Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves

Is it really possible to grow a significant business without any significant advertising using viral marketing and social networking?

Here’s the book that says “Yes”:

Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves

12 5-star customer reviews show it’s getting good reviews so far. (or else 12 friends weighed in!)

A friend suggested this book to me (via Twitter!) so perhaps there’s something to it.  His point is that social networking tools allow you to spread your message like never before and, in theory, do business like never before. Think of those crazy games on Facebook. You never play them perhaps, but many do.

It makes you wonder what there is about your product, service, or non-profit that you can let people share and discuss through social networks that build your business or charity long term.

This Christmas there was an ebook called “One Tip” that raised money for charity. Will thousands of new future customers be on that marketer’s email list now? You bet. Did people promote the book out of good will instead of for affiliate commissions? At least one internet marketer I know did…

So perhaps this is part of what the book talks about.

How do you leverage this for a home business? How much viral marketing can you take before you have to leave the house and get into a warehouse?

Thought provoking indeed. I’d love to hear your thoughts if you’ve read the book. Before that, here’s what the publisher puts out about Viral Loop:

“Adam Penenberg’s lively book opens a window to all of our futures…”
–Ken Auletta, author of Googled: The End of the World as We Know It

“If you want to understand all things viral, this is the place to start. Penenberg’s reporting gives us a ringside seat for some of the biggest viral success stories in history, from Tupperware to Ning.”
–Dan Heath, co-author of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

“One of the most astounding things about the Web age is how the best advertising is often no advertising at all. Penenberg masterfully explains how this works with case studies of products that were designed to spread. Every product can use a dose of this technique; this is the book to get to learn how.”
–Chris Anderson, author of Free: The Future of a Radical Price

“In tight, engaging prose, Adam captures the essence of the ever-scaling power of the virus. It’s not just for geeks anymore.”
–Seth Godin, author of Tribes

“Penenberg discovers the perpetual motion machine for business and marketing… Buy this book. Catch a virus. Make a fortune.”
–Jeff Jarvis

“Penenberg has unlocked the secret to the most successful digital businesses. An indispensable read.”
–Robert Safian, Editor-in-Chief, Fast Company

“Instead of entrusting your business to a guru with an agenda and a ghostwriter, you should be turning to a pro journalist like Adam Penenberg, who understands the way media and money interact, has the critical faculty to engage with these phenomena in an unbiased fashion, and the technical facility to explain them to you in an entirely engaging, informative, and actionable way.”
–Douglas Rushkoff, author of Media Virus and Life Inc: How the world became a corporation and how to take it back.

Here’s something you may not know about today’s Internet. Simply by designing your product the right way, you can build a flourishing business from scratch. No advertising or marketing budget, no need for a sales force, and venture capitalists will flock to throw money at you.

Many of the most successful Web 2.0 companies, including MySpace, YouTube, eBay, and rising stars like Twitter and Flickr, are prime examples of what journalist Adam L. Penenberg calls a “viral loop”–to use it, you have to spread it. After all, what’s the sense of being on Facebook if none of your friends are? The result: Never before has there been the potential to create wealth this fast, on this scale, and starting with so little.

In this game-changing must-read, Penenberg tells the fascinating story of the entrepreneurs who first harnessed the unprecedented potential of viral loops to create the successful online businesses–some worth billions of dollars–that we have all grown to rely on. The trick is that they created something people really want, so much so that their customers happily spread the word about their product for them.

All kinds of businesses–from the smallest start-ups to nonprofit organizations to the biggest multinational corporations–can use the paradigm-busting power of viral loops to enable their business through technology. Viral Loop is a must-read for any entrepreneur or business interested in uncorking viral loops to benefit their bottom line.

If you want another look at the book, check out this review at Small Business Trends on Viral Loop

Related Link: How to get started online!