

Inthatnetwork,NodeCisexposedtothemessagetwice.

Thoserepetitionstriggerasnowballeffect.Withmoreexposures,there’smoreinfection.Withmoreinfection,therearemoreexposures.

Similarly…

of 9 30

PROBLEM#2:SECONDARYSUSCEPTIBILITY

Withoutinterconnectivity,nodestransmitmessagesOUTSIDEthenetwork.

Thatmightseemhelpful—becauseyourmessageisreachingnewnetworks.Butit’susuallydetrimental.Thosesecondaryrecipientsareoftenlesssusceptible.

Consideraphotographer.

What’sthetypicalsocialcircleforaphotographer?Maybethis:

of 10 30

Now,supposethatyouneedtoreachphotographersforyourbusiness.Soyouwriteanarticleonphotography.

Andsupposethatyouconvinceaninbluencer—whohasafollowingofphotographers—toshareit.

That’sgreat,right?

Well,it’sgood.Butit’snotgreat.Theviralityislimited.

Whenthosephotographerssharethearticle,they’resharingitwiththeirsocialcircle.And—aswejustsaw—theircircleonlyhasafewphotographers.

of 11 30

Thus,onlyafewpeoplearesusceptible.

Now,imagineiftheinbluencer’snetworkwereinterconnected.Ifaphotographersharesthearticle,thenotherphotographersareexposedtoit.

of 12 30

ThosenodesAREsusceptible.SoinfectionbuildsWITHINthenetwork.

of 13 30

PROBLEM#3:WEAKCONNECTIONS

InbluencershaveMANYconnections.Butthoseconnectionsareweak.

It’snottheendoftheworldifyouignoreablogger'semail.

(exceptmyemails,ofcourse)

Tomaximizevirality,youneedstrongconnections(Reagans&McEvily,2003).

Thosethreeproblems—lowinterconnectivity,secondarysusceptibility,andweakconnections—canberesolvedthroughmicronetworks.

of 14 30

WHYMICRONETWORKSARETHESOLUTION

Inmyresearch,Ikeptencounteringatheme.Ieventuallycalledthisthemea“micronetwork.”

WHATISAMICRONETWORK?

MICRONETWORK — A dense network with strong interconnections

Mydebinitionhasthreepieces:

INTERCONNECTED:Peopleknoweachother.

DENSE:It’ssmall.Mostpeopleknoweveryoneinthenetwork.

STRONG:Peoplefrequentlyinteract.Andthecommunicationisimportant.

THEROLEOFMICRONETWORKSINVIRALITYViralmessagesusuallyoriginatefrommicronetworks.

Andthatmakessense.Basedonepidemiology,widespreadepidemicsoriginatefromsmallnetworks—likefamilies(Ball,1997).

Whenonepersonbecomesinfected,theimmediatefamilybecomessusceptible.Infectionspreadseasilybecausetheyliveinthesamehouse.

Thenittriggersasnowballeffect.

of 15 30

Oncethefamilybecomesinfected,adjacentnetworks—likefamiliesacrossthestreet—becomeinfected.

Anditkeepsspreadingoutward.

Suddenlythewholeregionbecomesinfected.Anditallstartedfromamicronetwork.

of 16 30

HOWTOUSEMICRONETWORKSINVIRALMARKETING

ViralmarketingisaHUGEtopic.Icompiledallmyresearchintoanonlinecourse.Ifyou’resubscribedtomyblog,I’llsendyouamessagewhenIopenenrollment.

Thisarticleexplains3strategies.

STRATEGY#1:TARGETAMICROSEGMENT,THENSCALEOUTWARDMostmarketerstargetlargesegmentswithintheirtargetmarket.

However,those“bestpractices”arerestrictinggrowth.

of 17 30

Inlargesegments,mostcustomersaredisconnected.Infectionbuildsseparatelywithinthosesegments.

Instead,epidemicsoriginatefromtightclusters.Sodon'ttargetrandompeoplethroughoutasegment.Targetasmallclusterwithinyoursegment.Thenscaleoutward.

Let’sseearealexample…

CASE STUDY: FACEBOOK

MicronetworkscausedtheexplosivegrowthofFacebook

WhenZuckerberglaunchedFacebook,hedidn’ttargeteveryone.Infact,hedidn’ttargeta“big”market.

Instead,hetargetedamicronetwork.Hetargetedasmallnetworkwithstronginterconnections.HetargetedHarvardstudents.

of 18 30

Thatdecisionchangedeverything.

Bytargetingamicronetwork,word-of-mouthcouldspreadquicklyWITHINthatnetwork.In24hours,halfofHarvardsignedup(TheGuardian,2007).

Buthere’sthekey:

Micronetworksareconnectedtoexternalnetworks.

Harvardstudentsaren’tseparatedfromtheworld.Theyhaveotherfriends.

WhenFacebookdiffusedamongHarvard,otherschoolsbecamesusceptible.

Hmm,otherschools?Aren’tthosemicronetworkstoo?

of 19 30

Aha.Theyare.Zuckerbergcouldreplicatethestrategyinnewschools.

Andhedid.

Facebookscaledtheircompanybydominatinganoverlappingseriesofmicronetworks.

Onabroadscale…

of 20 30

Facebookwasanepidemic.Itinfectedtheentireplanet.

Anditallstartedfromatinymicronetwork.

of 21 30

STRATEGY#2:USEMAVENGROUPSTOPROMOTECONTENTInTheTippingPoint,MalcolmGladwelldebinesamaven.

MAVEN — Knowledgeable person with a passion for ideas and information

I’mextendingthatdebinitiontogroups.

MAVEN GROUP — A small group of people that crave knowledge in a domain

Examplesinclude…

Smallcompaniescenteredaroundatopic

Smallorganizationsthatshareamission

Smallteamsinalargeorganization

Essentially,mavengroupsaremicronetworks.Andtheycantriggervirality.

CASE STUDY: HOW MY PRICING ARTICLE GAINED 325K VISITORS

In2015,Ilaunchedmyarticleonpricing.

Ihadjustlaunchedmyblog.SoIwasdesperatefortrafbic.Anytrafbic.

Togetvisitors,Ilookedforsmallbusinessesthatsoldpricingsoftwareandservices.AndIsentthemmyarticle.

Nocatch.Nohardsell.Iwasjustgivingvalue.

Sincethesecompaniesweresmall,Iaimedfor300visitors.Maybe400,ifIwaslucky.

of 22 30

Intwodays:thearticlesurpassed20,000visitors.

Today,it’saccumulatedover325,000visitors.

AndIneverunderstoodwhy.Itneverclickeduntilresearchingthisarticleonviralmarketing.Onlytwoyearslater.Whoops.

Here’swhatIsurmised:thosepricingcompaniesweremavengroups.

Essentially,thecompaniesweremicronetworks.

Everyonesharedthesameconnection:pricing.

Thecompaniesweresmall.Everybodykneweachother.

Employeesinteractedfrequently.

Everyonelivedandbreathedpricing.Theycravednewandinterestingideas.

Andthat’swhatIgavethem.

Iinfectedacriticalnodewithnewinformation.And—thankstothestructureofmicronetworks—mymessagepropagated.

of 23 30

Here’saperfectillustration…

IsentmyarticletoArieShpanya,theco-founderofWiser.Andhesentmeapictureofhisteamdiscussingmyarticle.

Wiserwasamavengroup.AndIcontactedMANYsimilarcompanies.

Afterinfectingthosetight-knitgroups,theinfectionspreadtonearbynetworks.

of 24 30

Thisconceptisthepolaroppositeofthe"standard"approach.

MostmarketerstargetLARGEaudienceswiththeiroutreach.It’salmostano-brainer.

Butisitreallythebeststrategy?

Mavengroupsaremoresusceptibletoinfection.Therefore,youmightgainmoretractionbypitchingalargerquantityofsmallnetworksinyourdomain.Thenscaleoutward.

of 25 30

STRATEGY#3:TARGETCUSTOMERSWITHHIGHINTERCONNECTIVITYIexplainedtheimportanceofinterconnectivity.Whennodesareinterconnected,infectionbuildsWITHINanetwork.

Thisconceptappliestocustomersegments.

Yourcustomersshouldinteract.Frequently.Thoseinteractionstriggerword-of-mouth.

Andthisappliestocontentmarketing.

Marketerscreatecontenttoattractspecibicsegments.However,topicsvaryininterconnectivity.

Forexample,Inoticedatrendonmyblog.Broadtopicsperformworsethanconcretetopics:

of 26 30

Now,youcan’tmakeconclusionsfromthatdata.Therearemanyfactorsatplay.

Butindulgeme.

Iwanttopropose2categoriesofcontent:

HORIZONTALTOPICS—Topicsthatspreadacrossdomains

VERTICALTOPICS—Topicsinasingledomain

Horizontaltopicsspanacrossdifferentdomains.Sotheyhavelowerinterconnectivity.

Sure,thosetopicsmighthavesearchvolume:

of 27 30

However,youneedtoconsidertheinterconnectivityamongthosepeople.

Peoplesearchingfor"choicepsychology"havedifferentneeds.Sothey’redisconnected.

Thus,infectionbuildsseparately.

Inverticaltopics,however,mostpeoplesharethesameneed.Peoplesearchingfor"pricingtechniques"aremoreconnected.

of 28 30

Noteveryonewillbeinterconnected.Butthedegreeofinterconnectivityismuchhigher.Sowordofmouthiseasier(andyourcontentismorelikelytospread).

Thus,whenchoosingtopics—ordebiningcustomersegments—alwaysconsiderinterconnectivity.Infectionshouldbuildwithinasegment.

of 29 30

FINALTHOUGHTSIusuallypackatonofinformationintomyarticles.

Forthisarticle,though,Iwantedtofocusonacentraltheme:smallnetworkscanmakelargeimpacts.

Thatconceptisthesecrettoviralmarketing.Andthatconceptchangesthe"bestpractices"inentrepreneurship.

However,thatconceptisonlyscratchingthesurface.

Ipackagedmyleftoverresearchintoalargeonlinecourse.Ifyousubscribetomyblog,I’llsendyouamessagewhenIopenenrollment

of 30 30