Virality: How to catch it.

We’ll start the show shortly…

#virality

Who’s presenting?

Jay BaerPresidentConvince & Convert@jaybaer

Tom WebsterVP MarketingEdison Research@webby2001

Eric BoggsCEOArgyle Social@ericboggs

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Details

• Eric will lead Q & A at the end of the call.

• Tag your tweets with #virality

• We’re recording this shin dig.

• We’ll send an email follow up to everyone with the recording & slides.

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15 Second Commercial

Featuring interviews with social pros from:

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30-second plug: The Social Habit

Sound & Credible Social Media Consumer Research, From Edison Research

Virality: How to catch it.

What is virality?

#virality

Required inputs:

- Host cell(s)- Payload- Delivery

mechanism

Back to Bio101…

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Lifecycle

A VIRALITY STORY…

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The Showtime Lakers…

• Lakers community site w/ millions of readers / month

• On Twitter: @LakersNation

• 21,843 total posts. 119,813 followers.

• 711,587 total retweets (32.5 per post)

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Fan site vs official site

RTs Top Viral Content

12,750

Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Ron Ron, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard. That's not a bad starting five.

2,067

It's time to wake up - the Dwightmare is over. Dwight Howard is a Laker. http://t.co/kHIpHbS7

2,049

Dwight Howard reportedly willing to sign an extension w/ the Lakers. Says he's 'excited' about L.A. http://t.co/16NZoqlS

RTs Top Viral Content

6,010

Your new starting 5 together for the 1st time in the gold. What'd you think? #LakersCamp http://t.co/Lmm9ZlJZ

2,024

And your new look Lakers backcourt. @SteveNash & Kobe Bryant. #LakersCamp http://t.co/YbG1tnWO

1,495

The new look Lakers front court. @DwightHoward & @paugasol #LakersCamp http://t.co/3pdNUKzv

@LakersNation – 120k followers@Lakers (Official) – 2.7M followers

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80/20 Applies for Lakers Nation

• 134,552 total “retweeters” (RTers)

• 5.3 retweets per RTer

• 2,200 RTers have RT’d 1 out of every 400 posts.

• 6 RTers have RT’d1 out of every 20 posts.

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Lakers Nation’s Influential Retweeters

0.00%

0.20%

0.40%

0.60%

0.80%

1.00%

1.20%

1.40%

1.60%

1.80%

2.00%

Retweeters of High-Engagement Tweets

Retweeters

Vir

ality

of

Retw

eets

1,088 Retweeters

DIGGING IN TO THE DATA…

#solvingedgerank

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Dataset

• 1M tweets• 10M RTs• Thousand of Twitter accounts• Diverse industries, verticals, sizes• Past 12 months

#solvingedgerank

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60% of RTs Happen in first 60 minutes

0 10 20 30 40 50 600%1%2%3%4%5%6%7%8%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Retweet Delay (First 60 Minutes)

Retweets % of Retweets (Cumulative)

Delay (s)

% o

f R

etw

eets

% o

f R

etw

eets

#solvingedgerank

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95% of RTs Happen in first 24 hours

0 4 8 12 16 20 240%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Retweet Delay (First 24 Hours)

Retweets % of Retweets (Cumulative)

Delay (s)

% o

f R

etw

eets

#solvingedgerank

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Most accounts don’t get the viral bump

Twitter Account Retweet Rates

Accounts

Re

twe

et

Ra

te

Lots of retweets

Very few retweets

#solvingedgerank

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Posts with !!! get ~50% more RTs

0.00%

0.20%

0.40%

0.60%

0.80%

Avg %

of

follow

ers

to R

T a

post

#solvingedgerank

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Posts with ? get ~70% more replies

Posts with Question Marks Posts without Question Marks

0.00%

0.20%

0.40%

0.60%

0.80%

1.00%

1.20%

1.40%

Avg %

of

follow

ers

to r

eply

to a

post

WHAT ABOUT TARGETING INFLUENCERS?

#solvingedgerank

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Minnows more valuable than whales…

Perception: big influencers drive shares.Reality: small-following influencers drive shares.

#solvingedgerank

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This isn’t about Klout score…• Universal influence score isn’t always

useful.• Minnows by definition have low

influence.• You want to know what users help

you generate engagement.

#solvingedgerank

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Tracking influence internally…

WHY DO PEOPLE RETWEET?

#solvingedgerank

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How Word-Of-Mouth Advertising Works

34%

25%

21%

20%

Reasons To Share

Product InvolvementSelf InvolvementOther InvolvementMessage Involvment

Ernest Dichter“How Word of Mouth Advertising Works”1966

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A RT is like telling someone else’s joke

#solvingedgerank

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Interest intersection drives virality

Account Topic # of accounts in the top 50

Sports 21

Religion 3

Consumer Tech 3

Entertainment 3

Higher Ed 2

Local 2

All other (no topic had more than 1)

16

#solvingedgerank

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Interest intersections illustratedMy Interest My Follower

Concentration

Their Follower Concentration

Viral oppy?

SMM High High Very good

Parenting Medium Medium Good

Carolina basketball Medium Medium Good

Heavy metal music Tom and my brother ??? Poor

#solvingedgerank

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Measuring content interest areas…

4 TAKEAWAYS…

#solvingedgerank

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1.) A Gangnam Style moment is unlikely.

Only .0006% of posts in our sample had a positive viral coefficient.

#solvingedgerank

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2.) Grow your audience.

Many minnows are more valuable than a few whales.

#solvingedgerank

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3.) Interest intersection drives virality.

High-density interests drive viral results. Frame viral content around your followers’ followers.

#solvingedgerank

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4.) Help yourself with audience mgmt.

80% of the Retweets come from 20% of the Retweeters. Socialize accordingly!

WRAP UP, Q&A, HILARIOUS BANTER