Find Me Fit

Understanding the Virus Part I: Ego is the Virus

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what makes all these Web 2.0 social services tick.  How is it that some services grow from zero to tens of millions overnight?  What makes people flock to a service in such droves?  Is it pure entertainment or is there a deeper reason?  This is the first in a multi-part series that will address the components that make up a social virus.

The buzz word of the decade seems to viral marketing.  The idea that you can spread a product like a virus by “infecting” the public.  Understanding how to induce this infection is pretty much the holy grail of online marketing.  Some companies seems to have it down: Yelp.com, Geni.com, Youtube.com, Slide.com.  By the way, what do these four companies have in common?  Oh yeah, they’re all founded by ex-PayPal people.  Which brings me to my next point: some people have it down: Shawn Parker (Napster, Plaxo, Facebook), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), and pretty much anyone who used to work at PayPal.

Besides people, the other thing all these companies have in common is that they appeal to the ego.  Human’s are at heart social creatures that thrive on social interaction.  But it’s deeper than that.  All these services offer some sort of ego feeding component: how many comments have people left me, who’s viewed me, who’s looked at my content, how many friends do I have, where are they inviting me, how often do I show up in their pictures, how do I stack up against my friends in some category.  Everything makes you feel just a little better about yourself.  And like all things that make you feel good, this one is equally addictive (hence a virus).

Let’s look at one my favorite examples of ego feeding: MySpace.  Like the slum on the wrong the side of town, MySpace is full of junkies.  Their drug of choice: ego.  I can style my profile page in ANY way that I want to show off how unique and individual I am.  I can even add a song to my profile. In fact, if a friend of mine actually makes a comment on how cool my profile is, I have attained social nirvana.  I have a counter that shows me just how many people have seen my profile.  I also have a counter to display to the world just how many friends I have.  In the ultimate act of cross user ego feeding, I have my top friends.  This is like “coolness” currency.  How many people have made me their top friends and who will I make my top friend?  You know you’ve pissed someone off something special when they remove you from this sacred list.

Finally, what is the real MySpace crack?  I have a public feed of comments where everybody can see just how in-demand I am by the number of comments, pictures, and invitations people have left for me.  This is the ultimate in social validation.  Every time something happens on my profile, I’m compelled to come back and interact.  It feels so good to be wanted.  To know that someone else is thinking of me and cares enough to actually come to my profile page to leave me some cyber love (slapping my forearm with a crazed look as I say this).

Figure out how to make people feel good about themselves and you’ve got a winner.  Now all you need is to give people an easy way to tell other people about it (but that’s Part Deux).

This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 3:16 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.