What Makes Content Spreadable?
Monday, December 7, 2009
Problems Comparison Chart: Tiger Woods Vs. Jay Z
This image, posted to Buzzfeed, now has over 26,434 views making it the 7th "Most Viral" post of the week, the 4th "Most Shared" post of the week, and making me one of the Top 20 most viewed contributors of the week.
So, why did this particular JPG spread so much further and faster than the average image posted to the web?
UPDATE: Here are some key stats direct from the official Buzzfeed Editor's Dashboard
On Thursday Dec. 3rd, at the height of Tiger Woods nonsense, my co-worker Clay Parker Jones came up with the brilliant idea that it would be funny to compare Jay-Z's 99 problems - none of which have anything to do with women - to Tiger Woods' problems - all of which have everything to do with women.
We both made funny info-graphics illustrating the joke and put them up on the interwebs.
At first we posted them to our Tumblr accounts, and within minutes they were receiving several likes and reblogs (one of the best things about Tumblr is how quickly you can find out if something is going to spread). We posted the link to Twitter, and watched the link get LOLs and RTs.
After seeing that we were on to something, I posted my chart to Buzzfeed, where I'm an occasional contributor and have had a few posts on the front page before. I used Twitter to give the new post a shot of attention, and was lucky enough to get moved to the home page within about an hour after submitting up the post.
Once the image made the homepage of Buzzfeed it quickly gained views, badges, and new blog pick ups on a few other popular blogs including FastCompany, GorrillaMask, and FlowingData.
Aside from luck, and a great platform for lift-off (Buzzfeed), there are a few key ingredients that contributed to making this image catch on. A few things that any brand hoping to do the same with their message should keep in mind.
Humor
Things that are funny, generally spread more easily because they are a fantastic way for us to define our collective identity. We tell our friends a joke, and if we both laugh, then we're both IN, if only one of us laughs, then one of us is IN and the other is OUT.
Timing
This was extremely timely, created and posted on the same day that interest in Tiger Woods and his troubles reached its peak. And then with the added bonus of Friday Dec 4th being Jay Z's birthday.
A Dry Forest
As Duncan Watts has shown in his tipping-point-busting research, the distance that an idea will spread doesn't depend on the originating source, but rather on the structure of the network and how receptive the network is to the idea. In my case, the idea of making jokes out of charts was an already well established and appreciated internet behavior (especially with hip-hop related content). There was a ready hunger for this kind of content.
Social Currency
Lastly, content spreads best when it is taken from one interest group and shared with a new one. Think of these interest groups as barely overlapping social networks; if your idea makes the jump from one tightly connected network over to a new one, you've just expanded your audience and reach exponentially. This Jay Z / Tiger Woods chart satisfied many overlapping interest communities on the web, as illustrated in the interest map below.
This image, posted to Buzzfeed, now has over 26,434 views making it the 7th "Most Viral" post of the week, the 4th "Most Shared" post of the week, and making me one of the Top 20 most viewed contributors of the week.
So, why did this particular JPG spread so much further and faster than the average image posted to the web?
UPDATE: Here are some key stats direct from the official Buzzfeed Editor's Dashboard
On Thursday Dec. 3rd, at the height of Tiger Woods nonsense, my co-worker Clay Parker Jones came up with the brilliant idea that it would be funny to compare Jay-Z's 99 problems - none of which have anything to do with women - to Tiger Woods' problems - all of which have everything to do with women.
We both made funny info-graphics illustrating the joke and put them up on the interwebs.
At first we posted them to our Tumblr accounts, and within minutes they were receiving several likes and reblogs (one of the best things about Tumblr is how quickly you can find out if something is going to spread). We posted the link to Twitter, and watched the link get LOLs and RTs.
After seeing that we were on to something, I posted my chart to Buzzfeed, where I'm an occasional contributor and have had a few posts on the front page before. I used Twitter to give the new post a shot of attention, and was lucky enough to get moved to the home page within about an hour after submitting up the post.
Once the image made the homepage of Buzzfeed it quickly gained views, badges, and new blog pick ups on a few other popular blogs including FastCompany, GorrillaMask, and FlowingData.
Aside from luck, and a great platform for lift-off (Buzzfeed), there are a few key ingredients that contributed to making this image catch on. A few things that any brand hoping to do the same with their message should keep in mind.
Humor
Things that are funny, generally spread more easily because they are a fantastic way for us to define our collective identity. We tell our friends a joke, and if we both laugh, then we're both IN, if only one of us laughs, then one of us is IN and the other is OUT.
Timing
This was extremely timely, created and posted on the same day that interest in Tiger Woods and his troubles reached its peak. And then with the added bonus of Friday Dec 4th being Jay Z's birthday.
A Dry Forest
As Duncan Watts has shown in his tipping-point-busting research, the distance that an idea will spread doesn't depend on the originating source, but rather on the structure of the network and how receptive the network is to the idea. In my case, the idea of making jokes out of charts was an already well established and appreciated internet behavior (especially with hip-hop related content). There was a ready hunger for this kind of content.
Social Currency
Lastly, content spreads best when it is taken from one interest group and shared with a new one. Think of these interest groups as barely overlapping social networks; if your idea makes the jump from one tightly connected network over to a new one, you've just expanded your audience and reach exponentially. This Jay Z / Tiger Woods chart satisfied many overlapping interest communities on the web, as illustrated in the interest map below.
4 Comments:
This is awesome on many levels.
Geeky question: What do you guys use to create your data visualisations?
Thanks as always for the inspiration,
Nick
Both of these were created with Apple Keynote. And the Jay Z / Tiger Woods chart was adapted from a design created for Undercurrent by Nicholas Felton, aka Feltron.
But, usually I use Adobe Illustrator and InDesign for the infographics on my blog.
Great stuff Mike - nice accidental viral + nice analysis.
Nice.
Couldn't agree more. It's nice to see that you did not only launch an accidental viral but also attached the analysis. It's pretty functional in a way. And pretty emotional in another.
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