Social Software’s Viral Vectors

Alex Bosworth writes: “There are three factors to viral user growth. The first factor is invitation and promotion: people who use the service reach out to people they know to spread the word. The second factor is message reception. Reached by invitation and promotion, some percentage of people decide to sign up and become part of the viral pattern. The third and final factor is reproduction: some of those signed up begin to repeat the cycle by inviting and promoting to new people.”