Spreadable content is King

In the recent past, web design has focused on being ‘sticky’ – focusing design and content efforts on creating an experience compelling enough to keep people coming back. It’s not like that anymore.

People spend more time consuming shared content, more time on websites shown to them by friends, and on sites where user value increases by adding friends. There is a strong connection to identity and human insight here.

I work to embed viral thinking at many levels – the more the better. Famous successes of ‘viral loop’ thinking like ning.com layer viral thinking on viral thinking for massive success. For simple video projects this often relate to a call to action, or savvy use of YouTube’s overlay and linking features. Whole applications must carefully balance trust, identity, and convincing the user to invite the right group of peers.

Following is a simple viral loop diagram that explains the process of a herd advocacy tool. This work was prepared as a discussion tool for consulting work with ThePoint.com in Chicago. The diagram shows key steps that should allow us to reach a massive audience. 1) The invite message, 2) the evidence, 3) the call to action, and finally 4) triggering many more invites – starting the process over. The task of creating viral web apps is a difficult one – the tolerances are very tight, and a small change can make the difference between big success and failure. Fortunately (for most brands lacking technical capacity) our digital world is flush with ways to ‘go viral’. That’s the point of designing spreadable content – hit the right message and seed in the right places, and you don’t have to build a million dollar web application.

I love thinking about how to help organizations use viral thinking – contact me for a free consultation, and I promise I’ll get you thinking in exciting new ways.

Experience

Leo Burnett – digital distribution and spreadable content strategies
Dog and Pony Studios – client consulting on signup processes and viral SEO
ThePoint.com – consulting to improve signup processes and streamline viral objectives
Qnext – full redesign of user acquisition process, increasing viral effectiveness and adding 60k users in 3 months
Massiveconnection – a Nuit Blanche art project, sending crowdsourced random messages of love to over 10k people in Toronto