We recently celebrated basketball's 118th birthday, and the game is now played by over 450,000,000 people worldwide.
How's that for reach?
While Dr. James Naismith's original intent for inventing a new indoor game was to occupy the attention of 18 "incorrigible" executive secretaries at Springfield's International YMCA Training School, it's not surprising (in hindsight) that his game was quickly adopted and shared around the world....and it continues to grow today.
All of the elements for virality were in place. And remember, the game reached a critical mass well before the advent of online social networks. Shoot, this all went down before computers and televisions were around. The telephone was barely a teenager in 1891, and Edison's radio patent was 8 days old when Naismith posted his 13 rules for the game of basket ball (two words until 1921. Lazy sportswriters).
How so, you ask?
Simplicity: 1 ball. 1 basket. That's it, and that's all. Forget the original 13 rules for a second. The aim is to shoot (throw in 1891) the ball in a horizontal goal more times than your opponent in a given period of time. And if you don't have a friend/s, you can challenge yourself. Easy to understand, eh?
Creativity: The horizontal goal that Naismith dreamt up was inspired by one of his favorite childhood games, Duck on a Rock, where accuracy trumped velocity. Naismith's intent was to mitigate roughness, and prevent players from surrounding the goal. It just so happened that he nailed the peach basket 10 feet from the ground on the gym's gallery. Dribbling wasn't even a thought when Naismith conceived basketball, but good things happen when you lose control of the message (kudos to David Meerman Scott).
Remarkability - The story of basketball's invention (and inventor) is remarkable. It was an assignment to solve a real world problem, and it carried a real deadline of two weeks. Naismith's advisor, Dr. Luther H. Gulick (later founded the famed NYC PSAL League), made a statement that helped the 30-year old think through game's invention, He said, "There is nothing new under the sun. All so-called new things are simply a re-combinations of the factors of things that are now in existence." This challenge inspired Naismith to create a game that added value to people's lives. Think of all the players, coaches, and contributors that garnered fame, fortune, and purpose (in my case) from the game.
Shareability: Who needs tweetmeme or a Facebook share button, when you're introducing a fun new game to an influential and international audience right before they depart for winter break. Talk about sneezers (Thanks, Seth Godin). It was December 21st, and this was the International YMCA Training School at Springfield (now Springfield College). The "winter" problem and overall lack of interesting indoor activities existed beyond Massachusetts. Naismith built virality into the equation without even knowing it.
Patience - 118 years is a very long time in today's digital world. But, 450M served is a very large number no matter how long the period. Remember The Tipping Point? Or Chris Brogan's Overnight Success Series? Not all ideas reach a critical mass, and rarely does an idea gain momentum overnight. In fact, it took Brogan 8 years to eclipse 50 blog subscribers. Now, he's the unofficial king of the Human Business.
How does your idea (and content) stack up?
Is your idea easy to understand, and worth spreading? Did you make it easy to share, and call people to action? Do your readers/listeners/viewers yield any benefits for sharing your idea? Is it creative, and most importantly, is it remarkable?
What do your readers say?
It's their answers to these questions that ultimately count. Dr. Naismith's idea went viral because the game of basketball wasn't about him; it was about everyone else. He immediately declined to call the game Naismith Ball (per his student, Frank Mahan's, suggestion).
There's no perfect formula for creating viral content. In fact, sometimes terrible content draws a lot of eyeballs. But we all know that's not a good long-term strategy.
What else can we extract from basketball's explosive growth and put into our work?
