Understanding the key variables in Viral Marketing

A short study of this web site reveals that a hugely important factor for success in startup companies is finding ways to acquire customers at a low cost. In the Business Models section, we looked at the perfect business model: Viral customer acquisition with good monetization. However viral growth turns out to be an elusive goal, and only a very small number of companies actually achieve true viral growth. In 2005, I invested in a company called Tabblo (acquired by HP in 2007), and had the good fortune to work with an outstanding entrepreneur, Antonio Rodriguez. Tabblo did manage to achieve good viral growth, but around the same time YouTube was launched and managed to achieve explosive viral growth. To give you a preview of this post, what you will learn is that there are two key parameters that drive how viral growth happens, the Viral Coefficient, and the Viral Cycle Time. What we want to understand in these two models, is how the population of Customers changes over time.

How To Design for Viral Growth [Infographic] Viral growth is the holy grail for Web-based companies. Entrepreneurs spend late nights thinking of tactics like funny videos, PR stunts, Facebook quizzes and other mechanics that can make their product “go viral.” Viral growth is alluring because it 1) can generate a ton of users quickly, 2) the follow-on viral-acquired users are typically free, and 3) it generates press and buzz which in turn fuel the viral loop. Free users and lots of buzz? Looking for a primer on designing for viral growth? Click the image to see the full-size version. You should embed this infographic on your site – click to copy the embed code below.

Top Twitter Analytics Tools With hundreds of add-on tools, Twitter certainly has plenty of ways you can analyze its data. I set out to find the best tools that I would recommend for you to track and compare your own Tweets, as well as examine the growth of followers and when you actually send out your 140-character missives. My two faves are TweetStats and Twittercounter. There are other tools that involve "sentiment analysis," being able to examine what people are Tweeting about or the attitude they are expressing in their tweets. Some of these tools are dirt simple: you enter the Twitter ID or IDs of the appropriate people and wait for them to create their reports. You might also want to review an article that I wrote last month about 17 alternatives to Klout for other services that go beyond Twitter, or that attempt to measure some kind of reach or influence in social media. The following tools are listed in the order of most to least useful, at least to my point of view. Twittercounter.

Magic tricks for viral growth: From Zero to Zillions of Users The Best Free Tools for Twitter Analytics What are the best free tools for analyzing a Twitter profile? During a social media audit I like to run a company’s Twitter profiles through some basic analysis tools to set benchmarks and compare them to competitors. I got good response to my post on Facebook analytics tools so I thought I’d do something similar for Twitter. But this time I’m going to highlight free tools that anyone can use. I’m focusing specifically on profile analysis as opposed to Twitter tools for other purposes. Twitter tools frequently come and go, especially the free ones, so a list like this is always evolving. Twitter Web Analytics Twitter has created its own free analytics tool, however it is still in beta and not yet available to everyone: The data is fairly basic; the publishers we work with that already have access have not found it particularly useful yet. Topsy Social Analytics Topsy’s Social Analytics tool offers a good way to trend and compare mentions and replies for up to three profiles: Twitter Counter

What are the most important marketing strategies for a web startup Mike Koenigs - Cross Channel, Mobile and Video Marketing Expert The Ultimate Guide to Customer Acquisition We all need to acquire new customers to make our products and businesses work. Whether there are a few users paying big bucks or thousands visiting your platform for free, how you get and retain customers is what is important. But ask yourself: are you really ready for more customers? Is your team set up to handle an influx of users? What’s your promotion strategy – inbound marketing or traditional PR? Is Your Product Ready for User Acquisition? While Mark Zuckerberg’s famous “move fast and break things” motto might be useful advice in many startup situations, it may not be the best advice when it comes to customer acquisition. First of all, is your product even ready for some/many users? How much activity can your servers handle? Why Being Prepared Matters The customer acquisition process for startups is hardly linear or predictable, but that doesn’t mean that thoughtful planning is not useful or necessary. The customer acquisition process is far from an exact science. Have a Plan 1. 2.

Real Time Web Analytics, Live Chat, and Web Statistics - Woopra How to Acquire Users - Growth Insights - Quora Hello! Before you read this signup for new startup Spot - Driveway Sharing. You've built a product, now how do you get people to use it and find a sustainable source of customers? You have to experiment to see what works best for your product. I faced this dilemma when trying to generate traction for my design marketplace. "Do things that don't scale." - Joe Gebbia Product is key. I've used Meetup in the past to find related events in London. ViralA great way to build a user base is to create something related and interesting and that leads the visitor to checkout your product. One example I've seen was a product built on Gmail built a tool to generate an infographic based on your email habits. Many have seen the Dollar Shave Club or Undrip videos. The old-fashioned approach is to get customers to invite their friends or add sharing to the signup flow. Word of MouthWord of mouth is the most popular way users find new products yet its something you can't control. FreeEveryone loves free.

The Definitive Guide to Common Business Deductions Advertising & promotion Overview Advertising activities include most of the things you do to get the word out about your business or draw attention to a product or sale. Criteria Ordinary and necessary: An expense is ordinary if it's common to your profession. A necessary expense is one that's appropriate or helpful in developing or maintaining your business. What is deductible Business cards Mailing lists / mailing list software Brochures Branded giveaway items Posters Web site design, development and maintenance Goodwill advertising: brand building that fosters a positive image for your business Ex: sponsoring a little-league team Case: The tax court allowed a gas station owner to deduct the cost of providing free beer to customers as a good-will advertising expense since it improved business. What to collect Name of vendor Date Amount of expense What you used to pay for the expense Enter all of this information into your Expense Tracking System Gotchas Top of page Bad debts Casualty losses Rent

UI/UX Design Patterns: What are great examples of viral UX/UI design patterns