The Viral Expansion Loop Made Simple

by John R. SedivycloseAuthor: John R. Sedivy Name: John R. Sedivy
Email: john@capecodbranding.com
Site: http://www.capecodbranding.com
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Introduction
While writing my article on viral mapping I became intrigued by the fact that viral marketing is not sustainable over time and requires an aspect called viral expansion loops to sustain themselves and grow over time. Today I will further elaborate on the concept of viral expansion loops, how they serve to propel a marketing campaign and an example of a company that effectively uses this concept. Refer to my Viral Mapping article for an introduction to the concepts viral marketing and viral mapping.

What’s A Viral Expansion Loop?

This is a fairly emerging topic with very little information available. The most comprehensive treatment on viral expansion loops is a Fast Company article titled Ning’s Infinite Ambition which was released October 15, 2008. Wikipedia gives Viral Expansion Loops just three sentences, and there are a few summary blogs out there that reduce the information in the Fast Company article. At one point I had considered scrapping the idea for this article due to lack of information, however I have changed my mind for a few reasons.

First I believe this is an important topic which will become increasingly important in the future. Imagine architecting a business foundation in line with the principles of viral expansion loops, getting the business started and then going on vacation for a week. When you return the business has not only sustained itself but has grown significantly during your absence. This is the core of viral expansion loops – self-sustenance and compounding growth. Self sustaining meaning the activity can run on its own without you having to watch it and compounding in that the growth occurring as a result of the loop is fed back into the activity and serves as a larger base to fuel growth – an idea similar to compounding interest on a savings account.

Second, although there are already a few other blogs on the topic I ultimately decided to write about it anyway as I would ultimately like to make CCBbuzz self contained in that a visitor need not leave the site to find basic information (check out our Posts and Links pages – not too bad of a collection given that we are only two months old). I will always provide the link to the source with appropriate reference to give credit where credit is due and also for our readers who may wish to learn more about the subject matter. For example, if you are interested viral expansion loops I highly recommend reading the Fast Company article referenced above, it is well written and has a great amount of detail. I am only giving a basic introduction of the subject and discussing aspects that will benefit our marketing and business objectives for us here at Cape Cod Branding which in turn will also help others.

Finally, I like to think that each article I write is unique in that I provide an analysis based on my experience and objectives, not merely a rehash of existing material. As no two people are exactly alike, my analysis is always unique in that it originates from me and in doing so I hope I am providing you the value of my education and experience without you having to experience the same time-consuming pain of traversing the learning curve – the true beauty of open source and online communities. Furthermore, additional value I add is the ability to simplify complex topics for our readers.

What’s The Difference?
To the casual observer viral marketing and the viral expansion loop may seem very similar if not the same. Admittedly I was having difficulty understanding the difference until I came across an article located at StartUp Hustle called “The Viral Expansion Loop”:

“Lets not confuse viral marketing and the viral expansion loop. A viral marketing campaign is a one-off run. A viral loop is a continuous effect. Viral marketing campaigns die off after an amount of time while the viral loop does not. In reality, all sites hit a plateau, but the viral loop works over years while a viral marketing campaign might last a couple months. Viral marketing is considered effective if it receives attention but does not necessarily lead to a large adoption rate (buying or signing up). A viral loop needs a large and continuous adoption rate to be considered effective.”

So the key consideration here is that viral marketing is a one time campaign and that the viral expansion loop is an ongoing long term operation spanning years. Think of viral marketing as the foundation, or core component, and the viral expansion loop as the house on the foundation, or the add-on component.

Viral Expansion Loops In Practice

So is this too good to be true? Absolutely not. There are a few strong viral expansion loops in practice and the number is growing by the day. The example provided by the Fast Company article is Ning, and other examples include Facebook and Twitter. I cannot personally attest to Ning at the time of this writing, and my exploring of this tool is outside the scope of this article, however I hope to look into Ning at a future time and incorporate it into our overall Cape Cod Branding strategy.

I can however attest to the successful employment of viral expansion loops in Facebook and Twitter. Facebook especially as I have grown my network significantly over the past year and continue my personal and business involvement on that site. I am still fairly new to Twitter but can already see the potential. Let’s use Facebook as an example as that is the viral expansion loop I am most familiar with, we will address Ning in a future article.

Last year I created a Facebook account and had zero connections. At the time of this writing I have 161 friends and I continue to add more each week. Some are friends that I had known from past organizations or places of employment, childhood friends, current friends and people I had gone to school with at all levels of education. Some I seek out and others seek me out . Although there are probably many others with significantly larger networks I am pleased with my progress as I have not always been a social creature – as a past engineer I was mostly an introvert, but networking both online via social media and at live events has been a self taught skill. I will address both aspects in future articles.

The interesting transition I am noticing is that initially my existing strong friendships were driving my Facebook account, but most recently the opposite has begun to occur, personal and business acquaintances are beginning to develop into stronger relationships due to such social networking sites such as Facebook. Why is this occurring? My belief is that due to Facebook people who might not have ordinarily had insight into my  activities and interests and are now having such visibility. Others with this insight may have similar interests comment or provide me with additional information on these activities thereby strengthening the relationships over time. In essence people are getting to know me better due to social networking.

Some may see this insight as lack of privacy and a bad thing. However I see it as the opposite. Sure in some instances some information provided by contacts is too much information and sometimes ignorance is bliss, however all in all I believe it a good thing as getting to know one another is better and strengthening relationships is better for everyone in the long run. The key aspect though is that regardless of the transparency allowed by social networking sites such as Facebook ultimately you remain in control. You maintain the ability to determine what you will and will not share with others, whose feed you will notice and pay attention to and whose you will ignore, and ultimately you maintain the ultimate form of control by having the ability to add and remove friends. In a future article I will go into more detail as to why you should put yourself out there and dare to be vulnerable.

I find Facebook to be an interesting example as many have used it and have experienced this form of viral expansion loop. One friend turns into two friends, which turns into four friends, and so on. It is both self-sustainable and self-replicating. If you walk away from it things are still happening – friends are making updates, posting of photos and articles continues to occur, and friend requests will be sent and received. It is true that like most anything else the more time effort you put into it the more you will get out of it, however you can literally walk away for a time and things will continue to happen if not grow – this is the crux of a viral expansion loop.

One final example to clarify. Think of a politician marketing themselves for a specific election date. They could use traditional marketing means such as direct mailing, cold-calling, and television ads. They may even have a social networking strategy such as using Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. All of this work is being coordinated and executed for one specific event – Election Day. Once this occurs the effort drops off. Sure all, a majority, or some of the contacts may remain on the social networking sites, however some effort will need to be taken to re-activate the coordinated marketing should the politician start up again for the next election – all of this is an example of viral marketing.

Now consider the creators of Facebook. Facebook was not created for a specific event, it was created as an online community for Harvard students. There was not a specific end-date. Facebook was created to be self-sustaining and to promote growth in and of itself. Of course there was an effort up front by the creators of Facebook such as developing the application and getting the ball rolling with the initial promotion efforts. However over time the creators may walk away and the community sustains itself and even grows based on the interaction among its participants – this is a viral expansion loop.

Remember – viral marketing equals one time event. Viral expansion loop equals self-sustaining and unlimited growth potential.

Where Do We Go From Here?
So what now? For starters I plan on looking into more into Ning and potentially look at creating a social network for Cape Cod Branding. We would potentially seek to target other small businesses with high ambitions in life like ourselves. I really enjoy the experience of Facebook but would like to see something with more of a small business edge where it is more acceptable to shamelessly promote yourself and business – perhaps a Linkedin and Facebook crossover.

The self-replicating nature make viral expansion loops ripe with opportunity!

-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding

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