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Start Spreading the Word

Yes, it’s cold-and-flu season, as those online pop-ups and TV commercials remind us incessantly about coughing-sneezing-and-runny-noses.

We’re talking a different kind of sneezing here. The kind of sneezing that gets you clients. Or gets you promoted. Or gets you elected.

This sneezing is about spreading your “ideavirus.” The concept comes from marketing expert Seth Godin, who says it’s way past time to stop simply spewing our messages at people.

Instead, we should be sharing our best ideas with people. Sharing them with empathy and generosity. When we do that, Seth says some people, our people, will help us spread them. That’s the metaphorical sneeze that can turn our service or product or idea into a skyrocket.

Advertising and marketing and public relations, no matter where you do them, are enormously expensive. And most of us are one out of thousands of people offering similar products or services or value.

We’d have a hard time using conventional ads or PR campaigns to attract our clients, our readers, or our voters.

So, it’s obvious why independent professionals need to think about this. And, if you’re a corporate employee, consider this. When you want a new job, a promotion, or approval for your project, marketing is as important to you as it is to any business owner.

If you want attention, connection and business results, you need sneezers.

So how do you find these sneezers who will spread your ideavirus by telling ten or twenty or 100 people about you and the value you offer?

It’s not that easy.

You might think—I did—that the way to get people to “sneeze” about you is to ask them to.

And you could indeed find a few champions that way. Your best friend, maybe. Your college roommate. A handful of people who are highly motivated to help you.

Most people, though, spread ideas around for their reasons, not yours.

Ask anyone in direct marketing who’s requested introductions to your friends and family so they can sell them make-up or jewelry or household products.

Turns out a simple request like, “Please share my idea” isn’t that likely to produce results.

Example. Every week, my newsletter includes this line: “Did you dig this article? Click here to forward this message to a friend.”

The chances are good you’ve never clicked on that link.

And yet, people regularly share my work on LinkedIn or Facebook. And some do send my newsletter to friends they think would enjoy whatever I wrote that week or find it useful.

That’s really the key–you’re not passing on my article to do something nice for me. You’re giving something valuable to somebody you care about.

People spread your ideas for their reasons, not yours.

What about compensation for sneezing?

We all know about the vaunted “Influencers” who are posting about a product on TikTok or Instagram. Because they got free product. And many of them get a paycheck to boot.

If the marketing experts are right, though, the “Influencers” have less influence than they did a while back, and they’re headed in the direction of even less.

Turns out when we know someone was rewarded for recommending a product or service, we give that recommendation less weight.

Seth calls that “promiscuous sneezing.” It can work, if your sneezer is promiscuous enough. It’s all about the numbers. Still, their credibility seems to be fading.

“Powerful sneezers,” on the other hand, have that power precisely because they can’t be bought. We trust their suggestions more because we know they’re not for sale.

When somebody recommends your work because they’re genuinely impressed. Because they got enormous value from what you did for them. Because they know someone who’d benefit, and they care enough to tell them about it … that’s powerful sneezing.

So how do we get more of that?

Seth would tell you there’s really one way to encourage people to talk about you. To spread your ideavirus. To sneeze.

If you want them to remark about you, you’d better be remarkable.

You could write a book about how to be remarkable. (Seth’s written 22 of them, and a blog to boot.)

His Marketing Seminar gave me some ideas about how I can become more remarkable … and if you have any suggestions for me, I’m wide open! A few things I’ve learned:

• Each of us needs a way to stand out from others who do similar work.
• We need empathy for the people we serve, or the ones we hope to serve.
• Understanding their deep desires, their fears, and their goals is imperative.
• And it helps a lot to be generous.

When people pick up on those things – how you stand out, and also your empathy, understanding, and generosity, you are remarkable. That makes them much more likely to sneeze about you.

You may have some thoughts of your own about sneezing. You’ve done it yourself, spreading someone else’s ideavirus. Or maybe you’ve had help from one of those powerful sneezers who’s spread your idea around.

I hope you’ll share your story with a comment below.