How times change. What would have been a pointed insult in the not so distant past, is now a reason to cheer. Did your photograph, quote, video or blog post go viral? The social media world will not quarantine or blackball you. Rather, your success will brand you a marketing genius and the world will follow your every step. Pimm Fox will interview you on Taking Stock.
Why do you want to go viral? Because. If you wish to create your masterpiece in obscurity and never feel the rush of adrenaline as you walk into a room and realize that the people are there to see you, then stop reading this post. It is perfectly fine not to care about interacting with others, be they your niche readers, local book clubs, or other literary/social venues. But if you do care, and want to use the power of the Internet to create a viral phenomenon, then read on.
Let’s start with the big no-no. A blog post or any other item you share will not go viral if the reader perceives that the creator/owner of the post did it for personal gain. This is a soft-sell opportunity like Pinterest. Writing a whiny sentence and attaching a link to your latest book is not a viral opportunity. Your friends on facebook, Pinterest, and any other social media platform may help you by sharing said item. They love you. Your goal is to get beyond your immediate network and outside your comfort zone to strangers who will share your post. Isn’t promoting ourselves always about going outside our comfort zone?
So, what does make a photo, post, or video go viral? While I was doing the research for this blog post I came across a few guidlines that were common to all the articles I read.
According to Seth Godin, who coined the term viral, successful viral content is:
- Easy to understand.
- Worth sharing and talking about
- Simple to spread and share
- Rewarding to share.
The photo at the left is one of the most shared posts of 2012 on facebook. Why? Because the photo evokes an immediate response that is simple to understand. It is a sentiment that is worth sharing with your friends on facebook. It pulls at the heartstrings. Man’s best friend mourns a fallen hero.
Every time I see this photo it makes me stop. There is an immediate emotional response.
Happy animal photos are also a big draw. Who doesn’t want to cuddle the sweet kitty pictured here?
We have become a society of visual junkies. Observe the trailers that preceded the most recent James Bond movie, “Skyfall.” There were more explosions in those few minutes than the attempted overthrow of a Middle East dictator. The dialogue spoken by the steroid fed actors is short sound bites, and for this audience quick and dirty works. I am not advocating that this is the correct approach. Many of these films will fail at the box office. Hollywood doesn’t know what will grab the movie-going public’s attention any more than we can predict exactly what will go viral on the Internet. That is why we are subjected to the same storyline again and again at the cinema.
There is, however, a definite aspect of style involved in going viral. My readers know that I love to write about style. Establishing your own unique style in everything you create will brand you, and crafting a post on facebook is an excellent opportunity to showcase who you are. A dash of style spices up an otherwise vanilla post. It will bring hungry readers to your table. Just be sure it is your own style. Your true style can only come from within you.
The chart to the right gives some statistical information for those of you who prefer hard data. Notice that direct links are the least successful way to get a post to go viral.
IU contributing author Carol Wyer put up a facebook post yesterday that said, “Whoever said, ‘nothing is impossible’ obviously never tried to nail Jello to a tree.” This quote is humorous and visual. Imprint this on a photo of your favorite dopey politician and you may have a winner.
Have you tracked your own posts to see which elicit the most comments or shares? This is a good place to start. I wish you luck in going viral. Cheers!
Interesting statistics. It seems that what I’ve seen going viral on Facebook is different from what I seen going around on Twitter. But then, they are completely different circles of people. Will have to think about that. Thanks for the info!
Makes perfect sense. I just don’t think I have the kind of mind that can come up with a hook that would go viral. Maybe I’m too old. 🙂 – or too serious.
Yvonne,
Make a video! There are a few IU contributers who seem to excel at this.
I will be working on one with a friend of my daughter in the near future. Another project … 🙂
Hi Krista,
What are you seeing on Twitter that is different from facebook? I see mostly links to sneak peek/book samples on Twitter. These are never re-tweeted. Your observations would be very helpful.
Thanks!
How do you think I’ll do with; “You can’t pull a monkey from a guinea pigs ass”? 🙂
This has possibilities–what photograph would you attach to it? 🙂
Great post, Lois. Your line about going outside of your comfort zone struck me perfectly because, having had the experience of going viral, I can say that the experience will most certainly yank you out of your comfort zone, regardless of how far out of that zone you may have gone to cause it to happen in the first place. One lesson I took from the experience is, even if you aren’t trying to make it happen, it may still and totally out of the blue. That means that everything you do on the internet needs to be something you’re willing to live with because it could easily become what you’re best known for.
Thanks, Big Al.
What was it that you wrote that went viral? If you can share, it would be helpful to see another example.
As you and many authors at IU point out, we need to be unfailingly conscious of our Internet presence. There is no expiration date on our comments.
Lois,
I had a negative review on my blog that, driven by comments from the author taking exception to it, went viral. I had around 500,000 visitors in about a weeks time (which is slightly more than average for most Indie focused book review blogs) and write-ups in a ton of places including salon.com and the Guardian’s book blog. That review still accounts for a big portion of my traffic, despite the author eventually unpublishing the book and deleting all her comments a few months later.
I will look for it on your blog.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Aww, kitties! I’m thinking of including a cat picture with each one of my blog posts from now on. Sooner or later, one of ’em will go viral…. 😉 Thanks, Lois!
Hi, Lynne.
Have you ever watched the Bravo channel? There is a show, Lolwork, I think, and all they do is flood the internet with pics of cats. You’ve seen their work on facebook. I’ve never watched an entire episode, so I’m not sure how they make money at this, but the pics go viral all the time. What the heck, give it a shot!
Great post, Lois… hopefully it will go viral 😀
Thanks, Melissa!
Here’s Sherman! Enjoy the show! No personal gain achieved from this- except trying not to pee my pants!
Now that’s one lively little porker. lol
Kathy,
I love him! You should make a tape of him doing all different things and narrate it like the Honey Badger–minus the bad language.
How big will he get? He is so cute. Thanks for the video. 🙂
I have been attempting to get stuff to go viral for ages in search of fame. (Thank you for mentioning my comment by the way). I even put up a video of my husband mowing the grass and getting blown up. It didn’t catch on. Maybe I should have had a cute kitten watching the scenario.
Hi, Carol.
Who really knows why a video goes viral or doesn’t? It seems that those that are really successful make you laugh out loud. I’ll have to check out the video of your husband. 🙂