Image courtesy of Sister72.
Hey, so a “half amusing, half full of chagrin” project update… (ahem):
Apparently the bring-a-friend-to-human-census thing was a flop. (I mean on my end as a marketer-schemer).
As a site user, I tried finagling some pals into commenting (yes, for my own personal glory of becoming the first ever HC Chimpeon), but, to no result. So I also have some idea first hand of why that method isn’t particularly effective.
This is what I like about the hundred dollar business projects. You can test things on a small scale and measure immediate results (or, in this case, non-results). And then make quick adjustments.
Plus, if by some accident, the experiment goes well, people think you’re a genius, (which isn’t necessarily the case). But if it doesn’t work out well, you chalk it up to an experiment and thank your lucky stars that you weren’t doing it “for real” and guzzling away a million-dollar marketing budget on pithy ideas. 
So, the only thing one might ask is, what can we learn from this particular marketing idea that flopped?
August 8, 2007 at 16:10
I generally don’t like to recruit people. I’ll talk up a site, blog about it (my own blog is currently feeling very ignored), etc, but I never recruit directly unless someone volunteers that they are looking for something like X.
For example, all of my LinkedIn contacts are people who either a) found their way to LinkedIn without me or B) told me they were seeking more networking in some way, and I pointed them to LinkedIn. So I suppose if someone says “I wish I knew somewhere to express my opinion on a number of random topics”, I’d send them here. Teehee!
August 8, 2007 at 16:39
Foxydot,
Great point.
The sad thing is, when I come up with what I think is a new marketing approach, that’s in this “bring a friend” school of thought, it’s not until afterwards that I remember how uncomfortable the “recruiting” aspect is for people, both those trying to share something, and those being proselytized. Probably because it’s so artificial.
So, I think that was definitely a big downfall of the attempt, that I didn’t realize it was in that vein until after I posted it and tried it out myself.
Brrrrrr. Maybe some day I’ll learn.
One thing that I have realized is that you can’t create artificial buzz. Something really, really, really has to be “buzzable” independent of the marketing approach, and what I haven’t yet determined, is what factors make it so. Hmmmm…
August 8, 2007 at 22:34
I don’t think it was completely ineffective, just that any of the people that were invited decided not to participate for some reason or another.