What to do if your content goes viral
One day you may have a brilliant idea for a Facebook post that you painstakingly write, or just out of the blue, a great response to a tweet comes to you. You may even share a really funny video that you think followers of your brand will perfectly relate to. Once it’s written, edited and posted you wait for the usual likes and comments and hope for a few more shares to get a bit of extra business exposure.
Instead, over the course of the day your post starts showing some never-seen-before activity – racking up more likes, comments and shares that you can keep up with. Panic (at the thought that you have been hacked) quickly turns to elation at the thought that you have won first prize on the internet and “gone viral”.
However, elation may quickly turn to panic again at the thought of what you’re expected to do next, so here are some tips on how to cope with instant (often very brief) moment of internet fame.
First let’s look at the types of responses you are likely to encounter:
Love
If people are sharing and liking your post then the chances are you have struck a chord with them. You will find lots of comments praising you for your creativity/insight/humour/bravery. These words of encouragement will make you glow with pride and feel like the whole world is in love with you and you start drafting emails to the celebs you hope will want to associate with your brand.
Disgust
…that is until the record playing love songs in your head scratches to a stop at the vitriol one commenter is spewing for no good reason, at you, your post, your business partner and your dog. “This is going to kill my business!” you cry out in horror and hurt feelings. The worst part is you can forgive that one guy, maybe he just hates everything, but there are people agreeing with him and liking his comment! This will make you very, very angry and sometimes, a little bit afraid.
Indifference
“Who cares?”
“Sure, let’s get all worked up about this when there are starving children and incidents of domestic violence happening every day”.
“First world problems”
For the hundreds of people supporting your views there will be a handful that don’t believe your opinion matters, and will take the time to comment to this effect. This will making you question not just the validity of your opinion and business practices, but also your entire existence.
Once you have gotten over the shock of wanting to hug someone really hard one minute and then recoil in horror the next, the first thing you need to do is this –
Toughen up. 98% of commenters will have never met you. Don’t accept personal friend requests from strangers who feel like they know you really well now, because what you have said resonates with them on a profound level, or because they met you once at an industry cocktail party and now you’re almost famous. They don’t know anything about you, except what your business perspective is on this one post. The same goes for the people who supposedly think you’re an idiot. Remember who your friends, family and colleagues are in times like these, their opinions matter more than strangers with an internet connection.
Don’t waiver on your views. You can respond to the positive comments but you don’t have to defend yourself against the negative ones. If you respond to one, you don’t have to respond to them all. Just remember that people love brand interaction, so don’t ignore everyone. It’s often fairly easy to differentiate between the bullies and those with genuine opposing opinions. Ignore the bullies or “trolls” as the internet disparagingly calls them. They are only here to pick a fight and have psychological issues that go way beyond what you have written. You really don’t have to explain yourself further or defend what you have said to someone who is just being nasty.
Stop and think. There will be a lot of people who want a piece of the attention you’re getting. You may get calls to do radio and/or television interviews, offers to write guest blog posts and requests to promote other products or businesses. Don’t accept anything straight away. Take time to consider each option that comes your way. Is it attention that you can use for the improvement of your business? Will it have a positive effect on you and your family or will the benefits of doing it lie purely with the media?
Also remember that you are under no obligation whatsoever to follow up your post with further comment, and don’t be bullied into believing you are.
Lastly, just sit back and enjoy your moment in the limelight. Sadly (or fortunately, depending on the post), they are often short-lived, with the average length of time being 16 days before your post gets thrust aside and it’s someone else’s turn to panic. But even as the limelight fades, your job is now to keep the new followers you’ve gathered, and turn them into clients.
