Seed Virality in Micronetworks

How can you go viral?

Target a small network.

No, really. A micronetwork has three criteria:

1. Interconnected. People know each other.
2. Small. Most people know everyone.
3. Strong. People frequently interact.

Why Small Networks

Most epidemics originate from small networks, like families (Ball et al., 1997). One infected person will transmit the infection to everyone in this network because they live in the same house. Then it expands to adjacent networks (e.g., neighbors across the street). And it keeps spreading.

Same with viral marketing. Zuckerberg didn’t launch Facebook to the whole world; he targeted a micronetwork of Harvard students. Within 24 hours, half of Harvard signed up because word of mouth had easily spread throughout this tiny network Then it spread to other Ivy Leagues. Then other colleges. Then high schools.

Facebook infected the entire world, and it all started from a tiny network of Harvard students.

How to Apply

• Prioritize Networks With Interconnected Customers. If somebody shares your local event on Facebook, it will be shown to friends and family — people who typically live nearby. And that's great. But suppose that you sell photography equipment. Their friends or family aren't necessarily photographers. And that's not great. Always look for networks in which customers are interconnected (e.g., a subreddit about photography would be more viral than Facebook because all eyeballs would be relevant to photography).
• Craft Messages With Social Currency. People want to share messages that make themselves look better (e.g., people are more likely to share funny ads because it them looks fun or cool; Berger, 2014).

• Ball, F., Mollison, D., & Scalia-Tomba, G. (1997). Epidemics with two levels of mixing. The Annals of Applied Probability, 46-89.
• Berger, J. (2014). Word of mouth and interpersonal communication: A review and directions for future research. Journal of consumer psychology, 24(4), 586-607.