The concept that products, messages and behaviors spread in the same way as viruses is not a new one. The theory of memetics has been around for decades and recently spread through its own “word-of-mouth epidemic” started by Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point. But as social media marketers, the question we struggle to answer is not whether ideas spread like viruses; it’s how to get them to do so?
In his latest webinar on the science of social media, Dan Zarrella explored that question. Through his social media research, Dan has found that ideas do not spread because they’re “good;” they spread because of a series of other factors, which can be explained through his “hierarchy of contagiousness”:
In order to “go viral,” an idea has to have exposure (your audience need to be exposed to the idea), attention (the idea needs to grab your audiences’ attention) and motivation (the idea needs to motivate your audience to act, i.e. share the idea).
Here are three tips from Dan’s research for optimizing the exposure, attention and motivation in your social media marketing efforts:
Exposure
While we still believe engagement is critical to a successful social media marketing campaign, Dan’s research has found that publishing interesting content may play a more important role in increasing exposure:
- Twitter: There is a correlation between Tweeting many links and having a high number of followers. However, when measuring engagement through Tweets starting with @replies, Dan found handles with more than 1,000 followers actually engage in conversation less often than their counterparts with fewer followers.
- Blogs: Dan also found that there is no correlation between comments and links back to a blog post, or to the number of views a post receives.
Attention
In order to gain your audiences’ attention, it is important marketers do not crowd out their own content and that they use contra-competitive timing:
- Twitter: When looking at click-through rates by links Tweeted per hour, Dan found that as users crowd out their own content with multiple links, they garner less attention (measured by click-throughs) per piece of content.
- Facebook: In regards to timing, Dan found there is actually an uptick in Facebook shares per day on Saturdays and Sundays, because less content is shared on these days and many workplaces block Facebook from their employees.
Motivation
When trying to motivate people to share your content, remember that scarcity, simplicity and calls to action make a difference:
- Twitter: When looking at “word novelty” in ReTweets, Dan found that ReTweets tend to contain much rarer words. At the same time, Tweets that say “Please ReTweet” are ReTweeted four times more than posts without a direct call to action.
- Facebook: Posts that have nouns or verbs in the title are shared more frequently than those with adverbs or adjectives. Similarly, as the reading grade level increases, the frequency of shares decreases. So, simple content is more likely to motive your viewers.
More information on Dan Zarrella’s “Hierarchy of Contagiousness” can be found in his e-book available on Amazon.
What other factors have you seen influence when content reaches its “tipping point”?
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Email: aven@blisspr.com
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08/30/2011 at 5:27 PM Permalink
I agree that the number of blog post views and comments for blog posts, but what about the number of reblogs that occur? If an idea is shared by a highly connected part of a community and his followers (also potentially well networked) share the post, it could easily become very widely disseminated. the more this happens, the more influential that original blogger becomes. The more influential he becomes, the more exposure he will get in the future.
08/30/2011 at 6:04 PM Permalink
Hi Arthur –
Thank you for your comment. I think you make a great point that is very much aligned with Dan’s first rung in the hierarchy of contagiousness: exposure. For an idea to go viral, it’s important to optimize the number of people exposed to that idea or piece of content. If a highly networked person shares your post, you’re likely to see an increase in overall exposure.
Influence also plays a role in overall exposure. For example, Dan’s research has also shown that people who identify themselves authoritatively (founder, expert, author, etc.) have more followers than the average social network user.
08/31/2011 at 5:39 PM Permalink
Thanks Aven,
That’s exactly what I meant to say, I definitely agree with Dan’s conclusions and with this hierarchical structure.
Influence definitely plays a role in their exposure. Expanding on that idea, however, is the idea that not only is the blogger influential because the blogger claims to be an expert, but he/she is an expert because other bloggers find his/her content to be interesting and reliable enough that they want to spread the message themselves through linking/reposting. I think that just labeling yourself an expert or maven is not enough, as a part of a community, your content and words will automatically be vetted by your peers.
09/06/2011 at 7:17 PM Permalink
As a guy who’s been involved with viral videos totaling over 2.5 million views, let me say that emotional impact is key to motivation. Whether it’s one or two emotions, there’s an impact felt and that motivation is created.
It can sometimes be enough riff on the present day meme, but for the true viral concepts, you need to hit a zeitgeist or a more tremendous, impinging narrative. Of course, these need to be presented in a way that presents the correct type of exposure, with a specific type of attention, etc.
09/07/2011 at 11:25 AM Permalink
Hi Arthur –
Absolutely. The “proof of the pudding is in the eating,” as they say
09/07/2011 at 12:39 PM Permalink
Hi Charlie –
Thanks for sharing your experience. I agree with your point about emotion. If you want to motivate your audience to share your content, it’s important that you create content that resonates with them. It all goes back to knowing your audience and tailoring your content accordingly!