By Al Morel

The first viral event that I can remember was the Beatles appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show 45 years ago, this week. Back in the day, everyone was glued to the set for this show. It was part of the American experience. My memories of the event are sort of faded at this point, but I remember not really being able to hear the music all that well, because of all the screeching, and not being all that impressed. My most prescient memory of the time was really the aftermath. Every girl I knew had Beatles posters hung in their room and talked about which Beatle they wanted to marry. It was not until the release of Rubber Soul and subsequent albums that I started to get it. (In my defense, I don’t think they started to get it until then either.)

OK, perhaps that’s a better example of an American Wide Rave. In the modern era, a World Wide Rave happens when you, your product, or company are known around the world at the speed of the internet. (Hopefully, that’s a good thing.)

The concept is to use social media portals like websites, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, to create a your own buzz.

Recently, I attended a webinar at Hubspot featuring David Meerman Scott, author of the soon (March 3) to be released book World Wide Rave, and the best seller The New Rules of Marketing and PR. (My NEWDA collaborator, Kevin Skarritt from Acorn Creative advised that this is THE book on social media. See blog the entry below.)

Here are the 6 ‘take-aways’ from David’s presentation:

1. Nobody cares about your products
OK, you’ve developed the next generation, robust, flexible, world class, scaleable, cutting edge widget…but how does it solve our problem? That’s all we really care about.

2. No coercion please
If your widget is really ‘rock star’ people will not need to be induced to share. Forget about your tricksie games, precious.

3. Lose control
You’ve got to give up the illusion of content and asset control to allow for the access and sharing of info. It’s what people now expect.

4. Put down roots
You must be involved in online communities. (So if you like girls, and you want to meet girls, you must go to where the girls are. DUH!)

5. Create triggers that encourage people to share
If your widget really does solve their problems, find a hook to get folks buzzing. (I suspect that this is where the ‘heavy lifting’ is.)

6. Point the world to your doorstep.
Your webiste(s).

Links you may be interested in:
David Meerman Scott’s Blog
The World Wide Rave Website
The Webinar hosted by Hubspot Online