“A tweet read around the world – From 100 followers to 1 million followers in just two months – Company’s stock price falls by $1 million, the Instagram post that shut down a company’.
These are the headlines and the impact that social media has the ability to do. Both the good, the bad and the awful. Social media content often makes a statement when it goes viral. Don’t be fooled however – viral content is quite formulaic and lies within the psychology of users.
Social Psychologist Dr Sander van der Linden of University of Cambridge has suggested that a tweet, or a post can go viral through “viral altruism”. This is particularly relevant within an African context, where the narrative of Africa has often been to describe it as the ‘dark continent’ with thousands of issues ranging from poverty, poor healthcare systems and natural disasters. He says that as long as something appears to be ‘charitable’ or ‘making a difference’ it will go viral. People inherently want to feel like they are contributing towards something good, doing something ‘greater’ and this is particularly powerful as they try and show efforts to change the “African narrative”
“Viral altruism” I would say is the many reason for viral content, but there are also other factors. Let’s take a look at some viral social media campaigns within Africa:
Kenya365
A collaboration between White African and @Truthslinger gave birth to a campaign called Kenya365. It was a hashtag based campaign to show the other side of Kenya, the side the world does not get to see too often. If you search the hashtag #Kenya365, you’ll be loaded with thousands of images of beautiful landscape and portrait photography of Kenya. Despite the campaign running for a set period of time, it continues to grow.
The campaign did a few things right that is fairly consistent across many viral campaigns. It focused on ‘user-generated content. It allowed for everyday Instagram users to post pictures with the Hashtags, get more likes on their pictures than usual and sometimes be featured on the official Kenya365 campaign page. The topic of choice was also relevant at the time and had an altruistic feel to it – therefore it immediately had a buy in with users. It also made use of beautiful imagery – a substitute like no other in a world that is currently dominated by handsets that can produce phenomenal imagery.
Coca Cola Egypt - Etganen
The campaign run by Coca Cola was marked behind one word called “Etganen” – which if translated directly means creativity and curiosity. In the end, the “Be Crazy” translation by Coca Cola appropriately named the campaign which went viral the moment it went on social media. Within less than a month, the campaign garnered over 2.6 million views on the YouTube video which they posted.
In brief, the video captured everyday frustrations of Egyptians and showed them ways of how to do acts of kindness that would bring them satisfaction. Much like the Kenya365 campaign, the message was focused and was catchy “Etganen – Be Crazy”. It positioned itself as a challenge to people to go out there and be crazy by doing random acts of kindness. It went to the extent that it encouraged people to post user generated content of them ‘being crazy’ – audience participation once again proving to be a consistent theme when it comes to viral content. Within moments, the amount of followers on social media expanded exponentially, and the content reached places much further than Egypt itself.
There is clearly a common theme for viral campaigns at least within an African context. Being relevant – i.e. addressing a relevant social issue at the time. Secondly, allowing users to participate through user generated content. In other words, have the chance for their own content to be seen, or heard or liked. Thirdly, there is a clear message behind it – and it’s captured in an easily digestible phrase such as “Kenya 365” or “Etganen” (Be crazy). Fourth , as stated before is ‘viral altruism’ – making people feel as if they are being charitable, ‘making a difference’. People love doing well and showing it off – which is what social media provides people the ability to do.
In the day and age where things go so wrong so quickly, it’s fascinating to witness how some brands still get it wrong. There are clear themes once again as to why a campaign or a brand could get it wrong.
Bic – South Africa – “Think Like a Man”
By no means did Bic South Africa have an ill-intention when the posted an image on Mother’s Day on Facebook and Twitter that said “"Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man and work like a boss."
The post quickly received thousands of responses in anger to the campaign, suggesting that it had a sexist undertone. The problem with this post was firstly the language that was used around a sensitive topic in the broader scheme of things. Any phrase that is ambiguous has the potential to go wrong. Brands should remember that there are more social media users than ever, thousands of eyes ready to analyze every word that is being stated. Twitter in particular have activist and full time tweeters that are looking for a post that they can comment on to disrupt a business. Anything that could be misinterpreted should be a ‘no-go zone’.
Delta Airlines – Giraffes in Ghana?
Although not directly a company based in Africa, it offers direct flights to Ghana. After the USA beat Ghana 2-1 in the 2014 world cup, they posted a tweet of the score line against the backgrounds of the statue of liberty and a giraffe. Seemingly innocent, right?
Apparently not, as twitter activists quickly pointed out that there are no giraffes in Ghana. Delta airlines were inundated with tweets on their timeline about this gaffe, and eventually had to publish an apology. Much like the Bic advert, analyze the unintended consequences of a post before posting it.
If you do a search, you’ll quickly see that no brand is immune to social media fails or successes, irrespective of how big or small the brand is. The reasons as to why campaigns went wrong is because they did not consider their audience. Story-telling, active participation in campaigns by users and community are key elements of an Afrillenial social media preferences and cannot be ignored. It seems that viral content is the order of the day when it comes to marketing. The trick however is to always go viral for the right reason!
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