1. To Catch a Virus
WHOA! It’s interactive!
Get ready by opening up:
1. A drawing program*
2. Twitter
* Feel like being old school? Pen & paper it!
Barbara Macdonald | @BarbaraEMac | Barbara@GetWillet.com

5. + ?

15. Who is going
to succeed?

20. Viral loops are core.

24. Willet
Social

27. Each user more valuable an
an individual

28. Each user more valuable an
an individual

33. Viral loops are core.

34. Roelof Botha
“Forget about adding ‘viral’ to your marketing
to-do list after your product is already on the
market. You need to bake it into your
business model from the very beginning.
Viral isn’t something you can just make
happen. It has to be inherent in your product."
paypal
youtube

35. Not Marketing.
Not Advertising.
Yes, marketing term, not talking about that, not a
marketer, am an engineer
• branding = marketing - do
something cool, poeple will talk about
it, one -off
action = Do something that’s REALLY easy
to spread to other people, mechanism not
content

36. Viral Loop
The steps a user goes through between
entering the site to inviting the next set of
new users
no mention of message or
content
simply an action
proactive
http://andrewchenblog.com/2007/07/11/whats-your-viral-loop-understanding-the-engine-of-adoption/

37. Viral Loop

38. Viral Loop
E

39. Viral Loop
E A

40. Viral Loop
A A A
A
E A A

41. Viral Loop
A A A
A
E A A
S

42. Viral Loop
A A A
A
E A A
S

43. Adam Penenberg
“Simply by designing your product the right way, you
can build a billion-dollar business from scratch.
No advertising or marketing budget, no need for a
sales force, and venture capitalists will kill for the
chance to throw money at you.”
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/125/nings-infinite-ambition.html

45. Resistance is futile.

46. Theory is simple.
Engineering is hard.

47. B.J. Fogg’s
Mass
Interpersonal
Persuasion
http://www.bjfogg.com

48. Persuasive
Experience
Experience created to change attiudes + behaours
You need to make an impact to change passive bystanders
into active users
People’s attention is bombarded with many things
hinges on social influence

49. What Makes Content Viral?
Experience created to
change attiudes, behaours
http://marketing.wharton.upenn.edu/documents/research/virality.pdf

50. What Makes Content Viral?
? Experience created to
change attiudes, behaours
http://marketing.wharton.upenn.edu/documents/research/virality.pdf

51. What Do
People Share?

52. The “Social Core”

53. Why Do
People Share?
http://www.bjfogg.com

54. “It’s so cool” “Everyone else
Principle is doing it”
Principle
Experience created to
change attiudes, behaours

55. Automated
Structure
Digital technology
structures the persuasive
experience
Repeatable
automated
Strucutred by computer

56. reducing friciton

57. Social
Distribution
The persuasive experience
is shared from one friend
to
another.
FB = high-trust communit
friends vs. strangers

58. Huge
Social
Graph
: The persuasive
experience can potentially
reach
millions of people
connected through social
ties or structured
interactions.

59. 25% of Internet traffic
is social

60. 750M Users

61. 120 Friends

62. 20% on FB

63. 10% on Twitter

64. Technology doesn’t
matter.
25%
paul revere

65. Hypothesis:
1-1 > 1-Many

66. Let’s do an
experiment.

67. www.wil.lt/fowa

69. Rapid
Cycle
The persuasive experience
can be distributed quickly
from one
person to another

70. Consider the Following ...
E A
S

71. Consider the Following ...

72. Consider the Following ...
E

73. Consider the Following ...
E A1

74. Consider the Following ...
A2
E A1

75. Consider the Following ...
A2
E A1 A3

76. Consider the Following ...
A2 A4
E A1 A3

77. Consider the Following ...
A2 A4
E A1 A3
S

78. Consider the Following ...
A2 A4
E A1 A3
S ?

79. Consider the Following ...

80. Consider the Following ...
E

81. Consider the Following ...
2 months
E A

82. Consider the Following ...
2 months
E A
6 months
S

83. Consider the Following ...
2 months
E A
? 6 months
S

84. Short cycle
times are key.
internet has sped up viral
cycle

85. Measured
Impact
The effect of the
persuasive experience is
obser vable by
users and creators

86. Viral Coefficient

87. k-Factor

88. average number of
additional users each
new user brings in
http://www.think-through.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Viral-Growth.jpg

89. X*Y
X = ave # invites
Y = % invite acceptances Noah Kagan
improve x: figure out a way to
get them to send more invites.
Or return more times to be able
to invite more often.
1 increase y: work on ways
the recipient is more likely
to accept an invite.
http://okdork.com/2008/04/22/learning-viral-the-basic-viral-model/

90. Phew ...

91. Persuasive
Experience
Experience created to change attiudes + behaours
You need to make an impact to change passive bystanders
into active users
People’s attention is bombarded with many things
hinges on social influence

92. Automated
Structure
Digital technology
structures the persuasive
experience
Repeatable
automated
Strucutred by computer

93. Social
Distribution
The persuasive experience
is shared from one friend
to
another.
FB = high-trust
community

94. Huge
Social
Graph
: The persuasive
experience can potentially
reach
millions of people
connected through social
ties or structured
interactions.

95. Rapid
Cycle
The persuasive experience
can be distributed quickly
from one
person to another

96. Measured
Impact
The effect of the
persuasive experience is
obser vable by
users and creators

97. Andrew Chen’s
“Crucial”
Viral Loop Design
Stages
http://andrewchenblog.com/2009/09/23/5-crucial-stages-in-designing-your-viral-loop/

99. OF VIRALITY

100. VIRAL LOOP

101. Strategize
What is your value proposition?
What is your social core?
Develop your core stratgy around the loop
How will a user move through your product and
eventually invite their friends
How does loop fit with core product
How do users move through your product?
what is your value prop
Qualitative, predictive

102. Implement
Rapid development of product + loop
Focus on the MVP
Develop your core stratgy around the loop
How will a user move through your product and
eventually invite their friends
How does loop fit with core product
Lean code in multiple repositories
what is your value prop
Qualitative, predictive

103. Implement
Rapid development of product + loop
Focus on the MVP
Rapid development of product and loop
build both together
focus on MVP
keep code lean so you can iterate fast
Lean code in multiple repositories
prototype
keep in separate repos

104. Launch
Launch fast, get users faster
Beg, borrow, & steal traffic
fast
get traffic quickly
successful companies have often been enbarrassed by
their first product iteration
Be embarrassed

105. Optimize
{ Hypotheses } & { Tools to test them }
hypothesis & tools to be able to test them
A/B Test, Cohort Analysis
A/B test every aspect
Quantitavie, data driven decisions
Try:
shrink funnel steps
Takes months, 2 outcomes
rearragne look and feel
diferent value prop wordings
increase # invites
tradeoff bet ween high growth potential and UX
months

106. Refine
Polish
Focus on UX Only when working
Polish, UX
Become less embarrassed
Become less embarrassed
if too much virality, great time to run tests

107. Double
Phew ...

112. Viral loops are core.

113. Short cycle
times are key.

114. Need tools to
measure & analyze.

115. Barbara
@BarbaraEMac
Barbara@GetWillet.com
www.willetinc.com