9 Ways to Build Virality into your Product: Highlighting and Online Reading

9 Ways to Build Virality into your Product: Highlighting and Online Reading

In today's digital world, building virality into your product is crucial for its success. Virality refers to the ability of a product to spread quickly and organically through word-of-mouth and social sharing. By incorporating certain strategies, you can create an incentive for users to invite their friends and for their friends to accept the invite, leading to exponential growth.

One way to achieve this is by rewarding both sides of the equation. If the incentive is missing for either side, the viral loop won't catch on. For example, in the early days, LinkedIn incentivized users to invite more people by prominently displaying the number of connections on their profile. This encouraged users to expand their network and invite others to connect with them.

Another effective strategy is to build products that are inherently viral, such as collaboration or communication tools for coworkers. These products have a single user mode, but their true value is realized when multiple people use them. By creating the ability for others to embed your product into their website, you not only gain exposure but also showcase the expected content and behaviors to potential users.

Additionally, creating uniquely interesting content that users can share on their social networks is a powerful way to spread awareness of your product. Auto-shared content onto other networks is an excellent example of this. By creating a compelling artifact that users want to share, you tap into the power of social sharing and leverage the networks of your users to increase visibility.

Furthermore, if your product generates artifacts or URLs that are expected to be shared via messaging, you can capitalize on this by providing a rich experience around the shared information. This can be seen in the early days of email, where Hotmail's signature line at the end of every email helped them grow exponentially. By integrating the sharing of your product into the core mechanics, you ensure that virality is built into the product from the start.

Now, let's shift our focus to online reading and the concept of highlighting. Highlighting is a common practice among readers, both in physical books and digital formats. However, research suggests that highlighting is not a very effective reading strategy. Students often highlight content to focus on the important parts of the text for later study. The problem with this approach is that it can hinder a deeper understanding of the overall content.

Instead of critically engaging with the text, students spend their mental energy sorting the content into what's important and what's not. This can lead to illusions of competence, where readers feel like they know more than they actually do. Familiarity with highlighted content can create a false sense of understanding, without truly grasping the big picture.

However, highlighting can still be beneficial if used in the right way. Effective strategies for online reading involve engaging your brain in deep thinking about the text. Here are three actionable tips to enhance your reading experience:

1. Preview the text: Before diving into the content, take a moment to preview the text. Understand your purpose for reading and set clear goals. This will help you navigate the material more effectively.

2. Annotate: Take brief notes in your own words about the main concepts and key words in the margins of your text. This active engagement with the material will enhance your understanding and retention.

3. Ask and answer questions: Turn headings into questions and challenge yourself to answer them as you read. This approach promotes critical thinking and active engagement with the text.

In conclusion, building virality into your product is essential for its success in the digital age. By incentivizing users to invite their friends, embedding your product into websites, creating shareable content, and integrating sharing mechanics into the core product, you can leverage the power of word-of-mouth and social sharing to achieve exponential growth. Additionally, when it comes to online reading, it's important to be mindful of the limitations of highlighting and instead employ strategies that engage your brain in deep thinking about the text. By previewing, annotating, and asking questions, you can enhance your reading experience and gain a deeper understanding of the material.