I remember a very old digital joke, where two individuals were discussing and trying to understand the science of going viral. One of the individuals was wondering why his post did not get the results he was expecting. After all, he had included all the perfect elements, the perfect image of a cat, a dancing bear, the cutest baby, and the fittest bodies, and still got only a couple of clicks. The other individual was very happy because his post got thousands of responses. What did you do?, the friend asked. Easy, my post had typos.
As I continue to experiment with Google and Social Media Paid campaigns, I’ve encountered that nobody has all the right answers, and those who try to sell you a formula to go viral, are most likely trying to fool you into buying something. The best way to shape your digital strategies is by doing. Immersing yourself in the numbers, process, and creativity.
Some people go viral for the wrong reasons, just like the individual from the joke, who sent a post with a lot of typos and was attacked by the Twitter Screaming Army. Just recently, one of the videos I created for one of my latest campaign experiments got a little bit of that hate dose, you seem to find nowadays in every corner of the web. The message was quick and simple… space 22 wrote to me: “You suck stop making video you only got 5 subscribers you suck kid”.
Usually, When I sit down to imagine my potential viewers, the first thing that comes to mind is happy and successful individuals. That’s because we all have biases and tend to believe that most of the brands want to target shiny happy people with perfect features playing at the beach, or having a beer at the stadium. But reality is far off from there, and there’s a lot of potential to establish a relationship with your audience, and meet them at an emotional level. Whatever emotion that is. The conversation about emotions and vulnerability has opened the door for brands to start rethinking who is the audience they are talking to, and what they are really feeling.
The key of being a marketer, or a great individual in general is to always ask yourself how to continuously improve your strategy, be ready to realign for change, and be ready to learn a little bit more with every experience.
And just in case you are wondering if I replied to space 22 little hate message, yes I did… sometimes you just have to have fun.
Below is a screenshot of our little interaction:
Tralala Media 