Do You Use Viral Marketing Anecdotes to get Traffic and Name Recognition?
Imagine a beginner Internet marketer, who is still nothing and nobody in the business. How would you write a marketing piece about him to make it viral?
To be viral, marketing piece should contain a reason for people to remember it (an anchor), a reason for people to pass it (a carrier) and carry your message forward (payload). A good example of viral information is an anecdote. People remember it because it’s funny and pass it… I don’t know why, but they do. It probably helps us to get the time, when we speak and others listen, and that feeds into our social status circuitry.
However, not any anecdote is good for that purpose. Consider taking some old anecdote and putting your name on it (let’s say, the name is Nil Nihil – literally “Nothing nobody”, sum of two zeroes). For example:
Nil Nihil sits under a palm tree and eats a banana.
A rich guy passes by and tells him, “Get me a banana too and I’ll pay you.”
“And what will I do with the money?” Nil Nihil asks.
“You’ll hire other guys, and they will start getting bananas for you. So you’ll get even more money.”“And what will I do with the money?” Nil Nihil asks again.
“Well, you’ll hire even more guys to get bananas, sell a lot of them and get a lot of money. So others will work and you will sit under the palm tree and eat your banana,” the rich guy answers.
“But I am already sitting under the palm tree and eat my banana,” Nil Nihil answers.
Is it funny? Most people I know say “Yes.” Will they pass it? Yes. What’s wrong? Two things:
First, you pass a wrong message about yourself. Sitting under the tree doing nothing is not exactly what most of us want to be known for.
Second, they’ll pass an anecdote but they have no reason to keep the name. It does not have to be “Nil Nihil”, it may be just “a guy”. Name does not have a purpose in this anecdote. In fact, I know the original of this anecdote in two national cultures, and in both of them it’s politically incorrect.
Consider a different story. I am not saying it’s perfect, but still check it out:
A cruise ship full of Internet marketers sank and they’ve got marooned on a tropic island.
“Nobody buys my eBook anymore”, Shawn Casey complained. “The sales were great but now they flattened out!”
“Don’t blame me,” Ryan Deiss answered. “My autopilot Million Dollar Napkin site sold your eBook to everybody on the island… twice.”
“We can try my Product Launch Formula… again,” Jeff Walker suggested.
“You should use my GPS system for guidance,” Rich Schefren disagreed, “Your constraint is the lack of women. With enough women we could repopulate the island and we’d all get more new prospects.”
“Yep, that’s your problem, guys,” Frank Kern agreed. “I’ve got them all using my Mass Control.”
“That’s why my business on dating advice is booming”, Eben Pagan added.
“But we’ve all got our affiliate or JV share,” John Reese reasoned.
And only Mike Filsaime sat quietly under a palm tree writing down this Ely Asher’s anecdote as a pattern to start his new viral marketing campaign.
You may say that the name still may be changed and some guys will do so to promote themselves. You are right. However, then versions from two different guys will collide and people will get curious, which one is correct. And that’s good for you!
Also, guess which one would it be? Not to mention that those guys did not write the book on memetics, which I forgot to market four years ago.
By the way, if you wonder about legalities, feel free to use this anecdote in your own posts, articles, wherever you want. Just keep it the way it is.
Very interesting post. I would like to link back to it….
Please don’t take this the wrong way. I think your overall ideas are fine but you might want to put a little more thought into your next posts. I say this becuase it seems like your writing style has gone downhill a bit as opposed to your previous posts. – C.