Video: Not Viral, Spreadable

[vimeo 7585932]

If you can’t see the above video, click here, or view it directly on Vimeo.

In the vein of sharing videos over the weekend, this week I have is an exceptional presentation from Sam Ford, Joshua Green and Henry Jenkins that looks at “moving from sticky to spreadable: the antidote to viral marketing and the broadcast mentality.” (You can find out more about the guys at their blog, PepperDigital.)

I love it for a few reasons:

  1. It clarifies what “viral” really is, and what “spreadable” is. This is useful because it is hard to make a “viral video”, but it is a lot easier and more intuitive to make something “spreadable”. You’ll see what I mean as you watch.
  2. I love it because it uses language that we’ve been talking about here – spreadable, broadcast, social, reach. I’m right there!
  3. It gives me some great case studies.
  4. It helps me to not think of people as single individuals but as nodes in a network – meaning I should consider what is the best for their network, not just for them.

Your Leading Thoughts

  • I want to know what your number 1 takeaway is, and how you can use it tomorrow.

Spreadability and Guidance vs Governance

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gRvtVSMB0E&feature=player_embedded

If you can’t see the above video, click here, or watch it directly.

I had a great chat with Sam Ford from MIT yesterday about spreadability. Turns out he and Henry Jenkins are writing a book about it, with the same ideas that I’ve been having over the last 6 months – and we didn’t know about each other until very recently. Funny to see how that happens.

One of the things we talked about is that for something to spreadable, it has to be guided not governed. Reason being that if a peice of content is governed, then it is so heavily guarded and restricted that it can’t be taken into new channels and filter into new areas that are beyond their reach.

This video, with Ben Huh – the maestro of spreadability who runs ICanHasCheeseburger, is excellent as Ben talks about what makes media spreadable – lower barrier to entries and the lifting of restrictions. He’d know about that.

The lesson? If you want things to spread, you have to let go.