Unleashing the Idea Virus

I don't give 5-star ratings out often, but when I do, it's because the item is something that will rock-your-world. Seth Godin is 5-Star! He 'rocks-the-world'... at least in marketing! I read "Unleashing the Ideavirus" back when it first came out. I have one of the very first downloads of the free PDF Seth made available. But I wanted this book in a paper-and-ink version so I could mark it up. And just because some of the information I go to regularly, I love it in paper-and-ink. No matter HOW you read Seth Godin - JUST READ HIS WORK! And as Seth says in his podcast series, 'Seth Godin's Startup School" ... "I hope you use it." Yes. Read this book and everything you can get your hands on Seth writes .. then USE IT. Kudos Seth!

This is the newest book by Seth Godin, which is one of the authors that most influenciate my ideas. This book is the continuation of the masterpiece Permission Marketing (which is about how to change the traditional marketing idea of interrupting people by permission marketing). Unleashing the Ideavirus brings the answer to the obviuos question after reading Permission Marketing: "How can I obtain people's permission, since this involves at least one interruption?". The idea behind this book is simple: why spending zillion dollars on TV ads if you can spend much less at word-of-mouth campaings (which the author calls "ideavirus"), and which is more efficient? This book confirms what I am saying for ages: if you have just build up your own company, it is not worth to sepend money on traditional media. The books is full of case studies, with enphasis on internet business. The ideas on which this book is based aren't quite new, but this is the best shot of Godin's work: he can arrange, at just one book, everything you must know in order to understand and make efficient marketing campaings in this new century, without spending time with complicated ideas which doesn't work at pratical levels. The contents of this book are of immediate pratical use, on whichever business your are running: traditional, internet or informal of any kind.

I think Seth Is a brilliant Marketer and Thinker. I Always enjoy his concepts on topics such as marketing and customer acquisition. With that said, Although Seth is a brilliant Marketer, he is not the best writer. This is a relatively small book, but it took me quite some time to finish reading it. Almost like Malcolm Gladwell's book "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" (I started reading it about 6months ago, but I put it down out of Bordom.)But I also don't really like how Seth always tries to create NEW WORDS in the minds of his readers. The point of Marketing should be to help your readers reach the "Ahaa" moment. And the Only way to do this is by connecting NEW concepts to information that they ALREADY HAVE. Not by creating NEW concepts to NEW verbiage.So in the Book I found Seth using words like "Sneezers" when he should have just used the common term in the Marketing industry (Affiliate).Seth also used the word "Kickback" which left me scratching my head for about 5mins trying to understand what on earth he was talking about. (Turns out he was referring to an affiliate commission)He also used the word "Hive" to refer to a specific NICHE.So overall, I would equate seth's book to a REALLY good movie that loses its momentum toward the end...Its the movie that was good the first 92mins... but in the last 15mins, you are just ready for it to be over.But with that said, I am Glad that I read the book. I would recommend it for the sole purpose learning the power of Viral Marketing.

Unleashing the IdeavirusStop marketing AT people! Turn Your Ideas into Epidemics by helping your customers do the marketing for you.Seth Godin© 2001 by Do You Zoom, Inc.ISBN 0-7868-8717-6Hyperion, NY225 pp plus index (ppbk)Seth Godin writes about why ideas matter, how to unleash an idea virus so it will spread and how to develop the idea virus formula to make ideas work. He also gives nearly a hundred pages of case studies about what has and has not worked in marketing your ideas.An interesting book, but I would have liked more information on how to create original idea viruses.Reviewed by Geni J. White

Drawing from his immense knowledge and experience on technology, business, marketing and social networking Seth converts books like the Tipping Point into usable business strategies through Unleashing the Idea Virus.Ideal for companies trying to get a feel for how all these new technologies can actually be applied in a business sense.The only trouble is things are happening soooo fast these days that you need to make sure you get an updated version as so many technologies have either evolved, are outdated or new better versions already!

Thought provoking. Interesting points on how to really catch attention and not be totally slave to the already crowded marketing methods

As a geek for marketing books I recently stumbled upon Seth Godins work. This is the first book I read by him and felt it was an incredible introduction. This is informative and extremely helpful to those of us who are fascinated by spreading ideas with our "tribes" as he puts it. For old ideas explained with new details and helpful tools I would recommend this book.