Social networks have changed the internet. Everyone knows what it is and everyone says you must be present and active, and also to share good content. This is rule number one. Rule number two is, “create a buzz” and “be viral.” So what exactly is this?
Let’s take an example : Selfies.
The concept is simple, taking a photo, a 2.0 self portrait published on social networks. Nothing more useless or harmless right? But the phenomenon has gained momentum. There are lists of ‘coolest selfies’ or ‘most impressive’ or whatever. Everyone embraced this epiphenomenon until it became “viral”, i.e. make it absolutely everywhere on the internet.
So, how does it work? The genius idea of Ellen DeGeneres at the Oscars? The selfie of David Ortiz/Big Papi (the player of the Red Sox) with Obama? Everything is perfect for social networking. In fact, they have even broken sharing records. The novelty is that these trivial acts have become… sponsored! Samsung is behind everything and uses these pictures to advertise smart phones.
Goodbye innocence; farewell beauty! The bitter feeling of betrayal dominates. I thought that it was enough to be beautiful, cool, fun and to dream, but it is in fact a marketing campaign for commercial purposes! But is this really surprising?
Internet works more quantitatively than qualitatively. It’s volume that we look for first and foremost. Sought out are clicks, the ‘likes’ and re-tweets, and many, if possible. With the arrival of social networks and the ability to ‘share’, we needed to find ways to “be shared” in large quantities. What’s better than a photo with a star or the president of the United States?
Behind all of this, it is inbound marketing! It’s a matter of being found, to appear on the bulletin boards of Facebook and Twitter timelines, because another legitimate person (we all select who we follow), shares this content. No wonder then, that every web phenomenon that becomes viral is recovered and reused for commercial purposes. After all, being visible is one of the goals in marketing and becoming viral is one of the ways to achieve this goal.
I therefore invite you to share, re-tweet, ‘like’ and do whatever you want with this article… which by the way, is not even sponsored!
