Viral Participation Lessons from BlogHer, BarCamp, and Burger King

Distributed grassroots marketing (aka the feel-good model of viral marketing) was explored at today's NetSquared. Circuit fixture Marnie Webb from Compumentor/NetSquared "im"moderated, and she was joined by panelists Elisa Camahort of BlogHer, Tara Hunt of Riya, and Chris Messina.

Elisa Camahort started by asking the community what they were interested in, and what they wanted to participate in. The BlogHer team didn't start by asking people to spread the BlogHer word - they started by listening to what people had to say, and then worked up a message that incorporated the community's interests. Community ownership (and community investment) was encouraged by actions such as letting people get creative with the BlogHer logo, then bringing all of that individual ownership back to the BlogHer site.

Tara Hunt's treatise on "pinko marketing" starts with these principles:

1. Focus on inbound, rather than outbound messages. The new pyramid of influence will move from amateurs -> enthusiasts -> wannabes -> experts, rather than the reverse.
2. Be a community advocate.
3. Strive for 100% authenticity. The online Chevy Tahoe campaign enabled consumers to inject their own messages into the campaign. When this was co-opted by environmentalists, they were able to claim the extra awareness.
4. Serve niche markets. The long tail is made of the millions of people who aren't in a target demographic. The fiercest competition is in the early adopter/niche market phase, and in order to reach the long tail, you must survive through serving the niche well.
5. Use open source principles. Provide people with choice, welcome to the development process, and publicly embrace their contributions.

You don't need to be a technology business to embrace these principles. Kiehl's is an example - it built its business over many years, working closely with the community to both give back and to develop new products. Viral campaigns like Burger King's subservient chicken may have touched lots of people but it's more important that you've touched the right people. You don't need to start with something that appeals to everyone - just start with your core audience.

Hints for driving viral participation

Use the blogosphere: Take comments and turning them into new blog posts is also a great trick for driving participation. People also have an easier time stepping up to participate if they have seen you in other venues, and feel like they have a direct connection. Establish outreach as you develop credibility, and provide the tools that individuals need, and you will have the basics needed to drive word-of-mouth awareness.

Become more transparent: It's terrifying for a nonprofit to share their information, and many commitments are made very early. As Webb noted, every grant proposal has long-term goals. Hunt believes that though it's hard to let go of information, sharing inside information with the community will ultimately pay off. If you don't let go, then you miss the opportunity for greatly increased community engagement.

Embrace passionate constituents. This might be someone from inside (even your marketing director), and it might be a user.

I was glad that the NetSquared team brought some focus to the topic of viral particiaption - it's one that I've been researching lately, and it keeps cropping up in unexpected places.

Tags: christine herron christine.net space jockeys netsquared net2 blogher best practices technology grassroots pinko marketing