Viral Marketing: Jonah Peretti & Ze Frank in Ireland

Posted on Saturday, April 18, 2009 by Facundo

Hey there,
Last night I was at the Science Gallery @ the first “Infectious” night.
2 fabulous speakers: Jonah Peretti and Ze Frank covered viral media, their beginnings 9 years ago and the power of going viral.

All the attendees were encouraged to go today Saturday 18th @ 8PM to meet at the Stags Head Pub in Dublin city centre and get as many people as possible to come as well.

The mission: Turn up with a circle drawn on your hand. What comes after? Who knows…

What is the purpose? To Experiment and see how viral this can go in 1 day and to get your acquaintances there! Spread the word!
Here comes a quick video featuring Jonah covering: Why go viral? What they do at buzzfeed.com? What to do tomorrow Saturday 18th? followed by a few highlights below.

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Ok, so a few points I wanted to share:

It’s not about WHO makes stuff go viral, but WHAT can you make popular, then seek for the vehicle.

While you can bear in mind the Tipping point of things, if you can get the message carriers (people) to increase in at least 101% each time the message changes vehicle, you most definitely will succeed (or something along those lines anyway).

If your product is boring then use BIG SEED MARKETING.

If you are very challenged use the MULLET strategy (i.e Like he Huffington Post may look standard in the very front but definitely different when you surf it).

Find or produce fanatics. They spend time online and will forward whatever crazy idea you come up with (it has to be cool though).

A bit shocking, but all social networkers, Twitterers, etc, share some sort of histrionic personality disorder (ego-something). Give them something they can engage with but most importantly assimilate and feel identified, and you will get them to spread the message.

If you can produce a concept that turns self-perpetuating then you will be king or queen.

At the end of the day it is all about people’s emotions and social resonance. Always think how would YOU react to whatever you are about to release (if you don’t consider yourself common enough just ask your neighbour).

Many thanks to Piaras Kelly who got me a last minute ticket since the event was fully booked.

Best,
Facundo

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