I am a firm believer in the concept of simplicity, so when going through the readings I tend to boil things down to the cleanest most simple example of what is being discussed within the readings, and go from there. While reading about spreadability and stickiness I thought of a popular web comic called The Oatmeal, which I think is a fantastic example of spreadability (sharing, and engagement) and stickiness (retention).
Matthew Inman, the creator of The Oatmeal, learned that creating relatable and engaging media in the form of webcomics and interactive quizzes led to a high volume of shareable (high spreadability) media, and that by hosting an archive of previous comics and quizzes that were randomly generated on The Oatmeal website audiences were more likely to stay on the site which generated higher clicks per comic, and lured advertising to the site.
The takeaway from both the reading and the example is that when creating content, whether it is for corporate strategic marketing, non-profit organizations, personal branding, or anything in between is that creating engaging, relatable content that is targeted at specific audiences (particularly those that have some level of savvy utilizing the internet) and knowing how to manage what they see and how positive their user experience is will pay dividends on the engagement, spreadability, and stickiness scale.
Taking a look at viral media, a term that I have come to dread due to my work within a corporate marketing organization, I have to state that the original concept of viral media being utilized negatively gave me a laugh. The idea of viral being something that is easily achieved (for strategic purposes) always makes me want to walk out the door at work. The simple fact is that many times viral is not something that you will have complete control over, and in fact if having your message go viral is your end goal, I posit that you will fail to achieve that more often than you will succeed.
Viral media, whatever the type, is often a spontaneous moment, it has to connect on a visceral level, and while sometimes a corporation is able to pull off the goal of making a connection go viral as with Chipotle’s Scarecrow Commercial (I think the honest version is a good parody) you’ll find better success targeting your audience and your message without attempting to force viral engagement, let your audience decide what they want to share, and tailor your projects to their sharing patterns.
One thing I have been trying to stress at work, and that I have discussions about with other marketing folks is that when we boil down the needs of our customers (in my case it is software developers) we need to make our content accessible to as many people within that ecosystem as possible, it needs to be sharable, and connect developers with the solutions to their problems, the answers to their questions, and it must engage them so that when we do have something that they can develop a connection to our media they can get the best experience from it.
When creating any sort of media we should always be looking at how the experience with it will be to our audience. If we wouldn’t visit our site, watch our videos, or interact with our media, why would a random stranger develop a connection to what we are trying to market. User experience has long been something that is put on the back end of a project, but as I move through sites that host transmedia projects I am beginning to believe that the experience on a site or at an event is just as important as the story we are attempting to share.
When it comes right down to it, we are all storytellers, and in order to tell our stories effectively we need to know our audiences, and give them the best possible experience in the hopes that the media we have created and cultivated will have an impact and influence the people we are trying to connect with in a manner that makes them want to share.
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