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To promote the launch of its 2013 Summer Reading Program, Seattle Public Library (@SPLBuzz) set a world record for the longest book domino chain consisting of 2,131 books. Read how it was done.

Jonah Berger (@j1berger), Wharton professor and author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, says, “Virality isn't luck. It's not magic. And it's not random. There's a science behind why people talk and share. A recipe. A formula, even.”

Six key drivers shape what people talk about and share. And the first principle is Social Currency....

People talk about things that make them look good. Sharp and in-the-know. Smart and funny rather than behind the times....

Social Currency...is why people brag about their thousands of Twitter followers or their kids' SAT scores. Why golfers boast about their handicaps and frequent fliers tell others when they get upgraded....

Want to generate word of mouth? Get people talking about you? One way is to give them a way to look good. Make people feel special, or like insiders, and they'll tell others – and spread word of mouth about you along the way.

Read this in full.

See our other blogposts tagged Viral.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (@ceidotorg), a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to advancing the principles of limited government, free enterprise, and individual liberty, produced the above video I, Pencil, a new short film adapted from the 1958 essay by Leonard E. Read, founder of the Foundation for Economic Freedom.

The essay, under its full title, I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read, had a simple goal: "to show that economics cannot be 'planned' since no one, no matter how smart, can create something as incredibly ordinary as a pencil." Instead, its creation requires a highly complex global industrial network organized not by a master planner but by the spontaneous supply-and-demand workings of the "invisible hand" in the peaceful, voluntary, libertarian, laissez-faire free market.

We include the video here on the Somersault blog only to showcase its creative and fun use of animation in a video (based on what might be a solemn essay) intended to go viral. That, and because authors, perhaps less often these days, have written their bestsellers using only a simple pencil!

Also see our previous blogpost, “The 3 Qualities That Make a YouTube Video Go Viral.”

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

O’Reilly’s Tools of Change 2013 (@toc) (#toccon) kicked off Feb. 12 with the first-ever Author (R)evolution Day, cosponsored by Publishers Weekly, designed to inform authors, content creators, agents, and indie author service providers about the promotion of books in the digital age. Blogger and author Cory Doctorow brought up the concept of the “hybrid author” — the author who publishes traditionally and self-publishes.

One of the most talked about points of the day was discovery. During an afternoon panel, Kobo’s Mark Lefebvre started by saying to authors: “Don’t wonder how you will get discovered — think about what you're going to do to deserve being discovered.”

The panelists agreed that author investment is very often tied to author discovery. In relation to social media, Elizabeth Keenan of Penguin’s publicity department said, “It’s a full-time job to make it work.” (See our SomersaultSocial training program for authors.)

Lefebvre said the most important thing in getting someone to buy a book is still the opinion of someone the reader trusts, and all panelists agreed that — especially in the digital age when curation becomes more and more important — getting reviews for your book is essential.

The “power of free” was discussed; attracting your audience by offering them something, whether it be an excerpt or author expertise on a subject, and giving that audience an answer to the question every reader asks when picking up a book: “What’s in it for me?”

Read this in full.

See TOC articles tagged Author (R)evolution Day.

Read coverage by Good E-Reader (@Goodereader).

Also see our previous blogpost, "Guy Kawasaki's New Self-Publishing Instruction Book."

Download our white paper, “Tech, Trends, & Retail Success: See the Future and Act Now,” in which we detail the elements of creating extreme retail in-store experiences.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market pbooks, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Learn about SomersaultSocial (@SomersaultHelp), our Web-based author online marketing education modules.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. Or download our blog as an ebook to your ereader (http://goo.gl/3nTtN). 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Book Discovery Sites tab.

11-year-old James Groccia, who has Asperger syndrome, saved his money for 2 years to buy his dream toy: the LEGO Emerald Night Train set. But when he was able to finally buy it, he discovered it was discontinued.

He wrote of his disappointment to LEGO (@LEGO_Group) and the company replied with a cordial, corporate-sounding apology letter. Then, a few days before his birthday, a package arrived containing the discontinued set with a sweet letter commending his will power and even suggesting someday he might work at LEGO. His parents hid a camera to catch James' reaction when he opened the package.

The resulting video above, with the title, "Why LEGO is the BEST Company in the World!," has become a viral sensation with over 1 million views and mentions on major newscasts.

It demonstrates the power of consumer generated media on a brand’s reputation (for the cost of a single Emerald Night Train set). Contrast this with the stilted, long-winded, slow-moving corporate video LEGO produced earlier this year.

In many ways, successful branding depends on delighting the consumer with stellar customer service.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you protect and strategically manage your brand's reputation.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android. 

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Public Service Announcements can be boring and people often ignore them. Yet, despite its 3-minute length, a video PSA (produced by McCann @McCann_Melb), reminding people to have common sense around the high-powered trains of the Melbourne Metro in Australia, has reached 31 million views since only Nov. 14. Why?

Titled “Dumb Ways to Die,” it’s a simple animated spot that’s heavy on the macabre  — but in a whimsical way  — with a song you’ll be humming all day. Adweek calls it an “adorably grim viral megahit.”

The many examples of dumb ways to die (eat medicine that’s out of date, use a clothes dryer as a hiding place, get your toast out with a fork) have nothing to do with train safety until the last 3, leaving the viewer to remember the focus of the spot even after it’s ended.

Simple video + catchy music + whimsy (even on a serious topic) = success.

See our previous blogpost, “The 3 Qualities That Make A YouTube Video Go Viral.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your books.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Add our Facebook page (http://facebook.com/SomersaultGroup) & Twitter stream (http://twitter.com/smrsault) to your Flipboard account on your iPad, iPhone, or Android.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

The Biblio-Mat is a random book dispenser built by Craig Small (thejuggernaut.ca) for The Monkey’s Paw, an idiosyncratic antiquarian bookshop in Toronto, Canada. Biblio-Mat books (112 million possibilities), which vary widely in size and subject matter, cost $2 and are dispensed without regard to customer selection.

The machine was conceived as an artful alternative to the ubiquitous and often ignored discount sidewalk bin. When a customer puts coins into it, the Biblio-Mat dramatically whirrs and vibrates as the machine is set in motion. The ring of an old telephone bell enhances the thrill when the customer’s mystery book is delivered with a satisfying clunk into the receptacle below.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you lead strategically.

Learn about online marketing with SomersaultSocial.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Innovation tab.

The above image is by Chart of the Day (@chartoftheday) using research by 33across.com’s (@33Across) tynt (@tynt). See the news release. Also see eMarketer's (@eMarketer) article, "Copy and Paste Drives Sharing."

Social sharing buttons may be sexier, but according to research...copy and paste is the sharing method of choice 82% of the time.

...For users, copying and pasting to share content holds obvious appeal: It's almost frictionless, and it allows the sharer to choose exactly what to pass on to a friend or social network.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you make your brand content strategically and easily share-able.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Social Media Marketing tab.

The year 2012 would have been public television cooking instructor Julia Child’s 100th birthday. To celebrate, PBS Digital Studios (@PBSDS) commissioned John D. Boswell, aka melodysheep (@musicalscience), to produce the above video, auto-tuning Julia’s cuisine phrases through the years. The result is more than 1 million views. Do you have content you could repurpose to advance your brand?

Also see our previous blogpost, “The 3 Qualities That Make A YouTube Video Go Viral.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you produce a viral video.

Get our blogposts delivered into your email inbox.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Marketing tab.