This past week, I had the opportunity to create my own viral content campaign through #NHsmc class, Social Media for Communicators. I was a bit skeptical at first, as I have always heard that there is no way to make something go viral. Frankly, it is up to the content consumers, not the creators, to make a piece of content go viral. That being said, I gave the assignment a shot and launched a meme of my dog, Bella, just getting out of the bath.
Objective:
My overall objective was to get this meme “viral” among college undergraduates, which I said in my marketing plan would mean 15 retweets and 50 likes COLLECTIVELY (I used over 7 tweets to spread awareness for my campaign) to me. I mistakingly did not address promoted tweet engagement. I should have specified that I simply wanted over 30 engagements on the promoted ads (Professor Grygiel’s opinion of a successful campaign).
Background:
Bella absolutely hates baths and I decided to turn this photo into a meme all college undergraduates (and possibly everyone) can relate to: when your shower is cold because your roommate took too long of a shower! It happens to me all of the time because I live with four other women who can spend upward of an hour in the shower (shout-out to my roommate Paige for recently bleaching the disgusting shower!). My meme features text over Bella’s angry, after-bath face, saying “When she takes a 40 minute shower and now yours is cold.”
Meme:
Campaign Results:
Writing the copy was the hardest part of the assignment. I wanted to make sure that my target audience, college undergraduates, could relate to the content. Even further than just relating, I wanted them to laugh! I used A/B testing via Facebook to get my friends’ opinions on which of my four meme versions they would be more likely to share. The meme above is the winner!
In order to get further engagement on my meme, I made a Twitter website card, which I provided below. I used the class hashtag and a few other hashtags, #Meme #Funny, to help spread awareness. Several of my other tweets used the hashtag #StopLongShowers2016, a hashtag that wasn’t used before on Twitter. Looking back, I wish I had consistently used this hashtag on all of my tweets, but it was another learning lesson for me!
Don't ya just hate when your roommate takes too long of a shower? Check out my meme for a laugh. #Meme #Funny #NHsmc https://t.co/HFaMzZS0UJ
— Jessica Dunne (@JessicaMDunne) April 4, 2016
This first organic tweet out, using the Twitter card, received 12 retweets and 14 likes, all from simply asking my friends and family to share the link with their friends and family. The word spread. Throughout the rest of the week, I got about 6 more likes, so I fell short on the retweets and likes that I had originally aimed for at the beginning of my marketing campaign. I was 3 Retweets short and 30 likes short from my goal. However, I had also not taken into consideration views on Imgur, which was meant to be addressed in my marketing plan. While I did not specify (my mistake), I wanted about 100 views on my posting. I meant this goal and then almost multiplied the desired views 6-fold. I received 542 total views on my meme, via Imgur, which is incredibly exciting for me as a content creator. People outside of the class were really engaging with my Imgur and while I’m not sure I would consider 532 views “viral,” it did raise a fair amount of attention!
Also mentioned earlier, I spent $5 via Twitter ads to try to promote my meme further on Twitter. I had never used Twitter ads before and this campaign gave me an opportunity to become more familiar with the site. I was very pleased to reach 60 engagements and almost 4,o00 impressions according to the promoted campaign overview! 60 engagements is far greater than the amount of engagements I was expecting. The summary and engagement tab results are both shown below.
While not originally mentioned in my marketing plan, Professor Grygiel had noted that 30 engagements would mean that the campaign was successfully executed, like I discussed earlier in this post. I doubled this goal!
In my marketing plan, I specified that I was aiming for 6,500 impressions, which I did not meet according to the promoted Twitter card overview shown below. I fell about 2,500 impressions short, but this summary does not include the user- generated (organic) Tweet impressions, it only references the impressions based on the promoted tweets.
When I added up all of my organic Tweet impressions of the meme, I received 3,409 additional impressions, allowing me to successfully reach my impressions goal! The additional impressions are shown in the 7 images below.
Analysis:
I believe that my #StopLongShowers2016 meme campaign did tremendously well. I am excited (if you couldn’t tell) about my Imgur views and promoted tweet engagements. There are definitely issues that I will know to fix for next time I carry out a Twitter campaign. I will need to specify more metrics that matter to me. I failed to address total impressions, total Imgur views, and total engagements (both promoted and organic) in my marketing campaign plan. I also don’t think that I successfully targeted Twitter users with my promoted ads, although I did try to attract dog lovers all over, people with roommates, and college-aged users. I could have done more to target users, which I will take into consideration in the future. Twitter ads just takes practice and I am happy that I got an opportunity to experiment with it, even though there are things I would have done differently given more familiarity to the site.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the process of trying to make a piece of content go viral and think that this process proved me wrong. Spreading awareness with my friends through social media channels worked for me because I am such a heavy social media user, especially in regards to Facebook. By simply including my Imgur link across various Facebook groups, I was able to generate views. It also helped to be an environment where other students understand the pressure to get help on assignments. Many fellow classmates were willing to retweet my meme or give me additional view on my Imgur. It is possible to make a piece of user-generated content go viral, but only with enough dedication to promotion and word of mouth. Thanks to everyone who helped make my campaign so successful!