Viral marketing is an idea that spreads–and an idea that while it is spreading actually helps market your business or cause.

Two kinds of viral marketing: The original classic sort in which the marketing is the product and which a self-amplifying cycle occurs. Hotmail, for example, or YouTube. The more people use them, the more people see them. The more people see them, the more people use them. The product or service must be something that improves once more people use it.

A second kind has evolved over the last few years, and that’s a marketing campaign that spreads but isn’t the product itself. Shepard Fairey‘s poster of Barack Obama was everywhere, because people chose to spread it. It was viral (it spread) and it was marketing (because it made an argument–a visual one–for a candidate.)

Something being viral is not, in an of itself, viral marketing. Who cares that 32,000,000 people saw your stupid video? It didn’t market you or your business in a tangible, useful way.

Marketers are obsessed with free media, and, as is often the case, we blow it in our rush to get our share. We create content that is hampered or selfish or boring. Or we create something completely viral that doesn’t do any marketing at all.

I wrote the first mainstream book about viral marketing. It’s free (still) eight years (and millions of downloads) later.

Download 2000Ideavirus.pdf

I haven’t updated it or made it pretty, but I think the core ideas stand up pretty well. (I even talk about the Zipf’s Law and the long tail, but didn’t realize it at the time).

Here’s how the book itself is an example of viral marketing:

1. I posted the PDF for free. Three thousand people downloaded it on day one.

2. The file is small enough to email to your friends. I encouraged people to do just that.

3. Some people mailed it to fifty or a hundred people. It spread.

4. That’s just viral. The marketing part? I released a $40 souvenir hardcover edition. People knew the idea but didn’t like the format or my design skills. So they paid a lot for a book they had already read. It went to #5 on Amazon (#4 in Japan). We sold the rights in dozens of languages. And the paperback rights. And it helped me get speaking gigs.

BUT! 5. That’s not why I did it. If I had done it as a clever way to sell books, it would have failed. It would have failed because I would have somehow tried to track it, or added friction, or tried to profit in some way from the idea. I was way too dumb at the time to have done it right if my goal was to do it ‘right’.

The critical element of viral marketing is this: it’s built in. It was built into Hotmail and built into YouTube. The more people used the camera on their cell phones, the more the idea spread, the more people wanted a camera.

If you want to do viral marketing, you can try to come up with a viral ad, but you’ll probably fail. You’re better off building the viral right into the product, creating a product that spreads because you designed it that way.

Viral marketing only works well when you plan for it, when you build it in, when you organize your offering to be spreadable, interesting and to work better for everyone involved when it spreads. If I don’t benefit from spreading it, why should I spread it? I won’t. If you don’t benefit from your users spreading the idea, it might spread, but it won’t help you much. So both elements have to be present.

The reason for this post is that viral marketing is getting a bad name, largely from clueless marketing agencies and clueless marketers. Here’s what they do: they get a lame product, or a semi-lame product, and they don’t have enough time or money to run a nationwide ad campaign. So, instead, they slap some goofy viral thing on top of it and wait for it to spread. And if it doesn’t spread, they create a faux controversy or engage a PR firm or some bloggers and then it still doesn’t work.

Being viral isn’t the hard part. The hard part is making that viral element actually produce something of value, not just entertainment for the client or your boss.

Rid home of mildew culprits

Tips for protecting clothes, furniture, bathrooms and more

While obviously unsightly, the presence of mildew on interior or exterior surfaces is more than just a cosmetic problem. It’s almost always an indicator of a deeper and potentially more destructive moisture condition.

Painting over it won’t cure the condition, as the mildew will return sooner or later, and in the meantime the hidden moisture is working away at insulation, wood framing and other parts of your house.

Mildew, a form of mold if you check that online or search it in Google, is most often seen as a black or sometimes white or greenish growth on siding, drywall, roofing and in other areas. In order to grow, mildew first of all needs a food source.

Because mildew likes organic materials, the typical home offers lots of choices, including drywall, wood, paper, wallpaper paste, cotton, linen, leather, wool and many other materials and surfaces.

In addition to the food, mildew will grow best in areas where it’s moist and warm, and where there’s a general lack of sunlight and air circulation.

Interior

Inside your house, one of the most common areas where mildew growth is seen is in the bathroom, where warm, moist air is at its most concentrated. Typically, the only thing needed to combat moisture here is the installation of a ventilation fan.

Make sure that it’s ducted all the way to the outside of the house, not just into the attic! And, of course, the fan needs to get used, both during and immediately after using the bath or shower.

If you’re having trouble getting people to follow this rule, then you can ensure that the fan gets used by having it wired to the bathroom’s overhead light so the two come on together, or to a timer control. If the fan is used regularly, you’ll remove the moisture and circulate the air, and you shouldn’t have any trouble containing the moisture before mildew can start.

If a ventilation fan isn’t enough, then you have more moisture being generated in the bathroom than just that from the shower.

Common hidden moisture sources include a leak in the tub or shower valves or supply pipes; loose and leaking drain lines; a bad wax ring seal below the toilet that’s allowing seepage; or moisture buildup on the floor around the tub or shower from bad caulk joints or excessive splashing from tub users.

Detecting this moisture can be difficult, as the source is usually concealed and you typically won’t even know you have a problem until it becomes bad enough to show visible signs — a buckled floor, crumbly drywall, etc. Here’s one place where the presence of mildew is a blessing in disguise, because it tells you there’s moisture present before it causes real damage.

Once you begin to see the mildew, your best bet is to contact a contractor who specializes in water damage restoration; most have sophisticated moisture meters that can help you track down the problem.

Other interior mildew problem areas can arise in closets, and behind beds and other furniture — especially those placed on exterior walls. This is typically the result of poor air circulation, combined with high humidity.

In the closet, try removing some of the clothes so that they’re not as densely packed. Leave the door open or replace the door with one that’s louvered to allow air to circulate. There are also moisture-absorbing chemicals such as silica gel that can help you get rid of excess moisture in specific trouble areas.

In bedrooms and other areas, move furniture away from walls so air can circulate. Keep clothes and other items from accumulating on the floor and in piles on furniture, and keep things as clean as possible to keep food sources and accumulated moisture to a minimum.

Exterior

On the outside of your house, the two areas you’re most likely to see mildew is on the siding and on the roof shingles, and here again it’s the early warning sign of a moisture problem.

If the problem is localized to one or two patches of siding or roofing, then the moisture source is typically easy to track down. Some possibilities for localized mildew on siding include sprinkler heads that are misaligned, leaking or improperly adjusted; an underground leak in a water or sewer line; moisture accumulation from a dryer vent or exhaust fan vent; trees, shrubbery or other landscaping that’s overgrown; and other similar “spot” sources.

Do a little detective work in the areas of the mildew, and the problem is often easy to find and correct.

On the roof, mildew often forms in areas where trees overhang the roof, or where leaves or pine needles accumulate. Clearing debris off the roof and trimming overhanging branches will often be enough to solve the problem.

You may also need to open up the areas around your house by removing or trimming closely packed trees which will allow sunlight and prevailing winds to reach mildewed areas and dry them out.

Widespread areas of mildew on walls and roof indicate a larger moisture problem, one that can usually be traced back to a lack of ventilation.

If you have a high level of humidity inside the house that is not being adequately dealt with, normal pressure and convection will move the moisture into wall cavities and attic spaces. Once it’s there, a lack of ventilation will contribute to the moisture, forming mildew.

To combat this, first you need to deal with moisture inside the house through the use of ventilation fans in the kitchen, bathroom and laundry; mitigation of high-moisture sources such as indoor spas and hot tubs; reducing the number of house plants; or perhaps installing a dehumidifier.

In the attic, be sure you have an adequate number of roof vents to allow moisture to dissipate naturally to the outside.

Remodeling and repair questions? Email Paul at paulbianchina@inman.com. All product reviews are based on the author’s actual testing of free review samples provided by the manufacturers.