3 ms·

That doesn't answer the GP's question about choosing between the two. All I can imagine is what kind of marketing efforts you fund. Do you try to pay partners

• mc32 6y ago
  I don’t think you can choose. From the way I see it, virality is an emergent phenomenon. You cannot “make” it viral. Virality happens—except with artificial virality via ‘bots. So to get back to the question I don’t think one can choose natural (uncoördinated) virality. A celebrity takes advantage of their graph on a network but it does not ensure virality at all. Virality is a property assigned by the ephemeral viewership as that item strikes a harmony with the mood of the network members —which isn’t predictable. Obviously if something natural catches on, you’ll have copycats trying to replicate the effect to ride the wave of the original. For that to work you have to weave your message to fit into the phenomenon without seeming too artificial.
  • 082349872349872 6y ago
    With normal probability theory, one can calculate that for neutral-fitness (R=1) potential viral things, the chances that a particular one will spread are small — but those few that do spread significantly hit (in order to maintain that average R=1) an arbitrarily large proportion of the population. Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24719843 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24719843