Also see the 2008-02-04 notes on <a href="http://heybryan.org/gettingdugg.html">getting dugg</a>.<br /><br /><br />




queries:<br />
how to make a web community<br />
secrets to online communities<br />
making fake users<br />
how to "go viral"<br />
case studies in viral marketing<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/02/the_art_of_crea.html">http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/02/the_art_of_crea.html</a><br />
The art of creating a community<br />
1. Create something worth building a community around<br />
2. Identify and recruit your thunderlizards immediately<br />
3. Assign one person to the task of creating a community<br />
4. Give people something concrete to chew on<br />
5. Create an open system<br />
6. Welcome criticism.<br />
7. Foster discourse.<br />
8. Publicize the existence of the community<br />
<br />
<a href="http://springcreekgroup.blogspot.com/2006/11/how-to-create-community.html">http://springcreekgroup.blogspot.com/2006/11/how-to-create-community.html</a><br />
How to create a community<br />
1) Create a better mousetrap.<br />
2) Charge more than it costs, but less than its value.<br />
3) Facilitate referrals<br />
4) Go multi-channel<br />
5) Blatantly encourage people to share their experiences<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.seomoz.org/blog/web-20-fostering-community-creates-value">http://www.seomoz.org/blog/web-20-fostering-community-creates-value</a><br />
How to foster a community<br />
- Rally around a strong purpose<br />
- "Me first" (individuals differentiate and take up purposes in mindspace)<br />
- Need an administer (debatable!)<br />
- Purpose of community<br />
- Participants, or opportunities for participation<br />
- Platform to create the community<br />
- Policing<br />
- Interfacing / ease of use<br />
- Profiles<br />
- Membership features and benefits<br />
** I would argue that these "features" on most websites are pointless, because they are taking up from really otherwise valuable features (like XML or some other more processable format), so this isn't necessarily true.<br />
- Member growth<br />
- Mischief handling<br />
- Section of website to chat about the website itself<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.vendorseek.com/how-to-make-your-site.asp">http://www.vendorseek.com/how-to-make-your-site.asp</a><br />
How to make your site into a community<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.kolabora.com/howto/how_to_create_effective_online.htm">http://www.kolabora.com/howto/how_to_create_effective_online.htm</a><br />
How to create effective online communities<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.freesticky.com/stickyweb/articles/build_online_community.asp">http://www.freesticky.com/stickyweb/articles/build_online_community.asp</a><br />
How to build an online community<br />
1. Start up your own discussion board<br />
2. Create a simple question and answer page<br />
3. Schedule online events<br />
4. Start an email discussion<br />
5. Post customer stories<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/internet-web-development/1219-1.html">http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/internet-web-development/1219-1.html</a><br />
How do you build an online community?<br />
- You must inspire people to care about your subject. After all, magazines exist and there's zero activity from the customers.<br />
- Successful communities work even when there's a bad (or good) enabling technology<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/holgerd/what-can-we-learn-from-games-10-game-mechanics-that-will-make-your-web-community-more-successful/">http://www.slideshare.net/holgerd/what-can-we-learn-from-games-10-game-mechanics-that-will-make-your-web-community-more-successful/</a><br />
10 game mechanisms that will make your web community more successful<br />
1. Collect stuff (image of a kid behind a deck of pokemon cards) (picture of "Add Sally as a friend?" from Facebook)<br />
2. Feedback and game status<br />
3. Obstacles and resources<br />
4. Dynamic difficulty adjustment<br />
5. Customization<br />
6. Competition<br />
7. Quick games and games in games<br />
8. Randomness and luck<br />
9. Rewards<br />
10. Spectators<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9761428-7.html">http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9761428-7.html</a><br />
How to build a killer community<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/12/27/how-to-build-a-digg-culture-on-your-blog/">http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/12/27/how-to-build-a-digg-culture-on-your-blog/</a><br />
How to build a Digg culture on your blog<br />
- Get on Digg once, twice, then a few more times, and suddenly you have Diggers.<br />
1. Listed information usually gets to Digg (digestable materials)<br />
2. To learn to build, build *their* community.<br />
3. Network with other key sites and blogs that commonly get Dugg<br />
4. Make it easy to Digg your website<br />
5. First impressions count: get the title and first few words down.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2007/02/12/secrets-of-successful-online-communities">http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2007/02/12/secrets-of-successful-online-communities</a><br />
Secrets to successful online communities<br />
1. Avoid being just a niche<br />
2. Listen to your users<br />
3. Use accidental marketing<br />
4. Get smart on recruiting<br />
5. Foresake VC funding<br />
6. Have a passion<br />
7. Master the emotional return<br />
8. Don't lose the fun<br />
9. Keep it real<br />
10. Be better than you<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/">http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/</a><br />
The secret strategies behind many "viral" videos<br />
- "Forums: We start new threads and embed our videos. Sometimes, this means kickstarting the conversations by setting up multiple accounts on each forum and posting back and forth between a few different users. Yes, it’s tedious and time-consuming, but if we get enough people working on it, it can have a tremendous effect."<br />
- PayPerPost, i.e. getting bloggers to post about the video<br />
- "MySpace: Plenty of users allow you to embed YouTube videos right in the comments section of their MySpace pages. We take advantage of this."<br />
- On youtube, you have 48 hours to get 100,000 views before the video moves to the weekly-most-viewed list, which gets significantly less than 1/20th of the YouTube traffic.<br />
- "Every power user on YouTube has a number of different accounts. So do we. A great way to maximize the number of people who watch our videos is to create some sort of controversy in the comments section below the video. We get a few people in our office to log in throughout the day and post heated comments back and forth (you can definitely have a lot of fun with this). Everyone loves a good, heated discussion in the comments section - especially if the comments are related to a brand/startup."
- Use strategic tags that link your videos with the other related videos. "When views start trailing off after a few days to a week, it’s time to add some more generic tags, tags that draw out the long tail of a video as it starts to appear in search results on YouTube and Google."<br />
- <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/using_social_networks_marketing_campaigns.php">http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/using_social_networks_marketing_campaigns.php</a><br />
Fake user profiles in marketing campaigns<br />
- Market clogging up social networks, but in truth: such ads also advertize the social network itself<br />
- Fake profiles on sites like YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and flickr drove up traffic to a hotel website.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-117933.html">http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-117933.html</a><br />
Fake community statistics for vBulletin: make it seem like there's more activity than there really is.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.digital-web.com/articles/building_an_online_community/">http://www.digital-web.com/articles/building_an_online_community/</a><br />
Building an online community: just add water.<br />
1. Make sure you really want to do this<br />
2. Have both a compelling idea and a compelling interest<br />
3. Seed content sets the stage.<br />
4. Create some basic guidelines and be as fair as possible.<br />
5. Have a place to talk about the site, somewhere on the site.<br />
6. Spread the work out as far as possible: have a few trusted friends act as moderators.<br />
7. Dealy with troublemakers as quickly and as nicely as possible.<br />
8. Highlight the good, recognize the works of others.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://headrush.typepad.com/">http://headrush.typepad.com/</a><br />
Creating passionate users<br />
- Ghost write.<br />
- Create a fake identity and write from that perspective.<br />
- <br />
<br />
<a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/FX102402871033.aspx?mode=print">http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/FX102402871033.aspx?mode=print</a><br />
Using social networking websites to boost your business<br />
1. Contribute to a community whose members mirror your customers.<br />
2. Become a commentator on a well-trafficked blog in your industry/field<br />
3. Create a viral video campaign.<br />
...<br />
6. Become a dedicated gamer.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/throwaway_identities.php">http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/throwaway_identities.php</a><br />
Throwaway identities<br />
`As a kid growing up in Web1.0 (-1.0?) in the early 90s, I once boasted 47 screennames on AIM alone. Each new screenname was based on my current obsession at the time (puff the magic dragon, bananas, pretending to be god, etc.) Making cool new screennames was a hobby then, and each new screenname would be a chance to start your buddy list over and prune off the ones you were done talking with. I suppose throwaway identities = throwaway friends. Now I'm all 'grown up' (22) and my contacts list is just the core group of people that I reallly don't want to throw away.`<br />
<br />
<a href="http://fortuito.us/2007/05/some_community_tips_for_2007">http://fortuito.us/2007/05/some_community_tips_for_2007</a><br />
Seven tips on how to run a successful community<br />
1. Take emotion out of decisions<br />
2. Talk like a human, not a robot.<br />
3. Give people something they can be proud of<br />
4. Bring users in during community decisions<br />
5. Moderation is a full-time job.<br />
6. Metrics spread the work out.<br />
7. Guidelines are not rules.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5224&page=3">http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5224&page=3</a><br />
Fake members?<br />
- "Ultimately, we all "run out of friends." Which is to say, no matter how many Online Acquaintances we may have among us, the ones who will actually join your site, and stay, and be committed to providing fresh content...well, it's a subset of a subset of a subset, a Law of Diminishing Returns. Plus, we don't want to get ANGRY at our "friends" because they let us down professionally, so that's usually why it's better to create a few that won't give you grief. "<br />
- <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.zulugrid.com/2006/06/16/false-identity-generator/">http://www.zulugrid.com/2006/06/16/false-identity-generator/</a><br />
False identity generator<br />
http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/<br />
<br />
<a href="http://onlineprguy.blogspot.com/2007/10/can-you-make-video-go-viral.html">http://onlineprguy.blogspot.com/2007/10/can-you-make-video-go-viral.html</a><br />
Darwin PR - online PR's evolution<br />
<br />
<a href="http://dizzythinks.net/2007/11/how-to-make-viral-videos.html">http://dizzythinks.net/2007/11/how-to-make-viral-videos.html</a> `For example, creating multiple identities on YouTube and starting an argument with yourself in the comments to generate controversy. Embedding the video on forums and doing the same thing there with multiple identities. Thing is, who really cares if the video is good? It's worth noting that these sort of techniques are used with blogs too and Google index optimisation. Getting a blog high up in the Google index is most often acheived by having many fake advert type blogs that link to the relevant content. This is how some bloggers manage to push themselves up the index in rapid time.`<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.younggogetter.com/2007/08/22/anatomy-of-a-successful-viral-video/">http://www.younggogetter.com/2007/08/22/anatomy-of-a-successful-viral-video/</a><br />
Anatomy of a successful viral video<br />
<br />
<a href="http://lsvp.wordpress.com/2007/03/02/seven-ways-to-go-viral/">http://lsvp.wordpress.com/2007/03/02/seven-ways-to-go-viral/</a><br />
Seven ways to go viral<br />
- Organic content. Let the problem of "advertizing" become the user's, not yours. Many users, means many possible solutions that you hadn't thought of.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/02/how-to-go-viral-and-get-famous.html">http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/02/how-to-go-viral-and-get-famous.html</a><br />
How to go viral and get famous<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.msdomainer.com/2007/09/how-to-go-viral-as-if-i-have-goods-on.html">http://www.msdomainer.com/2007/09/how-to-go-viral-as-if-i-have-goods-on.html</a><br />
Story of dawnm5723<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/37/ideavirus.html">http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/37/ideavirus.html</a><br />
Create lock-in.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://mashable.com/2007/10/24/online-video-success/">http://mashable.com/2007/10/24/online-video-success/</a><br />
<a href="http://tubemogul.com/">http://tubemogul.com/</a><br />
`Essentially what TubeMogul does is allow you to, for free, follow the trend of your online videos, as well as upload your videos to many different video sharing sites simultaneously, including YouTube, Revver, MetaCafe, MySpace, BrightCove, Yahoo, and AOL. Additionally, they’ll aggregate and graph your stats for you across all the sites with which you choose to distribute your video with. It is the stat-tracking and aggregation of data expertise at TubeMogul that really played into provision of valuable data released in Tuesday’s report.`<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/forum/f2-general-business/seven-ways-to-go-viral-21070.html">http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/forum/f2-general-business/seven-ways-to-go-viral-21070.html</a><br />
Seven ways to go viral<br />
<br />
`Tapping Into Code Hunting  by Mark Kingdon, ClickZ Experts , 11-07-2006 . A novel approach to viral marketing: create a 'secret' trail of clues or breadcrumbs scattered about the Internet landscape, and let your prospects find their way to a special deal by following the trail. Examples and how-to.`<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.onedegree.ca/2006/07/31/the-meme-epidemic-a-case-study">http://www.onedegree.ca/2006/07/31/the-meme-epidemic-a-case-study</a> <br />
Meme epidemic case study<br />
A few popular sites can spread infections rapidly - Those 40,000 visitors all originated with six email messages and a post on my personal site. Do your research, pick the most relevant and popular sites, and start with them.
The ‘long tail’ matters - Only 16% of all visitors came directly from one of those four originating sites. The vast majority of traffic came from over 500 additional, less-popular sites and other sources. A meme builds your web presence one visitor at a time.
We can’t penetrate Internet dark matter - I use the term ‘dark matter’ to refer to alternative, unmeasurable paths to the site. Many visitors, for example, transmitted and received the meme through email. Others used online chat clients like MSN or Yahoo Messenger. Ensure your meme is easily explained for these communicators.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/viral-marketing-experiments/">http://www.wolf-howl.com/seo/viral-marketing-experiments/</a><br />
Viral-marketing experiments. Would be interesting to start a website for the incubation of viral marketing campaigns.<br />


<br /><br /><br /><br />




`The term "viral marketing" is also sometimes used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns[4]--the use of varied kinds of astroturfing both online and offline [5] to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm.`

<br /><br /><br /><br />


You need a serious team of individuals dedicated to *making* a huge mediablitz as fast as possible with as much force as humanly possible.

<br /><br /><br /><br />
Tool idea: something that can queue up HTTP requests to post material to multiple websites, such as to:<br /><br />



Hypermarketer website/tool- automated emails, rss feeds with "updates" on the outbreak, spam email from botnet, multiple fake accounts on all of the popular social networking or "web 2.0" sites, mediablitz, all within one hour, with continued postings throughout the internet to *take over* the smaller blogs if necessary. Goal: no trail to an original, single source. To really fool anybody who might be catching on, have multiple emails across the botnet submitted at the same moment with clocks in synch.
<br /><br />