40 million people can’t be wrong — The secrets of viral
Apr 10th
By Kerry Gorgone, {grow} Contributing Columnist
One of the standout sessions at SXSW Interactive this year was a presentation by Jonah Peretti of BuzzFeed. In it, he chronicled his journey from early viral sensation to creating a respected media channel boasting 40 million unique visitors.
Having spent more than 10 years studying his successes and failures to find the formula for “going viral,” Peretti is uniquely qualified to help marketers create content that gets shared. Here are some key points from his presentation.
Takeaways from @peretti and #powershift. Probably the best #sxsw session I’ve seen. Bold statement. twitter.com/nathanjokers/s…
— Nathan Jokers (@nathanjokers) March 12, 2013
Engage the “Bored at Work Network”
Millions of people find themselves idle at work from time to time. The importance of appealing to this audience cannot be overstated. “Collectively,” observed Peretti, “they create a network bigger than the BBC or NBC or CBS. More people can receive a piece of media if the ‘Bored at Work’ network likes it.” Case in point: “13 Simple Steps to Get You Through a Rough Day.”
Also optimize your content for mobile, so you can leverage the power of the advancing “Bored in Line” network, as well. Almost 40 percent of BuzzFeed’s traffic comes to the site via mobile, leading Peretti to conclude that “If you don’t optimize your content for mobile, you have zero chance of going viral.”
Understand Your Platform
Facebook is different from Twitter, which is different from Instagram, which is different from Google+. Your content, tone, and timing of posts must be adjusted according to the preferences of each specific community. The task isn’t as daunting as it sounds (you can use HootSuite or another tool to schedule posts), but it does require some thought.
Twitter posts have a half-life of one hour; Facebook about a day; Pinterest about one week. Plan accordingly, and don’t be afraid to repost the same link: just be sure to change the introductory text so you’re not making identical posts. Change the context, and introduce the post using a different angle; emphasize an aspect of the content that will appeal to a particular subset of your audience.
Once you understand how the platforms work, spend half your time refining your message, and half your time thinking about how to promote it. Don’t spend all your time on the idea, then consider about how to promote it as an afterthought. They are equally important.
Social content is changing advertising
We’re shifting back to the “Mad Men” days, when ads told a story and were an integral part of the entertainment experience. Advertising should add to your site, not detract from it. BuzzFeed eschews banner ads in favor of content marketing.
Consider the user experience: integrate advertising that enhances rather than disrupts. Banners don’t give you enough room to tell a story. “Social can help us get back to a golden age of advertising, where brands tell a story.” Combine a compelling story with the massive distribution you get from the social networking platforms.
Treat social like the Paris cafe
People love to linger over coffee at a Parisian cafe. They read philosophy, stop by pat a cute dog, flirt with someone at the next table. It’s all part of the experience. Your social presence needs be this inviting. Encourage people to stick around and engage.
Social networks have become people’s starting point for their online experience. Publishers need to be at the source, creating all types of content — news , branded content, and entertainment – and sharing it via social.
Social is a way of thinking, not a “trick.”
You can’t fool people into thinking that your business is social just because you’re on Facebook (or Pinterest, for that matter). The “trick” is that you must actually be a social entity, equipped with a sense of community and engagement. Scheduling posts that go out into the void will not propel you to social success: failing to engage with your customers in the social space will ultimately hurt your business.
Think in a way that is compatible with social:
- Have a heart. EQ is as important as IQ, possibly even more important. As Peretti observed, “Google is about information: social networks are about emotion.”
- Content is about identity. Enable people to communicate something about themselves that uniquely identifies them. Content that a few people care deeply about is more likely to get shared because it defines them. Example: “32 Absolute Worst Parts About Being Tall.”
- Humor is inherently social. Laughing with people brings us closer, but you don’t have to use humor. Nostalgia works, too. The key is tapping into common experiences.
Incidentally, don’t post things people would be embarrassed to share. People may want to see naked celebrity photos, but they use search for that, not social. What people want to see and what they want to share are two different things, so make your content sharable if you want a chance at going “viral.”
If you have some time, I highly recommend listening to Peretti’s presentation. His talk is informative and entertaining: much like the content that marketers need to create!
Kerry O’Shea Gorgone, JD/MBA, teaches New Media Marketing in the Internet Marketing Master of Science Program at Full Sail University in Winter Park Florida. Follow her on Twitter: @KerryGorgone
Social Media’s Mass Attention Myth
Feb 6th
By Srinivas Rao, Contributing {grow} Columnist
On two separate occasions and in two different ways I’ve been discouraged from the pursuit of mass attention. The irony is that it came from people who many of us consider wildly popular.
Mass attention is almost unattainable and it’s not clear that you want it. – Seth Godin
There’s no value to working hard on being really popular. – Chris Brogan
Despite knowing this, the following question comes up over and over again
- How do I get more traffic
- How do I grow my audience?
Ask it enough times and you might as well be asking “How do I get mass attention?”
The end of the popular kid in school
If you’ve spent time in junior high then you probably had some point in your life when you wanted to be one of the popular kids. Maybe they dressed better than you did. They had the latest pair of air Jordans. They got all the attention. You wished you were one of them. But take a look at the popular kids from high school now … their popularity in that point of time is meaningless.
Fame is Relative
My dad has no idea who Seth Godin is even though there are copies of his books sitting right on my the desk. When he saw my pictures from New Media Expo with Guy Kawasaki he wondered what all the fuss was about. It’s possible you’re reading this and you’ve never heard of me, Mark Schaefer or anybody else who I’ve mentioned. Maybe we need to be asking ourselves a different question than how do I get more attention?
How Do I Take Better Care of the Attention I Have?
A few years ago I dreamed of becoming “famous” by interviewing the most successful people because I thought they would share my interviews. That didn’t happen. The audience only started to grow when I focused on how to make my content as valuable as possible for the people who were already there, even if there were only a few of them. This is how audiences and readers turn into tribes and communities. I think we should abandon all of the following questions
- How do I get more traffic
- How do I get m more eyeballs
- How do I grow my audience
Diminishing those who spend their valued attention with you to nothing but metrics and measurements is tragic. ALWAYS remember that there is a human being on the other end of the screen. Whether you’re selling widgets or e-books, you have people and tribe members, not buyers, listeners, or an audience. If we can start to see the world through this lens, which requires a leap of faith, I believe the metrics will take care of themselves.
The Future Belongs to the Fanatics
Here are some people I’ve met who have built tribes of absolute fanatics.
- Danielle Laporte has a cult following. People hang on her words. They spread her message for her. I published interviews with her and Tim Ferriss in the same week. Guess which one was more popular … by a landslide?
- Talk to an Erika Lyremark fan and you’ll see the same effect. It’s a tribe of fanatics spreading a message to the few they deem worthy of an invitation. It’s an exclusive club that people want to be a part of.
- Mars Dorian, is a regular contributor here at {grow} and is having the same effect on people. Ask any of his fans what they think about him and you’ll get something along the lines of “I can’t wait to meet that guy in person.”
When these people talk, the tribe listens. If you’re wondering why, the answer is simple. They care. They show up when we need them. They tug at our heartstrings. We miss them when they’re not around. There’s no blog post that can tell you how to do this. There’s no three step formula. It’s just a way of showing up in the world.
Disrupt the mainstream, fragment the masses
The way I see it you can either give all your energy to five fanatics or pursue the lukewarm masses. I think the choice is obvious. You might be frustrated reading this because unlike my last few posts I haven’t offered a single tactic. But I”ll leave you with this quote.
“People who are scrambling for tactics are almost always stalling. Strategy is important, but tactics tend to take care of themselves.” – Seth Godin
Maybe it’s simply enough to “care deeply”?
What do YOU think?
Srinivas Rao writes about the things you should have learned in school, but never did and his the host-co founder of BlogcastFM. You can follow him on twitter @skooloflife
Four ways to become a spellbinding online personality
Sep 12th
By Mars Dorian, Contributing {grow} Columnist
I always try to find deeper ways to connect with my audience and customers. The web can separate your site from your audience by oceans, and to bridge that distance, you have to fight hard to make that connection.
I drew the following cartoons to express what I believe are some of the most effective ways to connect with your audience and build an online presence that is SPELLBINDING!
1) Become the signal. Get rid of the noise
Some people have earned permanent residency in the echo chamber.
After all, it’s a cozy place. Easy to maintain. No extra care required. But I challenge you to ditch that space when you TRULY want to make a difference with your business and marketing. You see, I read Seth Godin, like probably a lot of you. Feverishly. But the danger with admiring your role models is copying them without having their experience. And that’s what is happening — marketers copying Godin left and right.
They talk about standing out, building tribes, and being a linchpin.
You know it’s not coming from them. You know they have NO experience to foster that claim.
Seth Godin says “tribe,” “remarkable,” “linchpin” and they rehash it like it’s the cure to mortality.
It’s noise.
Leverage your OWN experience — if you want spread the idea of being remarkable, standing out and going all the way to the edge with your marketing, then actually do it. Let your actions get the message across because then it will be authentic, and people will learn from your real experience, instead of tweeting some repeated impressive-sounding but ultimately shallow phrase. Instead of adding noise to the echo chamber, become the SIGNAL.
2) Uncover the mask.
I recently met an online client in the offline world (still remember how to do that?), and I was FLABBERGASTED to say the least. That quirky, nuclear-powered, vibrant person I met was NOT the stiff and stilted persona that I have known from the online realm.
She later confessed to me that she disguised herself online to appear more professional, putting on a mask every day. You know the spiel — mission statement with incomprehensible gibberish “I set up system to maximize your online visibility and managementyadadada…”, a stockphoto profile pic and glossy-blue brand design because it feels corporate and professional. Arghghghhgh.
Like Tara Gentile says, we live in a “You” economy nowadays, and that means you have to bring your original style, beliefs, obsessions, and quirks, combined with your brand promise to form a holistic perception.
In other words, hold your “freak” flag high and proudly. And that’s how you’ll attract like-minded customers who will love to make business with you.
Ditch that mask.
3) Don’t just explain. Tell stories.
It’s hard to write about this because the whole aspect of “storytelling” in the online marketing space has more hype than hyperspace.
But the truth is, storytelling is and ALWAYS will be effective. We have been storying since we were smelly monkeys scribbling pictures of beasts on the cave walls. Stories helped us survive, because we could share life-saving experiences without actually going through them ourselves. We are still wired to prefer stories over any other content form, and that’s why you should use it excessively.
A press release blog post puts us to sleep but tell us a story and we’re engaged like a piñata filled with fireworks.
Look at your brand, your company, your blog, yourself and tell us your stories.
4) Mesmerize me.
Ahhh … I’ve held on to the most difficult thing for last. Is marketing today anything more than having a good looking website with grrrreat content?
Isn’t everybody going after the SAME THING? How are you going to cut through the noise and grab your visitors by the throat? Why do you come back to the {grow} blog again and again? Here’s why. Mark Schaefer provides mesmerizing content.
How can YOU achieve that? I think it comes from a place of absolute congruence between your personality, your platform, your message, and a certain creative spark.
Another mesmerizing guy is Gary Vaynerchuk. His soul belongs to video. The guy seems like he was born with a video camera in his cradle, and that’s why people watch him, even if they couldn’t care less about wine. If he tried his hand at blog writing, he wouldn’t be nearly as captivating, because it’s not his domain.
Mitch Joel provides mesmerizing podcasts because he’s a masterful interviewer.
I communicate through cartoons.
It’s all about which style you connect the MOST with, and then conveying that in your message in an entertaining and interesting way.
I know, it’s kind of meta. But don’t you find it mesmerizing 
?
Mars Dorian describes himself as a creative marketeer with a moon-melting passion for human potential and technology. You can follow his adventures at www.marsdorian.com/
Original illustrations by the author.
OK. 30,000 followers. Now what?
Oct 31st
Back in college I had this hilarious geology professor who told me that “tsunami” was Japanese for “Where in the hell did all that water come from?”
That’s kind of how I feel about life on the web at the moment. I just hit 30,000 followers. That’s crazy.
Two years ago, I started a tradition of documenting my social media journey and at each major milestone, I write a post describing what it is like and how things are going. I just hit 30,000 followers so it is time to reflect on the situation.
When I started writing this post, it started out describing the mechanics of connecting with so many followers but it morphed into a psychological self-examination. I decided to cut out the parts about Twitter tips and expose the raw edge because there has been a significant personal development since my last “journey” blog post.
In a very small way, in a very small niche, I am achieving an element of celebrity. I have a gag reflex even saying that, but I can’t be honest without describing it that way. And I’m not handling this situaiton so well.
The tribe grows
First, the numbers. Friends and followers has grown as I mentioned, but is also escalating. It took me 18 months to get 10,000 followers, a year for 20,000 and six months for 30,000. This is being fueled by teaching, speaking, The Tao Twitter, and the blog.
My virtual assistant and I continue to prune the spammers. If I didn’t do that I would probably have 100,000 followers by now. I love the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, all my Twitter followers are real people. So the number is big, but the tribe is real, and amazing!
Whether it is because of the “social proof” of the numbers or (hopefully) the way I am connecting with people through my speaking and writing, people are starting to describe me as an “A-Lister.” This makes me cringe. I walked into a room last week and somebody said “here’s the superstar.” Some people tell me they are “fans.” Others have said they are afraid to talk to me.
This is a deeply uncomfortable situation. I am just a guy writing a blog, a husband, a father, a friend, a son, a brother, a teacher, a writer, a business adviser. That’s plenty for me. That’s a good place to be.
Celebrity as a mindset
This notion of “celebrity” exists in people’s minds and there is nothing I can do about that, but here is my wish: I want you to know that I am no more worthy than you … or anybody, for that matter. Every person is amazing in their own way.
I know when people use these terms they are meant with affection and I want to handle it with grace but boy I am out of my element with this fan stuff. And it’s about to get much worse.
This situation is going to be profoundly more challenging when my new book comes out in a few months (will be announcing this in a few days when the title is finalized). Here is my promise on the book — It is going to be unlike any other book you have ever read on business and marketing. You are going to love it. And I know that to do a good job for my publisher McGraw Hill, I’m going to have to be in the spotlight. In fact, I will need to seek it.
That “40,000 milestone report” I will be writing for you a few months from now is going to be interesting. How do I promote myself and this book without coming across as a jerk? I am seriously concerned about this. It goes against the grain. I love to write, teach, and help businesses grow, but I don’t seek to be a “celebrity.” Increasingly, that seems impossible to avoid.
The results of the experiment?
Now I know this seems improbable. You may be thinking … “Geez you idiot, how can you expect to write a book and not have to deal with the spotlight?”
I have been simply following what seems like a natural path. Consulting and teaching led to the blog. The blog led to The Tao of Twitter, which took off like a rocket. That book led to more speaking and exposure. New ideas formed and I started writing the next book. And then, I looked up and people were calling me an “A-Lister.” Ummm …. what???
People go into acting to become famous. People run for office to achieve power. I did not start the blog to become a celebrity. It was an experiment.
And here is what the experiment proved. With content and an engaged network, anybody can have influence now. Even me.
So it is what it is. I know that as long as I am engaging and writing, people will have this expectation of me and that’s the way it will be from now on. So I need to view this as a privilege and deal with it gracefully.
This turned into a stream of consciousness blog post, eh? Maybe too weird? Oh well. I decided to let it rip. Yes, this is one of those times I wondered about pushing the “publish” button. I exposed the edge and took a risk but I trust you guys.
Are celebrities made or born? Do you have to have a certain kind of personality to thrive in the spotlight?
I know I can stay centered in my personal life, but is it possible to find joy outside the comfort zone? How do I re-frame this situation so I can stop cringing every time somebody puts me in the spotlight?
Take the Mystery Out of Twitter!
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