It’s a major bonus when content goes viral. But what are the chances? How do you create great content? It starts with confidence and putting your inhibitions to the side. But quite often, once the red pen comes out – copy gets stripped and creative gets crushed. In the comments of a controversial blog post on Social PR, Geoff Livingston wrote, “I was afraid to press publish, which is usually the sure sign of a post worth publishing!” But Livingston might agree, we can write with emotion, still be diplomatic and appeal to the people that matter to us most.
You may have seen the YouTube clip of a girl dancing at the Luggage Reclaim in LAX. However, she wasn’t dancing for fellow passengers. She was in fact dancing for 4.6 million YouTube watchers. The message? This girl has some serious confidence. The video was obviously a promotion for the site HelloGiggles. It struck a nerve and went viral.
Dancing like no one is watching is the HelloGiggles paradox: for every person nearby that either doesn’t seem to care, or is appalled at our actions, there may be a million out there that identify with the same independent sense. And that’s when content moves.