Creating Viral Growth

Joshua Porter has a great illustration of how viral growth happens using Youtube and one clip "Lazy Sunday". How does such a simple thing as one skit from Saturday Night Live start the mountain climb that Youtube's growth has been?

First comes content. You need relevant content to start with. Without that, there is no way to start the climb. Then you need a design that makes discussions, sharing, participating as easy as possible. The easiest action will get done the most.

As Joshua continues, Youtube has nailed the 3 primary activities with a social video site: uploading, watching, and sharing. They have created a great platform for social video, where it is easy to do each of your main tasks.

This is a simple story, but very powerfully illustrates what people designing social websites should keep in mind.