 
avant|marketer: What about Network Hubs? Of all the nodes in a Viral Marketing network, one would expect Network Hubs to be the most resistant to incentives. And yet, in order to rapidly propagate a marketing message in a Viral fashion, it's critical, as you said earlier, that the marketer be able to effectively engage Network Hubs. Should incentives be used to engage Network Hubs? If so, are there categories of incentive that work particularly well at engaging this type of individual?
Emanuel Rosen: I would certainly be especially careful in using incentives with Network Hubs. You want them to talk about your product because they are excited about it, not because they got a T-Shirt.
The best "incentive" that motivates Network Hubs is information, plain and simple. But make sure to give them information ahead of everyone else and get them involved in what you firm is doing, early.
But, again, as I mentioned before, it all depends on the attitudes of different groups towards incentives. You may find that certain audiences are more open to incentives than others, and this could include their Network Hubs.
avant|marketer: Ever since the recognition, perhaps starting with Hotmail, that Viral Marketing techniques could be used to accelerate product adoption online, it seems that there has been an attempt to identify methods of Viral Marketing that are not specific to a particular product, but which can be employed to make any product go viral. As one Jupiter Media Metrix Analyst put it, the hope of Internet marketers has been to find a way to "systematically harness the power of Viral Marketing." To what extent do you believe that Viral Marketing can be predictably and systematically harnessed in the way many marketers believe and hope it can?
Emanuel Rosen: If we accept that a pre-requisite for great Viral Marketing is true excitement about a product, it's easy to comprehend why implementing this systematically can be a real challenge. It's simply not very likely that people will get excited about all the products you offer. So what's left is an incentive system.
If you look at the MLM [Multi-level Marketing] industry, you'll see companies that have built incentive systems that work quite well for a wide range of products. But this has not been without problems. The reason is that many people don't feel comfortable mixing money and friendship. I don't want to sell anything to my friends and I don't want them to sell me stuff. You may run into a similar problem in building a viral system if the only things you have to offer are incentives.
Having said that, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a generic tell-a-friend system that will work just fine in certain [broad] product categories or social clusters. The very existence of the MLM industry proves that it can be done on a limited basis.
avant|marketer: So, you're suggesting that it might be possible to develop some type of generic referral system that is extensible into multiple product categories, with roughly the same level of effectiveness?
Emanuel Rosen: All I'm saying is that I wouldn't rule it out. It depends on people's attitudes towards incentives and these attitudes may vary across social circles and can also shift over time. So a [broad] system of incentives can work in a society that accepts it.
avant|marketer: Seth Godin, the author of Permission Marketing, has also recently written a work that touches on the subject of Viral Marketing, which I'm sure you're familiar with. Both of your works have been widely discussed. What are the most substantive areas of agreement, and, more importantly, disagreement between he and you on the subject of Viral Marketing?
Emanuel Rosen: I think that Godin and I agree on many things. We often use different terms to describe similar concepts. For example, the people I call "Network Hubs" he calls "Sneezers". What he calls "hives", I call "clusters".
The one area where we may have some disagreement is with regards to the role of traditional Marketing. I still see traditional tools as potentially very useful for marketers. In my view, Marketers should pay attention to networks, but shouldn't ignore traditional tools. Simply put, Direct Marketing, Advertising and distribution can be effectively used to stimulate people to talk.
avant|marketer: What do you foresee for the future of Viral Marketing? What do you believe we will we see happening in this area, over the course of the next two to three years?
Emanuel Rosen: The importance of Viral Marketing will continue to grow. Here's why: people are inundated with information and they are skeptical of commercial messages. But, they still listen to their peers. Therefore, companies will continue looking for ways to spread their message through those peers.
Another reason that the importance of Viral Marketing will grow is that person-to-person communication is very popular on the Net and its popularity is likely to increase. Kids and teenagers who are now heavy users of chat rooms, instant messaging and email, are likely to continue using these tools in a significant way, as they grow up. Compounding this, their younger brothers and sisters are now starting to use these technologies as well. Overall, a larger percentage of the population will have more opportunities to talk. And, we humans love to talk. Give us a communication tool and we'll use it.
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