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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.

dog earphones

5:00 Friday Work Release Program

Ah, the weekend. 5:00PM on Friday brings joy and freedom to so many trapped in the cubes of the world. Here’s what we’ve been jamming to at the Everywhere office in the last week. Pump up the jams and get your weekend on!

 

For A Few Dollars More (Theme by Ennio Morricone)

Churchill - Change

Little Big Town - Tornado

THE BEST AROUND “Karate Kid” video & song

Justin Timberlake - Suit & Tie (Audio) ft. JAY Z

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Next Gen: Fashion, Music and Social Collide

Musical artists Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and now Iggy Azalea have helped music videos reclaim their power as musically-harmonized fashion platforms. Videos are selling fans not just on music, but on the icons and their trendsetting fashion statements.

Music networks such as MTV, BET and VH1 were originally created as outlets for music videos. Today these networks have changed course, placing a greater emphasis on reality television rather than music videos. Shows like TRL and 106 & Park have waned in viewership or have been cancelled and replaced with scripted and unscripted narratives like Punk’D, Awkward and Basketball Wives, among others. Though all these shows contain background music from the latest artists, this content doesn’t provide a strong platform supporting music videos or visual art.

In this social age, typically the first sight of endorsement of a brand or label by a musical artist is seen via Twitter rather than through music videos. In the past three decades before the arrival of Twitter and Facebook, we saw the likes of Madonna, Boy George and The Culture Club, and Janet Jackson creating music that not only aggregated millions of groupies and fans, but also set trends in fashion through their music videos. In the 80’s Prince made ruffled blouses paired with power shoulder blazers a staple. In the 90’s LL Cool J had everyone wearing one pant leg up. Today, with the rise of social media technology, the combination of music icons and fashion has come to a pinnacle.

Your favorite music artists are arguably admired just as much, or even more, for their personal styles than their actual music. We frequently see artists taking the place of models in editorials and in some cases on runways as style leaders, from Louis Vuitton and Pharrell, Armani and Rihanna or Adidas and Katy Perry. Even Reebok hired Rick Ross in hopes to re-emerge the brand as a fashionable sneaker in the urban community.

Enter Iggy Azalea, a newbie to the music industry recently signed to Interscope Records. Iggy’s curvaceous frame and sexy-sassy style has garnered just as much attention as her lyrical talent. Creating the world’s first experience with an interactive shoppable music video, the artist teamed up with Canadian fashion giant SSense to debut her latest music video “I Think She Ready” earlier this April. Using interactive hotspots, viewers can click on any of the looks on Iggy, featured artist FKi and Grammy-nominated producer Diplo for all the behind-the-scenes designer details from various spring/summer 2012 collections, including a link to purchase.

 

The female lyricist is adorned with a curve hugging Preen mini dress, winged Alexander Wang shades, and YSL shoes, but the most eye-catching piece is the Helmut Lang layered Helix dress. Just imagine, you can have Iggy’s exact ensemble, from the Maison Margiela cuffs to JBrand jeans, purchased and shipped to your home with a couple clicks of your mouse as soon as the video debuted on SSense.com. Fans no longer have to guess the brands worn by their favorite artists with all the information embedded in the music video.

“This is the first time the worlds of music, fashion and commerce have truly overlapped,” said SSense CEO Rami Atallah. “The integration we are introducing between technology, entertainment and retail with this video not only creates a unique experience for the audience, but also has utility. People often wonder what performers are wearing, where they can purchase that item - we have bridged that gap.” (source)

Social media gives fans immediate and direct access to the artists’ visual of the song — the music video. Additionally, engagement with the icon, whether you’re shopping their latest fashions or checking out their latest tweets, fans have the ability to completely bypass the old-school route of waiting for a video to air on an MTV countdown. Digital technology has allowed retailers to fuse music, fashion and commerce in one click.