Another point well made by Steve Cohen of Bebo was something I've been thinking for a while too - the hunger for 'Viral' growth is a mistake - what you really need is 'Organic' growth. Just as we distinguish between Organic search results and bought or spammed ones, social network sites and their users are distinguishing between the viral apps that are essentially parasitic, using their hosts as a means to their propagation, and the ones that organically become part of the social ecology, making both the site and the users richer by their presence.
I spent the last weekend fighting off a flu virus, partly by eating lots of organic fruit. I expect social networks and their users will continue to do the same.
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
Be Organic, not Viral
I just got back from the VLAB Multi-platform Social Networking event, which I thought was very interesting overall. Jeremiah Owyang did a great moderating job, and Jia Shen, Sourabh Niyogi, Ken Gullicksen and Steve Cohen brought lots of different viewpoints to the discussion. Growing and deriving value from Apps within Social Networks is still full of lots of unknowns, but it was good to hear some basic shared principles come through - my summary of one point was 'before you think about a Business Model, make sure you have a Pleasure Model'.
Labels:
OpenSocial,
organic,
social networks,
viral,
viral marketing,
vlabfeb08
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I have always had a disconnect with the concept of viral. Things that go viral are a stunning experience, but they rarely have sustainable value. Often, they fall as fast as they climbed.
Organic growth is so solid, so much less gaming, less pressure. So for me, a much better fit. The people who watch our show, really love it and tell their friends. It's too "deep" and on the surface, "too shallow" to get in a minute or so, so that precludes a fast laugh that tends to signify a lot of viral video.
I appreciate the post! Aloha, Rox
Beach Walks with Rox
I have been doing research on this for a few weeks now. I would have loved to attend this event! After all is said and done I really feel everything revolves around "organic" Just my personal opinion. Looks like others agree with me.
Great post! HDTV antenna
I come across a lot of spam sites for wholesale hand bags and wholesale watches, so I understand how you crave for something organic and true rather than something fabricated. I feel the same way. document drying
EVEN by wow gold the standards gold in wowd of the worst financial buy wow gold crisis for at least wow gold cheap a generation, the events of Sunday September 14th and the day before were extraordinary. The weekend began with hopes that a deal could be struck,maplestory mesos with or without government backing, to save Lehman Brothers, America''s fourth-largest investment bank.sell wow gold Early Monday buy maplestory mesos morning Lehman maplestory money filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It has more than maplestory power leveling $613 billion of debt.Other vulnerable financial giants scrambled maple money to sell themselves or raise enough capital to stave off a similar fate. billig wow gold Merrill Lynch, the third-biggest investment bank, sold itself to Bank of America （BofA）, an erstwhile Lehman suitor,wow power leveling in a $50 billion all-stock deal.wow power leveling American International Group （AIG） brought forward a potentially life-saving overhaul and went maple story powerleveling cap-in-hand to the Federal Reserve. But its shares also slumped on Monday.
Post a Comment