New Comm Biz

I’m pretty lenient when it comes to buzz words. But there are a few that make my skin crawl every time I hear them. The worst is “social media expert” and in a close second is “viral video”.

YOU DO NOT MAKE VIRAL VIDEOS!

You make videos that if they are good enough *go* viral.

Daniel Tenner has a great post on making a viral application (viral applications are to developers what viral videos are to marketers)

danieltenner.com — How to make your application viral

“How can I make my application viral?”

There’s a misconception built into that question: the idea that virality is something that you can just slap onto any product, like a magical pixie dust that will suddenly grant your application the gift of users.

He then goes on to provide a brilliant equation (I’m probably being over generous but us marketers are easily impressed with magical things like math).

The cornerstone of all discussion of the viral loop considers the cycle from acquiring a new user to having them invite others. In equation form:

viral coefficient = (average number of users invited by each active user who invites someone) x (proportion of invited users that actually join or become active) x (proportion of active users that invite others)

or, using variable names that we’ll refer to later:

VC = N x P1 x P2

If your viral coefficient is greater than 1, then over time your growth will increase exponentially, and you will saturate your market (or whatever parts of it you have access to, if your market is highly
fragmented). If it’s smaller than 1, your growth spurts will always end and you will have to keep pumping marketing energy into your application to grow it.

So to all my fellow math challenged marketers out there, the next time someone asks for a viral video throw this math back at them and see what happens. Be sure to let me know.

But seriously I’m thinking how this could apply to videos, or other marketing efforts where you don’t have control of the invite process.

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