Zipfluence - Marketing and Communications in the age of Zipfluence

The Second Law of Marketing in the age of Zipfluence: Forget about manufacturing the branded moment

The biggest question in advertising and marketing circles today? Just how do you get your story on Facebook, you video on YouTube, your Tweet on Twitter, your post on Wordpress, Tumblr, Medium or Blogger to go viral?

Alternatively how do you get a page one ranking on Google? Or how do we get our mobile app to the top of the App Store?

And much has been written about these very questions. Just how do you get to the top of the list and stay there?

But the thing everyone seems to be missing is the real question isn't how, but why?

Why is social media and mobile such an ineffective communications channel that, to succeed, you need your message to go viral?

TV doesn't have this problem. Radio doesn't have this problem. Old fashion magazines and newspapers never had this problem. Your message was guaranteed to reach tens of thousands, yes even tens of millions people every time. And yet the average message on social media is lucky to reach 100's. So why take the chance? Why waste time and effort on creating content exclusively for a medium that doesn't guarantee an audience? Why waste all this energy trying to optimise your message to go viral when there are communications channels with viral built into the system?

But no one stops to ask the obvious question.

Facebook has built a global brand, a lucrative advertising platform and a US$180 Billion market capitalisation by attracting over 1.2 Billion users to create their own web page without spending a dollar on online or TV or Newspaper or Radio advertising.

Every website with a Like or a Follow button is promoting Facebook for free (That's a reported 7.5 Million Sites delivering 22 Billion Likes per Day). Every poster, magazine ad or in store display that recommends you Follow us on Facebook is promoting Facebook for free.

So why is over $100 Billion being spent on Facebook, Google and other online advertising channels this year when it is self evident, given Facebook's success - or for that matter Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube or Pinterest collective success - this new generation of Global Brands are built by the collective actions of the hyper connected community, elsewhere...

Surely the Facebook Story or the Google Story or the Twitter Story tells us anything it is:
"If you are paying for advertising today you must be doing something wrong".

In the age of TV, radio and magazines Branding was about manufacturing branded moments. Designer messages. TV and radio commercials. Glossy magazine spreads. In the age of network effects Branding is a function of behaviour

It's all about using stories to change market behaviour

So the obvious question is: why can't we all share and be saved?