How to leverage Internet without even trying

Do you know what the ALS Ice Bucket challenge is?

I’m willing to bet that you do, and for a very simple reason. It’s the same reason that you know what a selfie is, and that you know how to pronounce the word “lolcat.”

The simple reason you know all of this is because of the phenomenon of virality, The Oxford English Dictionary defines virality as the tendency of an image, video or other piece of information to be circulated rapidly and widely from one Internet user to another.

The power of virality can’t be underestimated; ot’s what makes the Internet a unique and indisputably important marketing platform.

User-to-user content sharing, which is responsible for virality, has proved to be able to bring content to 9 million viewers in a single week – for free!

This month I set out to explore what makes something go viral. First, let’s consider these three concrete examples:

Ice Bucket Challenge

This summer, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge went incredibly viral as public personalities and everyday people posted videos of themselves pouring ice water over their heads. Every backyard in the country seemed to have been captured on film. The Challenge encouraged people to do this stunt in order to promote awareness of the disease, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and to increase donations for research.

It was simple and powerful peer pressure, of a good kind. A lot of the excitement built because you had to be nominated by a friend to do this chilling thing and to record it for others to see. Nominees who were camera (or bucket) shy could just donate money and avoid the bracing cold shower.

It sounds simple, but it made a huge splash. The challenge went around the world, and by Aug. 21 they had 739,000 new donors and had received $41.8 million, according to The New York Times. One month after the challenge blew up, the association had collected more than $100 million. By comparison, the year prior’s donations topped out close to $20 million. That’s a whopping increase thanks to one incredibly great idea. It cost the association nothing to launch the challenge, and they collected more than $100 million for ALS research in about a month. That’s the power of virality.

Ellen’s selfie

If you saw the Academy Awards, then you saw it. The selfie that host Ellen DeGeneres took with a handful of other celebrities during the March 2 awards broadcast is the most retweeted image ever.

What is a selfie, anyway? A selfie is a photo you take of yourself by holding your phone out in front of you and snapping a picture. Where does it end up? It gets posted to social media sites – Facebook, Twitter, etc. Ellen tweeted hers. Her tweet broke the previous retweet record after 40 minutes. In the first hour, it was retweeted more than 1.8 million times. By June 24 it had officially been retweeted 3,415,871 times. The previous record, 778,801, was held by Barack Obama after he won the 2012 presidential election.

One might argue that DeGeneres was on television, being watched by millions of people, and took a picture with some of the most famous celebrities in the world today. But I want to focus on the fact that in a few short months 3.5 million people have voluntarily shared the content that she produced – and half of them did it in the first hour! There’s no amount of money that could get 3.5 million people to do something voluntarily, but virality enables us to encourage and track just that.

Don’t mess with Texas

In a sense, virality has always been with us, because great, sharable content has always spread like wildfire when it meets with the right conditions and gets a little lucky. Here’s an example of pre-Internet virality.

“Don’t mess with Texas” was a slogan invented by the Texas Department of Transportation with the intention of reducing litter on roadways in the vast state. Boy, did it work!

Between 1986 and 1990, the campaign is credited with reducing highway litter by 72 percent. But not just that: it became a statewide cultural phenomenon and one of the most recognizable state slogans ever. It’s on cups and shirts everywhere, not just Texas – and it all started because someone had a bright idea that caught on. The power of virality isn’t limited by the Internet; it’s just significantly enhanced by it. A good idea can always take hold.

What is it that fuels this type of attention and result?

The New York Times recently looked at its list of “most emailed” articles and drew some fascinating conclusions about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to virality. It turns out that you can determine whether content might go viral four ways: Is it “awe-inspiring, emotional, positive or surprising?”

“Don’t mess with Texas” and Ellen’s selfie might fall into the “emotional” category. Big old Texas pride, and the awe of seeing so many celebrities in one impromptu picture were enough to stoke the fires of virality.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was an example of blending the four ways to go viral. It was awe-inspiring and surprising to see someone pour a bucket of ice water on herself, and it was emotional and positive because of the cause it supported. That may be why the Challenge was such a huge hit — it was made for the contemporary marketing world.

Virality proves that when you deliver content that users really want, you’ve evolved as a marketer. When everyone is sharing your photo, using your slogan or singing your song, it’s because you found something that the people in your community want and/or need. It’s because your content resonates with the people it was intended for – and that’s no small accomplishment.

In the Internet age, it can mean exponential gains. What is your next idea? Look how far a single thought can propel you!

Laurie Macomber, owner of Fort Collins-based Blue Skies Marketing, can be reached at 970-689-3000.

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