There’s a lot of talk in the Internet world about what makes certain content “viral” and if I had the secret formula for how to make an infallibly viral image, I imagine I would make enough money to own large portions of the web. I do not have this formula.
Instead, I explore virality in the same way everyone else on the Internet does: experimentation. For this particular challenge, I wanted to attempt virality through relatability and a little bit of humor. This wasn’t easy but I created an image and used it to launch a Twitter campaign.
The main objective of my campaign was to increase profile exposure, to engage with my existing audience, and to hopefully grow my audience by at least a small margin.
My goal was to reach 35 engagements using Twitter Ads and I did this using a single web card, although I posted the card along with newly composed tweets throughout a one week period to compare organic engagements vs. promoted engagements.
The results of my web card almost overwhelmingly favored sponsored impressions however, the ratio between sponsored and organic link clicks represented only a marginal difference.
What is particularly compelling about this data is that all of the retweets and likes were organic and not promoted. This could be a result of my “web site clicks” focused campaign but more than likely it also has to do with the content itself. Perhaps I created “likeable” content but not “shareable” content.
Expectation vs. Reality… #adulting #growingup #Disney #NHsmc https://t.co/kfZeuL2w9d
— Sara Gatcomb (@SaraGatcomb) April 5, 2016
My $5.00 campaign exceeded my engagement goal with a total of 55 engagements on Twitter. Something to note: the actual campaign exhausted early due to reaching my spending limit. This could potentially be because I was promoting my content to @Disney and @SincerelyTumblr followers which was a costly marketing decision. However, I thought it was an important strategy for reaching the audience for my content, which I identified as young adults (high school to college aged) who are on the brink of adulthood (perhaps graduating soon) and who feel slightly overwhelmed or anxious by this development.
Ultimately, I would deem this campaign a success. The 55 Twitter engagements combined with more than 1,000 views on Imgur leads me to believe that my content did connect with my targeted audience. Additionally, almost all of the engagement I received on Imgur was positive– 17 up votes and only three down votes.
I think some of the strongest aspects of my campaign were my direct marketing attempts and a combination of strategic hashtags and promotion associations. I researched all of the hashtags I used but I found that all of the favorites and retweets on Twitter came from word-of-mouth marketing, just telling friends and family what I was doing. I also utilized dark social (text messages, messenger apps) for this same purpose.
In hindsight, I think if I had promoted the web card with different copy, perhaps including #graduation and #senioryear, I could have reached a larger audience. I did this in one unpromoted tweet and was disappointed with the organic reach.
And just like that I am almost done with #school… #senioryear #graduation #seniorsunday #NHsmc https://t.co/kfZeuL2w9d
— Sara Gatcomb (@SaraGatcomb) April 10, 2016
While I did earn some impressions through these specific hashtags, I believe, I could have done much better if I promoted the #graduation copy with the web card. At the same time, I would have risked narrowing my audience to only seniors in either high school or college.
A side goal for this campaign (not administered using Twitter Ads) was to gain at least three new followers. I met that goal within the first few days of the campaign and actually exceeded it later in the week. By the end of the campaign I had gained five followers.
Again, no answers in the virality effort but plenty of conclusions. Firstly, strong content is the first step to any level of popularity. From there, virality becomes a conscious effort on the part of the provider to reach the intended audience either through direct marketing, strategic planning, or a platform like Twitter Ads.
Graduation and growing up are definitely coinciding topics. This couldn’t have come at a better time. Engaging viewers with humor and pictures was a perfect way to get the point across.