I just finished reading Adam Penenberg’s “Viral Loop“. Although this post is not a book review, I put “Viral Loop” in the must-read category for anyone doing business online.
So much of being successful with an Ecommerce business is wrapping your head around how commerce and social interactions have developed and changed because of the Internet. “Viral Loop” gives a whirlwind tour of the Internet’s viral success stories. The book warms things up by presenting the Tupperware business story (viral success, circa 1960) and then looks at the huge Internet land grab victors: Ebay, Hotmail, Facebook, and several others.
The Viral Loop phenomenon refers to a system where users spread a product to others each time they use the product. Whether it is Hotmail including a link to their service in every email, or Youtube including their clickable logo on every video embedded in a website, the seed for quick userbase growth is planted.
Maybe your goal is not to become the next Facebook, but you would be quite happy with 20 or 30% revenue growth in the next year. You could very well have opportunities to take advantage of viral loop tactics to grow your business.
A few questions to ask yourself:
1. Can you take a step back and look about any elements of your business or products or message that could be potentially viral? If you don’t see any, can you inject some new creative ideas leveraging some of the successful Internet technologies?
2. Are you covering the viral basics: making it easy for your users to share about your business and giving them an inspiration to do so?
3. Do you talk to your current customers and learn from them what it would take for them to spread the word about your products and feel like a part of your community? (You are buidling a community, aren’t you?)
By honing in on your viral potential you could very well see new possibilities for growing your customer base.
Viral marketing is not easy, by any means. Only certain products and services have true Viral Loop potential. But learning from the big players and adopting a viral mindset can help you push your business toward whatever revenue goals you might have.
