Last week’s post by Hugh McLeod on the "gaping void blog" entitled "the social virus" is a visual version of how to make things "sticky" and "memorable." For those who don’t know about Hugh, he’s a marketer / cartoonist who uses "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards" to put forth his ideas.
In "the social virus", Hugh wonders how many copies of his cartoons have already been circulated on the internet; (I’ve copied one here for instance) once someone sees a cartoon, they may email it, copy it, post it on their website and the "virus" spreads, leaving a "trail of breadcrumbs that lead back to gapingvoid." This process is what he calls a "social virus…a sort of hybrid between a social
object and an ideavirus.
At least for me, it’s proven a most effective marketing tool…"
Hugh’s cartoons or "social viruses" are memorable for many of the same reasons that Chip and Dan Heath cite in their "six key qualities of an idea that is made to stick" from the book "Made To Stick" which I’m in the midst of reading:
- Simplicity: How do you strip an idea to its core without turning it into a silly sound bite?…
- Unexpectedness: How do you capture people’s attention…and hold it?…
- Concreteness: How do you help people understand your idea and remember it much later?…
- Credibility: How do you get people to believe your idea?…
- Emotional: How do you get people to care about your idea?…
- Stories: How do you get people to act on your idea?…
(Check out the made to stick blog for more on this.)
Which brings me to Seth Godin’s "ideavirus" a book he published in 2000, in which he pointed out that marketers need to stop "interrupting" people, and start to create an environment instead where "sneezers" (happy customers) spread your ideas to other potential customers for you. Hugh’s social viruses make it easy to do that.
What are your customers spreading around?
-Susan Martin, NYC marketing coach
