Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Making Your Book Viral Like a Chain Letter


How do you get others to share your book in a way that will get others to buy it?

Before we talk about strategy, let’s look at numbers. In order to get others to buy your book, you will need many others to tell many others, and so on and so on.

Let’s look at the concept of doubling.

One person tells another to buy the book. That person tells two people. They tell four people. And those four tell eight others. As we go through 19 generations of doubling, we reach the quarter-million mark. Two more generations gets us to 1,068,576 people.

So the question is how do you get your network of people to not only to sell their networks of people, but to get networks of networks to sell to others?

Obviously, to get anyone to share anything, certain factors must be in play, including:

1.      You must have a list of people available to reach out to.

2.      You must actually reach out to them and ask for them to buy a book and copies of it to others.

3.      You must offer an incentive for them to buy and another incentive to sell to others.

4.      When you ask them to reach out to others, they will not only ask for others to buy, but to sell to others as well. It’s like a chain letter.

So, one of the keys here is connectivity and influence incentives. As the point of origin, you begin to lose control after reaching out to your network because the next step is for that network to reach out to its network. Could there be a way to influence or interact with that other network?

What will you get your network’s network to hustle for you?

Let’s first look at why anyone does anything for anyone:

1.      Love- you may even kill someone for the one you love.

2.      Family- we feel deeply connected to them -- and obligated to them.

3.      Friends- they made life fun and easier to live.

4.      Reward- money or needs to be provided.

5.      Incentive- you offer something of value to them, but not money.

6.      Future favor- you offer to help them down the road.

7.      Fear of loss/ threat of negative- sometimes you need to tell people the benefit is not something they gain, but something they can avoid losing.

8.      Guilt -- play on their emotions. Can you turn down a crying child or bloodied crime victim asking for help?

9.      Good will --encourages others to be their moral best and to help support them.

10.  Politics/ Religion- sometimes people act to support their political or religious affiliations and beliefs.

11.  Philosophical connection -- beyond religion or politics, appeal to how people see the world and embrace their ethics.

12.  Professional relationship -- speaks the language of the people in your industry and addresses their needs/desires.

13.  Common bond-- members of the same group, location, or demographic, alumni, former connection, or have shared third-party interest.

Maybe we do something simply because we like something about them. Don’t you do something extra for a pretty face, an innocent child, a cute dog, or a helpless old lady?

Perhaps we act under deadline pressures or because we think a real opportunity/ deal exists. Maybe people like your spunk and attitude, or they find you witty and inspiring. Could be that your message is so compelling that it taps into one's core being?

Some have a charitable way about them -- willing to do favors, help those who ask, and share things without concerns of compensation or demands to trade access.

It all comes down to creating a compelling message, one that logically leads another to commit to buying, and then recruiting them to soldier on for your benefit. You are proselytizing, and you need many converts who will then rabidly preach to others.

So, in conclusion, what will make another do something for you?

1.      Tap into any of the 13 areas mentioned above.

2.      Explain to others why you reached out to them and highlight the connection, even if it's four generations of connections removed.

3.      Tell a story that inspires, even demands, action.

4.      Create a problem and explain how your book is the solution.

5.      Where possible, get your network's networks to allow you to contact them directly.

Lastly, don’t look to win everyone over. Be willing to lose one group, to win a bigger one. Even be willing to offend the majority if doing so strengthens your ability to impact the core few that will buy and sell anything that you ask of them.

And if none of this works, just send a chain letter threatening world destruction if they don’t tell others to buy your book for a buck on kindle!

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2013

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