Viral Content Challenge Report By: Hailey René
Background
(background info gathered via: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dont-say-it )
The “don’t say it” twitter meme was first posted in 2017. On October 21st, 2017, @Pandamoanimum tweeted:
“*Gets in taxi*
Brain:
Don’t say it.
Don’t say it.
Don’t say it.
Mouth: Been busy tonight, mate?
Brain: WHAT DID I JUST F***ING TELL YOU?!” (profanity removed by me)
Almost a year later, in July 2018, the same user began tweeting other incidents where this situation might be applicable. The tweets took off and began to receive thousands of retweets and likes. The format really captures a very human experience, when you’re tempted to say something even when you know you shouldn’t or don’t necessarily want to. This format has been especially prevalent in the past few weeks, with many “sadly relatable” examples. It has appeared in the “Trends for You” on my curated feed/tab on twitter several times.
In Buzzfeed terms, I think the style of this format appeals to the “that’s so me” or “that’s so us” jobs. I decided to let mine be about Christmas, based off of real life experience! I was at a Halloween party with friends and when the clock struck midnight, my friend walked up to the DJ and asked for “All I Want for Christmas is You,” probably one of the most cliché party songs. It’s sort of a guilty pleasure, especially when she requested it on November 1st.
Goal(s)
• My goal is for my tweet to get more exposure and impressions than my usual tweets. I want people to find it relatable and funny, and I hope that they engage with it. By promoting my tweet with this campaign, I hope that it will reach more people and get more attention than just that of my loyal following. The end goal would be to get it posted by Buzzfeed!
Objective(s)
• My goal is to get at least 100 likes on my tweet. With this, I am expecting at least 20 retweets. Although both are measurable, users are much more likely to like a tweet than retweet, so I am focusing my goal on the number of likes I can get.
• I also mentioned a goal of mine to be getting posted by a Buzzfeed Social Media page. That is more of a yes/no than a measurable quantity, but still an end goal.
*walks up to DJ*
My brain:
Don’t say it
Don’t say it
Don’t say it
Don’t say it
Don’t say it
Don’t say it
Don’t say itMe: Can you play All I want for Christmas Is You?
— Hai (@hai_rene) November 12, 2018
Metrics Report
Impressions: 2,914
Total engagements: 175
Likes: 42
Retweets: 13
Success and Failures
One success I had was retweeting my own tweet. I found that when I retweeted it a little over a week after posting it, I gained about 5 more likes than I previously had, and 2 new retweets. The more retweets I received, the more likes I received from people outside of my immediate circle of followers. This increased the number of overall impressions I had. Retweeting my tweet with my professional account however, was unsuccessful. I did not gain any likes from this action, which makes sense because I do not have the type of audience on my professional account that would engage with a tweet like this.
Of the 42 likes I received, 15 of them were from accounts that I was following. I am overall pleased with this outcome, because although I did not meet my goal or objective to get 100 likes, I did reach people outside my immediate followers and gain exposure. I was also pleased with the number of retweets, as more than half of the users were people that I do not follow.
Despite some success, I did not reach my objective to receive 100 likes. I am not sure exactly what I could have done to achieve this with this particular tweet. Although the format is popular, part of me wonders if it was a bit too popular and overdone. As more and more “don’t say it” tweets pop up on my own timeline, I do not read or engage with them as much, which is what may have happened with my tweet. Obviously this format is working for other twitter users, so maybe my wording wasn’t the best? Or maybe the content of the tweet did not resonate as well as it could have with a broad audience.
I do not think there is a clear-cut answer as to what makes some things go viral more than others, but I think in the future I will carefully craft my tweets and plan ahead in order to optimize the amount of engagement and impressions I receive. Format, punctuation, and wording plays a big factor in what people engage with on social media, so doing more trial and error would definitely be helpful. I would also try to utilize social influencers on twitter to gain more engagement.