Book Review - Unleashing the Ideavirus

Been so busy lately I haven't had a chance to blog. When I am not in front of the computer getting our software ready for the next major release, I am out catching up on my reading list by the lake or at the very least, on my deck.

Time to catch up with a review or two. Today I would like to talk about a rather interesting book I read from Seth Godin on "Unleashing the Ideavirus". If you read any of his work on permission based marketing or the "purple cow", I think you will enjoy what these pages have to offer.

Seth has made me a believer in the atmosphere of "the community". Using "word of mouse" through the Internet, Seth shows a unique opportunity for interested individuals to transmit ideas quickly and easily to others of like mind. I really liked how he used real world examples like Napster, Blue Mountain Arts, and Hotmail to re-enforce the point. Actually, I more enjoyed when he talked about failures of other companies in the industry. Really put things in perspective. I now look at Skype and smile as I realize how many times I was part of an idea virus and didn't even know it.

This book is rather short, which makes it an easy read. However, I think its ESSENTIAL reading if you are looking at leveraging the Internet for marketing... and finding ways to use viral marketing to reach your target audience.

I ended up reading the book twice, and learning different things each time. I recommend that if you read this book that you do the same thing. The concepts seem so easy and its easy to glance over and miss critical pieces of information if you aren't careful. Could make a HUGE difference in the success of your own ideavirus. In my case, the concept of "smoothness" (or the ease by which the message can be spread to others) seemed to be missed in the first pass. I thought the concept of free trial software dealt with that. It wasn't until the second pass that I realized it had to be more.

If you don't feel like purchasing Seth's "manifesto" on ideaviruses, consider downloading it from the ideavirus website. There is even some interesting slide decks there for you to check out as well.

If you are an entrepreneur that is leveraging the Internet for your business, you owe it to yourself to read this book and see why "word of mouse" will always be better than "word of mouth". You will need to read the book to see why that's important. :)