It requires a basic understanding of Internet users.  The vast majority of people that use the internet are content consumers.  Sites are built to make this group of users be able to consume content easily.   On the other side, there’s a small percentage that create content.  Some are professionals, but the vast majority of creators toil in relative anonymity, but continue to produce.  These are the folks that create reviews at sites like citysearch and comment on newspaper stories.   They are, virtually by definition, incredibly eager to share their thoughts.

These content creators are the most vital and active Twitter users.  They see the power of the system to push out their message, and are eager to defend its virtue.  Twitter can provide a megaphone for content creators of prior obscurity, and further amplify the voice of a loud organization or celebrity.  Since psychographically they are the same as blog commenters, they aren’t afraid to provide input into any article written about their new soap box.  This creates activity and action on sites that write about twitter.  It creates a cycle, which is self reinforcing.

Oddly enough, it doesn’t yet matter if the masses adopt it.  It will, as the ability to push a message to the masses is what is attractive in the first place.  But for generating hype, it doesn’t matter.

There’s a lot that any business can learn here.  Your best customers are your most powerful advocates.  Make it easy to share your message and they will.  Also, never forget the value you are giving to your best customers.  Twitter provides value by giving a voice, and their best customers repay them by returning the favor in hype.  Nothing is more viral than that.

The secret is: there was no prior world record for software downloads.  Firefox invented it.  The strategy was amazing.  The press and bloggers wanted to cover it, and users had an incentive to download it as quickly as possible.  They were able to multiply the visiblity of the launch many times over traditional marketing.

They also involved the existing community quite well.  As far as grassroots efforts go, they made it easy by having toolkits for the “faithful” to spread the word.

Firefox also added an element of pride.  Downloaders could print certificates for their particpation in the occasion.

From every aspect, the launch was an amazing use of publicty and community involvment.  I applaud them for setting the record they created…  and acheiving a very critical strategic goal with their innovative marketing.  They got beyond the functional improvements of the browser and made it an event to get a new piece of software.

I first learned this lesson when I was launching a local paper in Dallas.  During the launch we conducted community meetings to explain the product, which was unique in the access that consumers would have to getting articles published. We thought consumers would embrace it since they actually controlled the conversation in the newspaper, rather than the other way around.

For one of our first meetings, we went to a place that was cheap and convenient for us, on our schedule.  We sent out invitations to the busy community leaders.  When the time came for the meeting, few attended, and those that did weren’t all that excited.  They were more concerned with a perception that they would be losing professional coverage rather than gaining a paper of their own.

The next meeting was quite a bit different.  We went to them on their schedule.  We held it in their community in a place that was easy to attend.  Our message was about the additional coverage, and access to get the items they were proud of printed in the paper.  We respected the consumer and understood their concerns.  The meeting was strongly attended, and most of the people that had anything negative to say were concerned they wouldn’t be getting the product.

The first meeting was all about what we were going to do, on our terms.

The second was about listening and becoming a new voice for the community.  It was about THEM.