New Research: What Makes an Article Pop

A couple of professors from the Wharton Business school recently published a 37 page report on what characteristics content needs to go viral. They examined which articles on the New York Times website were passed along via email, and categorized their content from an emotional perspective.

While I think the report is interesting, the length is a bit self-indulgent, so let me break it down for you… If an article has the following attributes (in order of priority), it is most likely to go viral:

1) It’s awe inspiring
2) It’s surprising
3) It’s practically useful
4) It’s emotion-laden
5) It’s positive/uplifting

One thing the report seems to neglect is that the New York Times audience may not be representative of the web at large. I can tell you that Digg’s audience, for one, has slightly different motivations for spreading content. When it’s raunchy and funny, it pops on Digg. Now maybe a peice of content can be raunchy, funny, and awe insiring at the same time and that is the key to success. But I would caution us all to think about our particular audiences when designing content and marketing campaigns reliant on word of mouth growth.

“Hero Next Door” contest drives compelling user submissions

I’m leading the charge on a contest called “Hero Next Door” sponsored by Tom’s of Maine. It’s a chance to honor ordinary people doing extraordinary things to make a difference. In the first phase, we received more than 700 nominations of everyday heroes helping their communities — stories that make you hold your breath as you read them, get teary eyed, and feel proud of the people in this world. We could all use more of those…

This past week I had the honor of selecting the 10 finalists who will have a chance to win $2,500 for themselves, and a matching $2,500 for their charity. The finalists will be revealed this Friday the 15th, when the voting round begins. Be sure to check out www.care2.com/hero-next-door and vote for your favorite hero.

Top 5 Business Opportunity Screens

Are you considering developing a new product, or perhaps even starting a company? Wanna explore if your business idea has a shot at success before you get too far into development?

Try using the 5 opportunity screens listed below to analyze the viability of the opportunity. If your idea doesnt get a green light in each of the screens, and you can’t think of a creative way to overcome its limitations, proceed with caution (or not all all!).

#1 Burning Need

This is the most important screen. Ask yourself — Who is your customer, and what do they need? Is someone out there biting his or her nails desperate for the solution you provide? What are their major pain points that you are going to fix? Are they going to think to themselves “thank goodness!” and clamor to be early adopters?

The best way to assess the burning need for your product is to talk to as many potential customers as possible. Focus the conversation on their needs and desires. Only once you have fully grasped their needs should you ask their opinion on the desirability of your product. Don’t let your focus on your product/solution cloud your ability to understand the customer.

#2 Large and/or Growing Market

Are there a lot of potential customers for this product/service? Are their needs already being met by someone else, creating a crowded competitive environment?

Identify and quantify a specific segment, and how much of that segment you can expect to capture. Be specific in terms of the demographics, and psychographics of your customer. And get granular – who will be your first 50 customers, and why?

#3 Scalable Business Model

Is there a viable business model? Do the unit economics make sense (for example, when considering the costs and revenue for an individual product being sold, will you make a profit)? With each customer you add, will it become easier and less expensive to serve them? Is there a possibility to grow exponentially in the first few years?

This screen is particularly important for ventures that will require outside financing. Venture capitalists, in particular, expect huge returns and a highly scalable opportunity. Speak with potential customers to check their willingness to pay, look at proxies, and check prices with suppliers to determine your economics.

#4 Right Time

Is the customer ready for this solution? Is the industry or market in its infancy and starting to take off? Is the necessary infrastructure in place to support it (such as broadband being critical to much of the recent internet technology adoption). Are there Macro-economics at play that make this time particularly attractive (such as changing regulations or exchange rates)? Is there a window of opportunity to get in and block future competitors? How defensible is that position?

This can be one of the trickiest screens, because you want to be on the leading edge, particularly with technology products, but you can lose big if you are too early. Even the best and brightest can miss this one. Try talking to as many experts as possible in the industry, particularly those who have tried the same thing and failed.

#5 Right Team

Be honest with yourself.  Are you the most qualified (in the world) to succeed at this endeavor? Do you have the passion and the experience to make this work? If not, is there a way you can supplement your team?

Again, having the right team is critical, particularly if you are looking for outside funding. Many Venture capitalists invest in people, not projects.

Parting thoughts

Remember – these are just 5 universal screens. An individual business opportunity and even an individual entrepreneur should devise additional screens to determine if an idea is worthwhile. The more you screen an idea, the more solid your business plan will become.

I encourage you to make this a fluid creative process. By analyzing your idea using these screens, you will be best served if you let your vision evolve to meet the market need.

Thanks to Professors Zafar, Star, and Fuchs at the HAAS school of business for their entrepreneurial insights that inspired this post.

Twitter crazed press. a.k.a. those lucky bastards

Oh how I envy all the free advertising twitter gets. On the radio, in the newspaper, in blogs, heck, even in business schools it’s “so and so tweeted _____ “. That’s the ticket baby–come up with a company name that can be used as a verb. Google nailed it first with “googling”. It’s the golden ticket. When you’ve got a company name that becomes a verb, it doesn’t take much for something to be newsworthy. Because writing about it, I mean tweeting about it, is so much fun.

I lead the product efforts for Care2, an online community dedicated to helping people make a difference. Naturally, we keep an eye on other companies and nonprofits that are doing good in the world. So when TechCrunch posted an article on TwitCause, it peeked my interest, until I realized it’s just another twitter/media love-a-thon. Twitcause has an interesting premise in that they are trying to use the viral nature of twitter to raise awareness and money for various causes, but with only 524 followers (at my last count), are they really newsworthy? I say no. Or at least not yet. A major twitter success – that’s newsworthy. But just showing up to the game isn’t gonna make you a winner. Let’s at least let folks get to first base before we bring on the media tweets.

I second the commenter on the TechCrunch article who posted, “I dare TechCrunch, or should I say TwitCrunch, to not post anything about Twitter for one week.” Bravo my friend.

Best of luck to Twitcause,

Laurie

Defining a Social Media Marketing Strategy

I noticed in January of this year that the managers in my company had seemed to independently converge on the same new year’s business resolution: to get our social media act together. On a weekly basis I heard, “we need a social media strategy” said with a sense of urgency and distress. The statement was often followed by blank stares around the conference room table and then several people excusing themselves.

Each time I heard it, I wondered to myself precisely what they meant. We have user-generated content on our site that is performing well. We have a decent facebook fan following and post frequent updates to our myspace page. We offer most of our content in RSS feeds that can be grabbed and used anywhere. Heck, our CEO even twitters! So what is it that everyone felt was missing??! My curiosity got the best of me – I raised my hand and accepted the challenge of defining our social media strategy.

After a handful of interviews with the individual managers and some internal social media gurus (bloggers with big networks that can drive a lot of traffic), I came to a clear conclusion as to what was missing. We were doing a lot, but no one knew who was doing what, why they were doing it, and what it was buying us. We lacked a collective vision, an integrated execution, and accountability. Our social media efforts resulted in unheard drops in a bucket, when we needed the thunder of a river. Here is how I got the water flowing.

Step 1: Take Inventory
Chances are, someone in your company is already engaged in social media activities. Asses who is doing what today, and identify what’s been effective. Don’t overlook the activities of your customers – they may already be your social media advocates.

Step 2: Define a Collective Vision
You may need to start off by establishing a common language. How does your team define “social media marketing”? This will get you on the same page. We defined it as, “Generating exposure and traffic through a conversation with members and our target audience across a network of communities AND our members as our spokespersons.”

 From a high-level longer-term perspective, take a web property agnostic view and define your goal. For example, “Increase mindshare & make it easier for supporters to engage with us across platforms leading to new visitors and intense loyalty.”

It may also help to state your goal from the customer’s perspective. Such as: “Your website is no longer just a destination. It’s weaved into my digital lifestyle! I can stay informed and make a difference on all my favorite sites. Plus, I love that my friends are finally exposed to all the great things you are doing!”

Step 3: Boil Down Your Strategy
Define the main strategic initiatives you will undertake to achieve your vision (P.S. increasing traffic and acquiring customers is not a strategy, it is a goal). Keep it to three or fewer key themes for folks to latch onto. For example:

#1) Increase performance of our naturally viral content

#2) Build social media marketing into our editorial process

#3) Develop buzz worthy marketing campaigns to increase awareness of our brand

Step 4: Invest in Distribution Channels
Aha. We finally get to talk about specific web properties. Now that you’ve defined what you’re trying to achieve, and the key levers to pull, you can think about how you’ll distribute your message. You’ll likely need a strong network.

Investing in distribution channels is a time consuming process that is not always results driven. You need to decide if you want to invest in Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc, and then build up your network so that it is there when you need to distribute a message. When selecting channels to invest in think about the kind of audience you are trying to reach, and the type of content/message you have to offer and where it would be best received. For example:

FACEBOOK – An all around winner for marketing messages as well as a variety of content. The news feed feature exposes your published messages to your network.

TWITTER – Useful for capturing a web savvy crowd & for spreading marketing campaigns. Better for generating awareness than driving clicks.

STUMBLEUPON – Results in quality visitors looking for specific content. It is often suited for evergreen editorial content.

DIGG – Good for timely sensational content. Often results in a single hit (unlikely to lead to loyalty).

If it doesn’t make sense for your brand to develop its own persona/community on these sites, consider enlisting the help of well-networked bloggers or social media networkers. There are a handful of influencers who have built up large networks who are willing to spread your message for a small fee.

If you decide to build your own network, realize that you can’t just approach your distribution channels as a marketing vehicle. It’s more akin to community development. Here are a few tips to get you up and running:

• Participate in conversations and help to promote others (approach as a gift relationship)
• Post non-promotional content frequently (should not feel like a spammy promotional vehicle)
• Have a human touch and a consistent brand identity across platforms

Step 5: Identify roles and responsibilities
Social media marketing needs to be weaved into the roles of the content creators and marketers at your company. It should not be isolated to the new college grad who has 250 twitter followers (although they can be a big help!). You may want to consider entry-level positions to maintain and grow your distribution channels on a day-to-day basis, but the execution of your social media strategy needs to be a core component of the marketing team’s function. Depending on your strategy, it may touch other functions as well such as customer support, or perhaps the executive staff. Make sure everyone it touches knows the vision and strategy, and what they are accountable for.

Step 6: Rinse and Repeat
No, not really. But do make sure you communicate your social media marketing vision and strategy early and often. Remind everyone involved how his or her efforts fit into the larger picture. Periodically check in against your goals and reset your strategy as necessary. It’s easy to get lost amongst the tweets.

It’s time to “Love Your Farmers Market”

Go to www.care2.com/farmersmarket to vote for your favorite farmers market.

The “Love Your Farmers Market” contest is a joint effort between Care2 and LocalHarvest.org to raise awareness of local foods, family farms, and community farmers markets and to reward America’s favorite farmers market through this fun, summer-long contest. Care2 will award $5,000 to the farmers market that receives the most votes. In addition to the grand prize, Care2 is sponsoring a weekly prize of $250 for a participating market chosen at random (not based on votes) for the duration of the contest. Care2 will also award a total of $7,000 to the four runners-up in the contest. In total, Care2 will give away over $15,000 in cash to farmers markets across the country!

During Care2 and LocalHarvest’s “Love Your Farmers Market” contest, people can vote for their favorite farmers market to help them win. Voting is free and everyone can help with the click of a mouse. From Friday, June 19^th to Thursday, September 17^th individuals across the country will be able to visit http://www.care2.com/farmersmarket to vote and show their farmers market some love.

My YouTube Cooking Series is LIVE!

I produced a seven episode cooking series to promote Care2’s “Love Your Farmer’s Market” contest. The first few videos went live today in preparation for the contest kickoff tomorrow. Please give them a push to help them go viral.

The cooking series stars Jen Dalton, an organic home cook and slow food organizer who uses fresh local ingredients. We follow her around the farmer’s market where she speaks with vendors and selects the “ingredient of the day”. Back at her kitchen she teaches us how to make a delicious recipe and talks about the importance of supporting local markets. In the wrap-up of each video, Jen urges viewers to visit care2.com to vote for their favorite farmer’s market for a chance to win $5000.

Episode 1:

Episode 3:

The cooking show is a great tie in to the “Love Your Farmers Market” contest and provides Care2 with a way to reach a new audience. Recipe videos routinely get several thousand page views on YouTube. The cooking show will inspire viewers to shop at their local markets, drive traffic to the contest, and raise awareness of Care2. Furthermore, the video production was a homegrown effort. Care2 employees stepped outside their normal roles and pulled together to form the film crew. Chris Smith, Care2’s Director of Engineering, played the role of director, camera person, and editor. I was the producer.

You can check out all the videos here: www.youtube.com/farmfreshcook
Also, be sure to vote in the contest: www.care2.com/farmersmarket

You are not alone – other social media marketers are also confused!

If you have a lot of questions and anxiety over using social media as a core marketing strategy, you are not alone. Take a minute to download this free marketing report in which more than 900 marketers have been surveyed on their use of social media: Social Media Marketing Industry Report

Although this report is full of questions and not a lot of answers, it is useful datapoint to see how your strategy and experience stacks up against the marketing community (plus, the graphics are very friendly).

There are a few key findings worth highlighting:

1. The number one benefit of social media identified is generating exposure. The second is an increase in traffic.
2. Most marketers experienced a drop in their overall marketing expenses when turning to social media (although the time involved should not be underestimated)
3. Social media marketing frequently resulted  in improved search engine rankings (due to link building)
4. Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, and Facebook are the most commonly used platforms

Best of luck!

Show Your Farmer’s Market Some Love

This summer, Care2.com is partnering with local harvest to bring you Love Your Farmer’s Market contest. Care2 will award $5,000 to the farmers market that receives the most votes.

“People across the country are rediscovering the benefits of local food,” said Erin Barnett, Director of LocalHarvest.org. “Not only is the food at your farmers market fresher, tastier, and better for the environment, it’s also good for your local economy. By supporting farmers markets, we support family farmers and help them stay in business.”

You can show your market some love by voting for them and telling your friends.

Oldie but Goodie: Subservient Chicken Turns Five

Check out this blog post on the creation process of subservient chicken, the breakout success with 25 million hits in the first 48 hours that made “viral” a buzzword. Ever since, we all want a peice of the action.

Happy birthday chicken. Thanks for five years of inspiration you ugly thing.

Female Audience Demands a Fresh Look for Blog Style Homepage

We launched a new look for our Healthy & Green Living editorial section on Care2 yesterday. The section contains more than 4,000 articles with tips on living a healthy and eco-conscious lifestyle. It’s the premier web destination for topics such as non-toxic cleaning and natural beauty.

new design

The redesign was in response to a series of focus groups that revealed that our Healthy & Green Living homepage wasn’t meeting user expectations. The previous design used blog style formatting with the latest article being highlighted with a large image above the fold. We originally thought the large image would draw people in, but it had a drawback we hadn’t foreseen. With only one article above the fold, we only had one shot to communicate what the entire section was about, and capture the user’s interest.

Previous Blog Style Design

With the redesign, we now have multiple entry points above the fold and are doing a much better job of telling the story of what you’ll find.

Lessons learned:

1) Women want entry pages to provide an overview.  They want to make the choice about which content to dive in to. Don’t make the choice for them.

2) Even though you are providing more choices, keep it simple! Try to limit yourself to headlines and photos only. Women want to scan the page, get a feel for what’s there and quickly choose the story that is most interesting for them.  Don’t bog them down with too much detail at this level.

3) Mix it up!  A magazine style layout can go a long way to keep a user’s interest. We are finding more and more that blog style formatting isn’t terribly engaging for our female audience.

Diggin the nonprofit style, again…

Okay not one but two shoutouts today to well done online campaigns by nonprofits. Check out this online game from moveon.org where you get to throw a tomato at AIG. Super satifsying, and a great vehicle for list generation.

Nonprofit Goes Viral (and does it right)

GOOD magazine partnered with nonprofit PSI to launch a campaign for world water day. They released their first in a series of viral videos today. Although I think there is room for improvement, I have to congratulate them for this series. It is everything a viral video should be – provocative, risky, unexpected, and highly entertaining. Let’s hope it takes flight and helps to spread awareness about worldwide clean water issues.

I do have a personal interest in this as it’s my sister’s campaign, and it leads to a petition on my website. Please show them your support:online petition

Keep your eyes out for their reinactment of psycho (my personal favorite). I am hoping it gets released tomorrow.

Dude, who moved my cheese?

Last night my husband Andrew and I sat around the dinner table and were talking about the volatility of the job market and the threat of losing our jobs.  I am sure this is a common discussion between couples these days, and most often associated with worry frowns and sighs of frustrations.  But for us, the discussion was one of possibility, because with change comes opportunity.

Andrew told me the story of a few rats who had found a great pile of cheddar cheese. They were nibbling on the cheese and cooing with delight, “Oh how marvelous to have such a wonderful piece of cheese!” After a few days, the cheese pile got noticeably smaller. Most of the rats were too busy enjoying the cheese to care, “oh what yummy cheese!” But one rat decided to plan for the future, and went off to find more cheese. Finally, the original pile of cheese disappeared, and all the rats with their full bellies cried in disbelief, “who moved my cheese?!”  They were paralyzed with confusion. Meanwhile, the other little rat who had moved on had found a wonderful piece of brie and was as happy as can be.

Apparently, Andrew’s company (which happened to be one of Fortune’s top ranked companies to work for) had passed out the “who moved my cheese” story to employees to help them see the good in change. The brilliant thing about this story is that it is so memorable and easy to tell. I have to admit that I have never read it (sorry publishers), but I was able to retell it after Andrew told me (with some creative licence, of course).

I heard yesterday from a top HR consultant that with the recession, people are paralyzed in their careers and voluntary turnover rates are hitting record lows. Employees are showing extreme loyalty even to companies whose future does not look promising. While the recession is a time for caution, don’t be so resistant of change that you are left asking “Dude, who moved my cheese?”

And if change finds you through a layoff or other means, seize the opportunity to discover a new peice of cheese. It just may turn out that you prefer Brie to cheddar.

The joy of the 10-K…it’s not just a foot race

If you are in a line of business where your competitors are large public companies, you are in luck! Public companies are required to publish loads of “insider” information each year that can help you dissect their business model, revenue, and future plans. This information can be super helpful when developing competitive strategies or determining growth potential in an established market.  What is this top secret yet totally public document called? The 10-K!

The 10-K provides a comprehensive overview of a company’s business and financial condition. The trick is having enough patience to wade through the lengthy document filled with legal and financial jargon. 10-K’s are usually provided on corporate websites. You can also look up a filing in the EDGAR database.