Lightning in a Bottle
Unless you’re George Takei (e. g. you’ve got enormous social media followings already), it’s tough to plan to make some bit of content or another go viral. And anyone who promises you virality is lying to you. It’s possible to duplicate the elements of virality but this is, by definition, an unpredictable thing. There is no way to know, for certain, whether something will take off. But you can certainly duplicate the conditions that make it easier for things to go viral or that create memes (a meme is a bit of cultural content passed through non-genetic means, such as imitation).
Virality Conditions
1. Viral content tends to be one or more of the following – humorous, outrageous (including inciting anger), or sentimental.
2. It has to be free to get. Don’t hide it behind a pay wall.
3. It has to be easy to spread. Don’t even make people right-click.
And that’s about it.
Virality and You
Don’t depend on virality. Just … don’t. It’s unpredictable and hard to set off. As for the conditions under which you can create virality, there is certainly nothing wrong with creating emotionally evocative free content that is easy for people to spread. After all, we’re writers, so our job is essentially to create emotionally evocative content. Content on Wattpad is, by definition, free and easy to spread. But so are the other million or whatever works on Wattpad.
Hence the best thing to do is, hit the conditions but don’t depend on virality. And if you end up becoming published (either by yourself or traditionally), don’t worry about your work going behind a pay wall. That’s what happens when you publish for real, and don’t just upload to a website. And that’s fine. After all, professional editors, cover artists, etc. should be paid. And the assumption is that published works, presented for money, are of higher quality or at least are backed by more of a budget.
In the comments section, link to content that you’ve found that’s viral. BUT – don’t make it a book on Wattpad, or even a book at all. See the image? Consider what it’s like. I’m talking about those sorts of images, or videos. What’s viral? Why do you think it is? Which bucket is it falling into in the #1 (of three) viral conditions I listed above?
The link is to my blog post for class about viral marketing. The image is what happens when two separate memes collide. The YouTube video is the video accompanying my class assignment and is more or less on point.
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Social Media Guide for Wattpad
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