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Unleashing the Ideavirus: Stop Marketing AT People! Turn Your Ideas into Epidemics by Helping Your C

seth godin malcolm gladwell

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The book that sparked a marketing revolution.

"This is a subversive book. It says that the marketer is not--and ought not to be--at the center of successful marketing. The customer should be. Are you ready for that?" --From the Foreword by Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point.

Counter to traditional marketing wisdom, which tries to count, measure, and manipulate the spread of information, Seth Godin argues that the information can spread most effectively from customer to customer, rather than from business to customer. Godin calls this powerful customer-to-customer dialogue the ideavirus, and cheerfully eggs marketers on to create an environment where their ideas can replicate and spread.

In lively detail, Godin looks at the ways companies such as PayPal, Hotmail, GeoCities, even Volkswagen have successfully launched ideaviruses. He offers a "recipe" for creating your own ideavirus, identifies the key factors in the successful spread of an ideavirus (powerful sneezers, hives, a clear vector, a smooth, friction-free transmission), and shows how any business, large or small, can use ideavirus marketing to succeed in a world that just doesn't want to hear it anymore from the traditional marketers.

234 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2000
Literary awards
independent publisher book award (ippy), 

This edition

Format
234 pages, Paperback
Published
October 10, 2001 by Grand Central Publishing
ISBN
9780786887170
ASIN
0786887176
Language
English

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About the author

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seth godin

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Seth W. Godin, also known as "F. X. Nine", is an American author and a former dot com business executive.

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Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 100 votes)
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
BasicallyAnybody
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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‘The primary goal of a product or service is not just to satisfy the needs of one user. It has to deliver so much wow, be so cool, so neat and so productive, that the user tells five of their friends.’

They key message when it comes to building a virus-worthy cool product or service, identifying a ‘hive’ and promoting an idea, is the importance of WORDS. Words matter because they are how you start an ideavirus. You have to make it easy for people to ‘get it’ with one glimpse of your website or one phrase in your book review. The words you use have to make them want it – now and forever.

‘One of the key elements in launching an ideavirus is concentrating the message. If just 15% of a group is excited about it, it’s not enough. You only win when you totally dominate and amaze the group you’ve targeted. That’s why focusing obsessively on a niche is what successful idea merchants do.’

In this book, Seth explains how the customer should be placed at the centre of marketing and how to harness the contagious power of information through the art of successful communication.
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Toyohisa_007
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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While I'd question some of the framework for skirting ethical boundaries, Godin's boyish, earnest enthusiasm for the subject matter had me turning a blind eye.

"As long as you can use your manifesto to change the way people think, talk, or act you can create value."
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28150199
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Aunque no comparto lo que ha hecho el marketing viral de la creación de contenido (especialmente la creación artística), le doy 4 estrellas porque creo que Seth Godin supo leer a la perfección en el 2000 lo que iban a ser los siguientes 20 años.

La idea fundamental del libro es la siguiente: ya no se trata de que tu producto le hable a los consumidores, sino de que tus consumidores [las masas de consumidores] hablen entre sí sobre tus ideas.

Cuanta más gente hable de tus ideas, más valor adquieren.
Para conseguirlo se necesitan unas personas fundamentales en este proceso, dice Godin: los Sneezers [en referencia al verbo sneeze, que significa estornudar].

Para que tus ideas se propaguen, es necesario que alguien las estornude para contagiar a otros con ellas. Y aunque si de mí dependiera traduciría sneezer por cantamañanas, el punto sigue siendo válido: basta con que una persona con apariencia (lo fundamental) de credibilidad, influyente, estornude tu idea para que ésta se vuelva viral.

También tengo que decir que el libro se hace algo repetitivo de la mitad hacia el final, y que hay algunas ideas que no comparto. Es cierto que en el año 2000 podíamos hablar de que el ganador se lo lleva todo, de que la persona más visible de un mercado, la libre asociación más rápida, solía dominar ese mercado. Sin embargo, Twitter y Youtube cambiaron el juego, especialmente Youtube.

Pongamos un ejemplo: a partir de X número de reproducciones (pongamos, por ejemplo, 200000), es muy probable que un creador de contenido empiece a recibir llamadas de medios de comunicación. 3 platós de televisión donde defienda relativamente bien sus ideas y perfectamente podría alcanzar el millón de reproducciones. Y a partir del medio millón, es fácil mantener una visibilidad estable de tus ideas, generando una rentabilidad estable.
El problema es llegar a esas cifras, pero mantenerse es pura inercia, salvo que hagas algo MUY gordo y pierdas TODA la credibilidad de golpe. Y creo que ni con ésas: ahí tenemos los programas de la Prensa Rosa donde sus protagonistas parecen estar acabados un día, y al día siguiente vuelven a ser los reyes del mundo cobrando 6000€ por programa.

Por eso hemos pasado de un mercado donde un único líder dominaba a todos sus demás competidores a un mercado que perfectamente puede soportar al líder (o incluso a varios líderes) y a las copias que resultan a partir de ese líder.

La visibilidad manda. Es la época de las apariencias, como anticipaba Guy Debord en La sociedad del espectáculo, y los medios necesitan espectáculo. Dale espectáculo a la audiencia y ganarás dinero. Viraliza tus ideas y habrá espectáculo.

Y aunque no me guste que las cosas sean así, tengo que reconocer que Seth Godin acertó de pleno.
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MrMeruem
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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There's good advice on marketing, especially online marketing, but the approach is most relevant to products and services that are related to communications (such as online communications tools), or are very public. Small businesses will likely have challenge applying the lessons.

Godin explains how to go beyond word of mouth to spreading an "ideavirus": a big idea that runs amok across the target audience; a fashionable idea that propagates through a section of the population, teaching, changing, and influencing everyone it touches.

Godin frequently cites Hotmail as an example of an ideavirus. Hotmail offered free email, which attracted attention, but it really became an ideavirus because every email included an ad for Hotmail in the email signature. It also helped that Hotmail worked smoothly; it was easy to sign up and use.

Ideavirus Sequence
1. Invent a virus-worthy idea
2. Make it smooth and persistent
3. Incent powerful sneezers
4. Get their permission to follow up

Notes
Consumers actively resist marketing, so stop marketing at them. Create an environment where consumers market to each other. Marketing is about spreading ideas.

Concentrate the message. 1%, or even 15% of the group being excited about your idea is not enough. You must dominate and amaze your target group. Focus obsessively on a geographic, demographic, or psychographic group.

Word of mouth tends to be slower, more analog, and quicker to die off than ideavirus.

Give people a reason to listen, then create an infrastructure that amplifies their ability to spread word of mouth.

Primary goal of a product or service is not just to satisfy needs of one user. It must be so cool and productive that consumer tells 5 friends.

Start by "paying" users to spread ideavirus, and when you reach critical mass, start charging for it.

In viral marketing, the medium carries the message. The more people use it, the more the ideavirus spreads. Examples: Hotmail, VW Beetle, online affiliate programs.

Viral marketing requires that product is communication-focused, or very public.

Rewards go to first, fastest, coolest, very best. You must be brave and bold in creation of products and services.

To get permission to start an ongoing dialog with the user about your products and their needs, create an ideavirus. Create products so dynamic and virus-worthy that you earn attention and permission.

What to do with website visitors:
1. Get permission to follow up. Make it easy for them to learn why they should embrace your idea over time.
2. Make as many supporting manifestos available as possible, to turn consumers from skeptics into converts. Show endorsements, press reviews, criticisms and common objections.
3. Make it easy for consumers to spread ideavirus by providing a multitude of "tell a friend" tools and rewards for spreading word.

Try to convert your idea into a virus that has to do with communication. It's much more likely to go viral. Best is an actual communication tool. Inventing words or musical concepts can work too. Find powerful sneezers and beg, cajole, bribe them to use tool.
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Fuu-sama
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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not bad material but not engaging and nothing groundbreaking
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Mr_Skylight
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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“To succeed in the modern economy, you have to create and spread compelling ideas, not just physical products and services. The most effective way to spread them is to turn them into ideaviruses. These allow you to bypass traditional advertising, which is no longer an effective approach to marketing. To unleash an ideavirus, you have to select the right hive, find the right sneezers, and make sure the idea of your product or service can be as smoothly transmitted as possible.”
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Danae
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Сет Годін - чувак з майбутнього. Проста для сприйняття книга, побудована на прикладах. Лишає простір для міркувань в ході читання, тому, що відкриває нові точки погляду на маркетинг. Ключове слово книги: "sneezer" - я розумів як "балакун".
Тепер з цікавості хочеться спробувати публікації за винагороду: як вони працюватимуть?
Сет каже, що класична реклама - гроші на вітер. Краще розумна і точкова тактика. У мене виникла думка з цього приводу. А якщо взагалі викинути з голови всі ці тактики і прийомчики промоції і робити лиш ті дії зі своїм проектом, які викликають справжню радість? Щоб вірити у свою творчу силу. Щоб бути справжнім. Я вже різне пробував робити в плані промоції, втім чую свої прогнози, що варто продовжувати сидіти на природній поступовості. Сет теж про це каже: "Краще рости свій бізнес повільно, якщо є така можливість. Так у тебе буде більше шляхів для адаптації до плаваючих умов ринку".
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Delriver
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Lumayan membuka wawasan... jangan dibaca kalo lu lagi aktif MLM.. merusak mental.
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