Seth's Blog : Getting the word out

Getting the word out

“How do you get the word out?”

I’ve heard this from presidential candidates, from small business leaders and nonprofits as well. It’s easy to believe that the goal of marketing is to shout, hype, hustle and otherwise promote.

It’s tempting to focus on your story as the top of the pyramid, and decide that your work is to share that story to everyone downstream, downwind or near you.

Hire a PR firm, run some ads, post more on social media and hype and hustle. After all, it’s important.

But that’s not how the world works, and it hasn’t worked that way since network TV started to fade a few decades ago.

Ideas that spread win. Horizontally, not from the rooftops.

When we build something that our users want to talk about, remarkable happens. Remarkable means worth making a remark about.

This is the engine that GOODBIDS is built for. A nonprofit uses the permission asset they’ve built with their existing donors to let them know about an auction. That’s anticipated, personal and relevant, and backers are delighted to hear about it.

And then what happens?

If the auction is interesting to friends or colleagues, the supporters happily tell the others about it. They do it to earn free bids, or they do it to help a cause they care about, or they do it because spreading the word about something interesting, worthwhile or fun feels good.

In the last four days, GOODBIDS users have shared our initial auctions with tens of thousands of people… not because someone made them do it, but because they wanted to.

Today’s auctions:

An official NASA Apollo 11 shoulder patch, identical to the one that Armstrong wore on the moon. It comes with a signed, limited edition of David Meerman Scott‘s brilliant book on the marketing of the race to the moon.

It also comes with a letter of authenticity. The patch is untouched, unflown and uncut. It will make your heart race and remind you of just how much we’re capable of when we work together with focus. Meeting Neil years ago made me cry, and I hope you’ll check this one out.