What Business Folk are Reading Right Now – Louis Jv Rensburg
by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg on 11/03/10 at 12:30 pm
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I have been hearing the name ‘Viral Loop‘ going around a lot these days and so I asked Louis Janse van Rensburg from World Wide Creative to tell us a little bit more about the book and what he thought of it.
Louis heads-up the Joburg branch of World Wide Creative. He’s a strategist, researcher, entrepreneur & Heavy Chef. Here’s what he had to say:
“I purchased this book based on a recommendation by a well-respected digital strategist, Kate Elphick. That in itself says a great deal of the quality of this read, as the amount of smoke and mirrors in the digital web industry are astounding. Viral Loop stands out from the hype in this regard. No question about it.” For Louis, the genius of the book is that you quickly realize that Adam Penenberg honestly and truly has researched the concept of ‘Viral’ and, most importantly, “conveyed it in a manner that is basic to understand yet applicable for a higher level of interest”. Louis calls this “a delicate balance.”
“The book’s secret in striking this balance though is in it’s telling of real-world stories from both offline and online companies” Louis says. The book showcases the stories of companies who have (intentionally or unintentionally!) created “viral loops” around their offerings. Louis explains that these case studies include “detailed dissections of viral companies from all sides of business”, including:
- Offline: Tupperware, Ponzi schemes
- Bubble era companies: Hotmail, eBay, PayPal, HotOrNot
- Web 2.0: Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, Bebo, Tribe, Tagged
- Widgets and apps: Facebook, Slide, RockYou, Zynga
According to Louis the book does at times become a bit technical in explaining the science of viral however, “for me, this actually just added to my trust in Adam’s writings”.
After reading Viral Loop, Louis was enticed to read up more on some other theories around the concept of viral. Louis suggests you watch this slideshow (below) on ‘The Metrics of Social Games’ for a mind-boggling way of understanding the science of the viral loop.
Thanks Louis for such a vibrant explanation of Viral Loop and what you thought of it. I’m sure you made quite a few of our readers get up and rush to the nearest book store!
Yolandi Janse van Rensburg writes about social media, marketing, life and, of course, cars. We say “of course” because Yolandi is nuts about anything on 4 wheels and runs Autofemme, a blog about cars. Our Ideate sub-editor is also the Heavy Chef girl at World Wide Creative. You can follow her on Twitter @Yolandi_JvR View more articles by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg.
Tags: Business books, viral campaign
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