Tag: Virality

Virality

Deciding the winner by popular vote encourages word of mouth

Chris Labs

Word of mouth can also come from the voting process. It encourages contestants to drum up support. But in telling people to vote for them, contestants also spread awareness about the product, brand or initiative sponsoring the contest. So next time you are wondering between two options, make a public vote where contestants deeply root for one option or the other. -Contagious, p.51 Continue reading Deciding the winner by popular vote encourages word of mouth

Learnings

Effective status systems are easy to understand, even by people who aren’t familiar with the domain

Chris Labs

Credit card struggle with this issue. Gold cards used to be restricted to people who spent heavily and had a stellar credit history. Nowadays, is platinum better or worse than sapphire? This bewildering mix of colors, minerals, and exclusive words creates a chaos of consumer confusion such that people don’t know how well they are doing – much less how they compare with anyone else. Contrast that with medals given out at the Olympics or your local track meet. If entrants told you they won silver, you know exactly how well they did. Even someone who knows almost nothing about … Continue reading Effective status systems are easy to understand, even by people who aren’t familiar with the domain

Learnings

People don’t just care about how they are doing, they care about their performance in relation to others

Chris Labs

Getting to board a plane a few minutes early is a nice perk of achieving Premier status. But part of what makes this a nice perk is that you get to board before everyone else. Because levels work on two, well, levels. They tell us where we are at any time in absolute terms. But they also make clear where we stand relative to everyone else. -Contagious, p.47 Continue reading People don’t just care about how they are doing, they care about their performance in relation to others

Virality

Talking about remarkable things provides social currency

Chris Labs

Remarkable things are defined as unusual, extraordinary, or worthy of notice or attention. Something can be remarkable because it is novel, surprinsing, extreme, or just plain interesting. But the most important aspect of remarkable things is that they are worthy of remark. Worthy of mention. Learning that a ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber is just so noteworthy that you have to mention it. -Contagious, p.39 Continue reading Talking about remarkable things provides social currency

Learnings

Virality is not born, it is made: Even everyday items can become viral

Chris Labs

It’s a common belief to think that exciting products have a better chance of becoming viral, it might be true. But it’s not a necessity. Back in the days, Blendtec was just starting and they did not have a big marketing budget. At the time, and still to this day, Blenders are not a very exciting topic. But what Blendtec did is put everyday items in the blender and blend them. Marble balls, golf balls, an iPhone, a Samurai sword, etc. They filmed the experiments and posted them on Youtube. In the first week the videos racked up 6 million … Continue reading Virality is not born, it is made: Even everyday items can become viral

Learnings

When sending stuff (to test or review) to people you should always send 2 of them

Chris Labs

…a few years ago, one company did something slightly different. It sent me two copies of the same book. Now, unless I’m mistaken, there’s no reason for me to read the second copy, once I’ve read the first. But these publishers had a different goal in mind. […] but they also mentioned that they sent a second copy so that I could pass it along to a colleague who might be interested. That’s how word of mouth helps with targeting. Rather than sending books to everyone, the publishers got me, and others, to do the targeting for them. Just like … Continue reading When sending stuff (to test or review) to people you should always send 2 of them