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How To Make Something Go Viral On Social Media (NOT)

It’s 2015 and I still get asked that dreaded question posed to nearly every social media marketer. That question is, “Can you make this go viral?” My answer is always the same, “You can’t make something go viral any more than you can make a toddler eat spinach.” I always stress to think “shareable” instead of viral and to think long and hard about your goals. Ultimately, the thing to ponder is whether you are building an idea or campaign that people will share without prompting. Going viral is an almost hopeless aspiration, yet there are a few strategies marketers can consider to encourage the possibility.

Here are three questions to pose if you’re thinking you have that viral campaign. After you ask these, you may just think again.

  1. Is it about you or is it about them? If you want people to share your campaign, it cannot be about you. It has to be about them, the sharer. Think of the Ice Bucket Challenge. We all know that ALS had nothing to do with the origins of that campaign. What made that concept go viral was the fact that it was about the sharer. Crazy folks around the globe decided it would be funny to drop a bucket of ice on their head. The act became about their reaction to said ice and along the way ALS was occasionally mentioned.
  2. Is it memorable? Any thing you want to be shared on social media has to be easy to repeat, easy to remember, easy to spell. When the Everywhere Agency won the Guinness World Record for #BeatCancer, it was because those two words, Beat and Cancer, were easy to remember and words you could not forget or confuse. Clients often come to me with concepts that align with their marketing strategy, but unfortunately don’t have that easy, memorable, catchy hook. If there’s a chance it can get misconstrued, misspelled or misaligned, it likely will be.
  3. Is it inherently shareable? We all hopefully learned about sharing sometime after we emerged from the toddler period of existence… but think about what’s shareable in your life now. Funny ideas, gossip, and breaking news all fall under that category. Your brand manifesto or marketing campaign is not. Shareable is something you go out of your way to do and if your campaign does not have that easy click, send appeal of gossip, or a funny story, it won’t get shared.

There’s a video right now on YouTube, which is sponsored by the Card Store. It’s called #WorldsToughestJob and it features a dude interviewing potential job candidates for a job which requires candidates to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The potential job candidates are incredulous and frankly so are we as we watch. Who could expect anyone to be available, on your feet, ready to respond to any demand of your employer 365 days of the year, 7 days a week. The denouement comes when the dry interviewer reveals that the job in question is being a mom. Spoiler alert – you’ll need to get out your handkerchief at that point. The video has been viewed over 23M times (at the writing of this blog post) and it isn’t until the last 16 seconds of this 4-minute video that the brand is even mentioned.

That’s what I call shareable, er, viral.

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Join Us To #BeatCancer

We’re at it again. We are setting out to #beatcancer and beat our previous Guinness World Record. We’ll be at BlogWorld this weekend and starting at 9 am PST today, Friday, October 15th lasting until 9 am PST tomorrow, Saturday 10/16 join us as we use social media for social good. Hopefully you’ll see tweets and Facebook posts in our effort to #beatcancer and beat our previous record. Along the way, we’re raising money for several cancer fighting organizations. SWAGG and PayPal will donate 5 cents (.05) for every tweet, Facebook status update, and blog post that includes #beatcancer. All money raised will be donated to non-profit cancer fighting organizations including Bright Pink, Stand Up To Cancer and the LIVESTRONG Foundation.

SWAGG’s commitment to the fight against cancer continues on from there. Prior to the official product launch, consumers can pledge to download the app at www.beatcancereverywhere.com. SWAGG will then donate $1 to Stand Up To Cancer, up to $125,000!

We all know someone who has been affected by cancer. Please take the next 24 hours to make a difference and help with the fight against cancer!

Thanks!
The Everywhere Team

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Agency Sets Guinness World Record with Social Media Campaign

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By in Tanya Lewis in PR Week

ATLANTA: In less than one week, Atlanta-based social media marketing agency Everywhere conceived and executed a one-day pro-bono campaign that raised more than $70,000 for four nonprofit cancer organizations. The effort also set a Guinness World Record for the most widespread social network message in a 24-hour period with 209,771 mentions on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs.
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#Charity

By Pat McCarthy on The WOMMA Word

WOMMA

The Twitter phenomenon is still developing and one uplifting use of the microblogging site has come to light, charity. There have been several charitable campaigns that used Twitter’s viral nature to generate awareness and piles of money. World records were broken when #BeatCancer was unleashed for a 24-hour period. eBay, MillerCoors, and Genesis Today pledged one cent for every tweet with the hashtag. Other social media platforms have found ways to benefit charities as well. Fun little games that allow users to buy credits have been used to raise money for children in Haiti. All the while, these apps and tweet drives are bringing a community together and starting countless conversations.

To read the article on The WOMMA Word, click here.

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Social network updates a friend to charities

By Niala Boodhoo and Bridget Carey in The Miami Herald

Miami Herald

If you’ve had a friend suggest lately that you become a fan of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Southern Florida, you’re not alone — it’s part of a new strategy by the local nonprofit to get involved in social media.

In six months, the group has created thousands of fans and even seen individual giving increase since it established a presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Richard Kelly, 42, the vice president and chief operating officer, dabbled in Facebook for a few months to get an idea of what he calls the “nuance and power” behind the site before the foundation created its page.

Kelly said initially the idea was to delve into social media just to create awareness about the organization, which fulfills wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses.

“We understand the demographics and the way that people get their news has changed,” Kelly said. “People get their news in many ways and we’re going to deliver it that way.”

In the past year, the local arm fulfilled 479 wishes for the children and families it serves in 13 counties in the southern half of the state.

The staff of the nonprofit, based in Fort Lauderdale, modeled its page after the national Make-A-Wish page, which has more than 86,000 fans.

Once the local page was created, Make-A-Wish reached out to a core group of staff, board members and volunteers and asked them to suggest to 10 friends that they become fans of the Facebook page they created. In the past six months, the page has gained 4,250 fans.

The organization also tells the stories of Florida children and their wishes through a Twitter account (@makeawishsfla) and a YouTube channel, which they also use to promote events and fundraisers, including a link that directs people to donate.

“We’re looking to share our stories and our mission — and if fundraising comes with it, that’s great,” said Kelly, who said they have seen a small increase in individual giving to the local foundation in the six months since they’ve created a social media presence.

The Facebook and Twitter accounts are updated at least once a day by Kelly or other staff, who also monitor the comments and interact with other people.

The local Make-A-Wish Foundation is just one of many nonprofits that have started to establish a presence on social media sites. Recently, an Atlanta-based social media company called EVERYWHERE came up with a fundraising idea: for every mention of the phrase “beat cancer” on Twitter, in Facebook status updates and on blogs, they would have sponsors donate a penny.

Over a 24-hour period that started on Oct. 17, the group was able to get more than 200,000 mentions. The #beatcancer hashtag, a keyword that Twitter users use to keep track of similar topics, quickly became one of the most used terms of the day.

EVERYWHERE’s Tamara Knechtel said the goal now is to use social media to generate large mass donations: “If we were able to generate $70,000 in 24 hours, what do you think we could do in 365 days?”

To read the article in The Miami Herald, click here.

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#BeatCancer Sets a Guinness World Record For Most Widespread Social Network Message in 24 Hours

EVERYWHERE, a Social Media Marketing and Content Development firm based in Atlanta, GA set a record October 16-17th for the most widespread social network message in 24 hours. According to Radian6, the official online monitoring company, the phrase #BeatCancer set the record with 209,771 mentions on Twitter, Facebook and blog posts. This translates into an estimated number of impressions generated during this 24-hour period at over 100 Million. Attendees at BlogWorld & New Media Expo, which featured some of the biggest names in social media, were asked to send tweets and issue Facebook status updates with #BeatCancer in their posts. This massive viral effort spawned a worldwide online message that spread and quickly became the #1 most trending topic on Twitter. Not content to just perpetuate a hashtag followed by a message, EVERYWHERE sought out sponsors to raise money for non-profit cancer organizations. Sponsors eBay/PayPal and MillerCoors Brewing Company and Genesis Today were financial contributors to the #BeatCancer campaign and in the brief 24 hour period, over $70,000 was raised.

Of the effort, Guinness World Record® spokesperson, Stuart Claxton said, “We’re always on the lookout for new and exciting ideas, and when approached about a mass social media experiment that rallied people to support the fight against cancer, we were happy to oblige in adjudicating this record attempt.” He further clarified that this attempt “will set a benchmark for social media monitoring moving forward.”
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#BeatCancer Breaks Twitter Trends and Sets Guinness World Record

By Angela on BlackWeb 2.0

EVERYWHERE, a Social Media Marketing and Content Development firm based in Atlanta, GA set a record October 16-17th for the most widespread social network message in 24 hours. According to Radian6, the official online monitoring company, the phrase #BeatCancer set the record with 209,771 mentions on Twitter, Facebook and blog posts. This translates into an estimated number of impressions generated during this 24-hour period at over 100 Million. Attendees at BlogWorld & New Media Expo, which featured some of the biggest names in social media, were asked to send tweets and issue Facebook status updates with #BeatCancer in their posts. This massive viral effort spawned a worldwide online message that spread and quickly became the #1 most trending topic on Twitter. Not content to just perpetuate a hashtag followed by a message, EVERYWHERE sought out sponsors to raise money for non-profit cancer organizations. Sponsors eBay/PayPal and MillerCoors Brewing Company and Genesis Today were financial contributors to the #BeatCancer campaign and in the brief 24 hour period, over $70,000 was raised.

Of the effort, Guinness World Record® spokesperson, Stuart Claxton said, “We’re always on the lookout for new and exciting ideas, and when approached about a mass social media experiment that rallied people to support the fight against cancer, we were happy to oblige in adjudicating this record attempt.” He further clarified that this attempt “will set a benchmark for social media monitoring moving forward.”

Managing Partner of EVERYWHERE, Tamara Knechtel, who came up with the idea for #BeatCancer says, “We understand very well the power brands have to deliver messages in the social media space. We wanted to score the first Guinness World Record® by using social media for social good. I’m a cancer survivor and just about everyone I know has a close family member who has suffered from the disease. That said, we only had a matter of days to pull this off in time for BlogWorld & New Media Expo. We are grateful to our sponsors, eBay/PayPal and MillerCoors who stepped up to the plate offering a penny per #BeatCancer mention. In the end, they both gave far more than a penny per mention!” EVERYWHERE is now the first social media agency to develop a Guinness World Record for online impressions.

The money raised will be donated to four different non-profit cancer organizations including SU2C (Stand UP to Cancer), Alex’s Lemonade, Bright Pink, and Spirit Jump. All of the non-profits are 501(c)(3) organizations and accredited by The American Cancer Society. A listing of all organizations can be found at www.beatcancereverywhere.com. While the campaign is over, individuals may still donate at the aforementioned website.

The measurement firm Radian 6 provided all of the real-time tracking for the campaign. As of this release the current impressions total over one million mentions of #BeatCancer including tweets sent by athletes and celebrities including P. Diddy, Jermaine Dupri, Larry Fitzgerald, MC Hammer, Perez Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Maxwell, Alicia Keys, Shawne Merriman, and Denise Richards.

Click here to read the article on BlackWeb 2.0.

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Twoppics

Stories behind the hottest topics on twitter on Fox News Radio

She is back. Rihanna, hitting the airwaves with the first single “Russian Roulette” off her upcoming album entitled Rated R. It’s her first solo song since her altercation with then-boyfriend Chris Brown on February 8th. Twitter’s reviews are in: @monicareyhani tweets verdict on “russian roulette“: rihanna should have chosen a dance song as the first single, but i bet we won’t have to wait long for one.

The hot twoppic of the day is balloon boy. Yes, it is believed to be an elaborate hoax planned by the Heenes, who were hoping to land a reality TV show. Charges have yet to be filed, but the main issue now is the children. @ trexy79 tweets I feel bad for the “balloon boy“…how ,much therapy is that poor kid gonna need when he’s grown up?

According to internet chatter, one group found a way to use twitter for a seriously good cause. #beatcancer is the hot twoppic of the week, a campaign started by Beat Cancer Everywhere, a website that works to raise money for breast cancer research. The goal was to set a Guinness Book World Record for the distribution of the largest mass message through social media within 24 hours, from October 16-17th. For each mention of #beatcancer, one cent was donated to breast cancer research. Facebook and blog mentions counted too. According to Radian6, the official online monitoring company, the phrase #beatcancer set a record with over 200,000 mentions on Twitter, Facebook and blog posts with an estimated 100 million impressions over 24 hours and over $70,000 raised.

Those are your hot twoppics, on FOX News Radio.

To see the story on FoxNewsRadio.com, click here.

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Current Twitter trends: ‘Beat Cancer’, ‘Music Monday’

Relax News from The Independent

People including the term “beat cancer (#beatcancer)” within their tweets, status updates and blog posts between October 16-17 set a Guinness World Record for the most number of mentions on social networking sites.

The term “#beatcancer” continues to trend on October 20 and is the most talked about topic on Twitter at 8:30 AM GMT.

#BeatCancer is a project that aims to use social media to raise money and awareness for people living with cancer.The social media experiment was created by Atlanta-based social media communications and company, Everywhere.

Bloggers and social media users were asked to post messages that would raise money for four cancer charities associated with the #BeatCancer project and, at the same time, break the world record for “the distribution of the largest mass message through social media.”

Online auction site eBay pledged to donate $0.01 for every post on Twitter, update on Facebook or blog post that included the phrase #BeatCancer.

The world record was beaten with over 209,771 people posting messages about the topic on Facebook, Twitter and personal blogs on October 16 and 17. The organizers of the #BeatCancer campaign believe this number correlated to over 100 million impressions during the 24-hour period.

People on Twitter continue to post about bands and musicians they like on the morning of October 20, making the Monday trend of #MusicMonday continue over into Tuesday’s trending topics.

The top 10 most talked about topics on Twitter on October 20 at 8:30 AM GMT are:

1. #beatcancer (+4)
2. #MusicMonday (unchanged)
3. Paranormal Activity (+4)
4. Goodnight (+4)
5. Halloween (+4)
6. #internetnecesario (new)
7. Makasih (new)
8. Twitter Bug Exposes (new)
9. A Complete List Of (new)
10. Balloon Boy (unchanged)

To read the article on The Independent, click here.