How To Spread A Network Like Wildfire, Part II: One Great Piece of Content

It is not an exaggeration to say that Funny or Die is the best example of a social network that was created with One Great Piece of Content.

Unlike The Chronicles of Narina on YouTube, Funny or Die was no accident. It was constructed. That’s what makes it beautiful to you and me. You don’t have to be Will Ferrell to do it. You just need to be paying attention.

It followed the rules of First Things First and layered on top, One Great Piece of Content.

In their case, a video that took them 50 minutes to create. Yes, they are talented. But so are you. That’s the beauty of the web.

If Funny or Die had followed the early JibJab playbook, they would have just stopped with their One Great Piece of Content. You would have watched The Landlord and there would have been nothing else to do. This is why you haven’t heard about JibJab in 2 years.

Because of First Things First (and the fact that they are not stupid), Funny or Die used their own branded video player that linked back to Funny or Die as The Landlord proliferated around the web in a matter of hours.

Once at Funny or Die, watching The Landlord was only the beginning. Funny or Die gave you the chance not only to watch, but to comment, rate, and, best of all, add your own video right alongside Will Ferrell.

It gave everyone a shot at fame.

Two months later, Funny or Die is continuing to grow like wildfire on its own. Its combination of new videos contributed by members, ratings of those videos (so you only have to watch the good ones), as well as a steady flow of new lowfi celebrity videos guarantees something new and good to see every few hours. A dynamic, vibrant network with a constant flow of new stuff.

The foundation was in place to make this happen. The Landlord was the match. One Great Piece of Content.

Now, I’m not saying you need to be Will-Ferrell-Funny to create One Great Piece of Content. It certainly doesn’t hurt, but the very definition of One Great Piece of Content totally depends on who you are trying to attract.

That’s what makes this path awesome.

You don’t have to create great content that appeals to everyone, just great content that uniquely attracts the people you want on your network.

One Great Piece of Content has a distinct point of view. It gets people’s attention. It might be controversial. It’s potentially an extreme version of what you want your social network to stand for.

In the case of Funny or Die, it was awesome, low budget, short form comedy in 2007. For your network, it could be anything.

Think about it. Invest in it. Experiment. This is your moment. Once the foundation is in place, the One Great Piece of Content path says to focus on just one thing that can spread your network in style.