How do you spread your ideas and get people truly excited about buying your products and services? In his new book World Wide Rave, David Meerman Scott tells us how to start a movement and create ideas that spread. Here are the Rules of the Rave:
- Nobody cares about your products (except you)
- No coercion required
- Lose control
- Put down roots
- Create triggers that encourage people to share
- Point the world to your (virtual) doorstep
“You can trigger a World Wide Rave too — just create something valuable that people want to share and make it easy for them to do so.”
Without explicitly stating it, David demonstrates these ideas in a recent post. His books, videos and ebooks provide vehicles for spreading his ideas. Take a look at the video David created for his book launch:
How are you spreading your ideas?
Bonus: Can you find me in David’s video? (Hint: look for triggers)
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The Product Management Perspective: David’s work (books, videos, ebooks, blogs, etc.) demonstrate many great methods to spreading ideas and inviting people to fall in love with your products. If your marketing teams are not using viral marketing and World Wide Raves, do your company a favor and spread these ideas internally, then work with your teams to spread your ideas to the world.
Lead on Purpose 
February 23, 2009 at 7:44 am
How do you spread your ideas and get people truly excited about buying your products and services?
It all about marketing with a social cause. The challenge for product managers today is to intertwine the practices of social innovation with that of product innovation.
Across the entire innovation value chain, client endorsement is earned through providing social value. The Product Manager must ensure that they consistently create added social value. Check out Obama Inc.
February 23, 2009 at 8:00 am
If you build your product as a series of minimal marketable features, you can then make them accessible in the order that they are released. You can then use permission marketing to send your prospects tutorials. Provide social space from there.
You can do the same kind of thing with prototyping.
Providing technical enthusiasts with betas as quickly as possible, and embodying your technology in a social, viral mashup application would get uptake.
Technical evangelism and 3rd party developer support should be on the product roadmap. Organizationally, they need their own place, because they are distant from sales.
February 23, 2009 at 10:56 am
Thanks Michael. You and the family are the stars of the video. I just love that shot (pun?) that you sent.
Cheers, David
February 24, 2009 at 8:29 am
Michael, You and David are both great examples of how this works – love your new podcast!
I had lunch last week with George Wright, the man behind “Will It Blend?” Talk about a world wide rave – this is one of the top marketing ideas of all time. It is all about permission marketing rather than interrupt marketing. The “Will It Blend?” videos on youtube provide exactly what people are looking for(entertainment) in and of themselves – the value is immediate and apparent. I’ll bet you a steak dinner they sell a lot of blenders too.
February 25, 2009 at 12:25 am
@Val – “client endorsement is earned through providing social value” I absolutely agree. As product managers focus on providing value to their customers, their products’ value will increase.
@David L – I like the idea of “providing technical enthusiasts with betas as quickly as possible.” They spread ideas like crazy.
@DMScott – Thanks, we had fun “shooting” the photo (no animals were harmed)
@Dr Paul – Thank you for the compliment. I love the “Will it blend?” videos. Are you planning to get George Wright as a guest on your Live on Purpose Radio podcast?
Thank you all for your comments! -Michael