Why Going Viral Means More Than Getting Pageviews by Sara Critchfield of Upworthy

@saracritchfield #smx #ms8

Sara Critchfield II Editorial Director

WHY GOING VIRAL

MEANS MORE THAN

JUST GETTING PAGE

VIEWS


STATE OF THE

8,000

YouTube Followers

43,000

Tumblr Followers

350,000Twitter Followers

5,600,000Facebook Fans

7

Twitter Followers

67

Facebook Fans

HAS BEEN CALLED “THE FASTEST

GROWING MEDIA SITE OF ALL TIME.”(BUSINESS INSIDER)

WE TAKE “VIRALITY” VERY

SERIOUSLY

Infected Person (she viewed!)

Spreads Virus (she shared!)

New Exposure (new views!)

Contracts Virus (another click!)

VIRALITY IS ABOUT MAKING

LOTS OF PEOPLE SICK (KINDA)

*VIRAL ACTUALLY MEANS THAT

EACH SUCCESSIVE GENERATION

IS LARGER THAN THE LAST

GENERATION.

VIRALITY* RATIO =views next

generationviews this

generation




GENERATION.




GENERATION.#NOTVIRAL




GENERATION.




GENERATION.#VIRAL-ISH

HOW HARD CAN IT BE???

45% of our posts don’t break 25k views.

42% of our posts have reached 50k views.

28% have reached 100k views.

13% have reached 250k views.

6.9% have reached 500k views.

3.4% have broken 1,000,000 views.

1.3% have broken 2,500,000 views.

and 35 posts have broken 5,000,000 views.

(0.3% for those playing the home game)

Tell me

more about

how easy this

is.

Contraction Rate = Clickability

Transmission Rate = Shareability

Size of Exposed Population = Spread

clickability X shareability X

spread

= VIRALITY

FOR EACH INFECTED PERSON, HOW

MANY NEW PEOPLE WILL SHE INFECT?

WHY DO PEOPLE CLICK?

CLICKABILITY =# of

clicks# of

impressions

WHY DO PEOPLE SHARE?

SHAREABILITY =# of

shares# of

views

That milk was

AMAAAAZING!

SPREAD DEPENDS ON SHARE

METHOD

SPREAD =# of

impressions# of

shares

One

impression

?

50? 100?

1000?

impressions

100? 500?

impression

s

WHAT DOES VIRAL MEAN?

VIRAL DOES NOT MEAN LOTS OF PEOPLE SEE

SOMETHING.

VIRAL MEANS EACH PERSON THAT VIEWS THE

CONTENT SUCCESSFULLY RECRUITS MORE THAN ONE

VIEWER.

VIRALITY RATIO > 1

SAMPLE VIRAL CHAIN

1,000 initial viewers

10% share rate

100 FB impressions per share

4% click rate

400 next generation views

= NOT VIRAL

Get some

better content

SAMPLE VIRAL CHAIN


20% share rate


4% click rate


= STILL NOT VIRAL

Way better

content

SAMPLE VIRAL CHAIN


20% share rate


4% click rate


= STILL NOT VIRAL

Get better

packaging

SAMPLE VIRAL CHAIN


20% share rate


5.25% click rate


= YOU’RE VIRAL!!!!

Way better

packaging

POINT: EVERY OPTIMIZATION HELPS

clickability X shareability X

spread

THE FIRST GENERATION SIZE

DOESN’T TELL US WHAT’S VIRAL.

VIRALITY* RATIO =views next

generation

views this

generation

This matters a

lot…

…but not for virality.

Gen 1 = 1

Gen 2 = 2

Gen 3 = 4

Gen 4 = 8

VIRALITY RATIO = 2

…in the end, the whole world would see it.

Gen 1 = 50,000

Gen 2 = 25,000

Gen 3 = 12,500

Gen 4 = 6,250

VIRALITY RATIO = .5

….in the end only 100,000 people would see it.

TO REVIEW…

• Most people don't know what the hell virality is or how to

measure it - but now YOU do!

• Virality does NOT equal lots of page views. The virality

coefficient must be higher than one to indicate viral

content.

• Start measuring clickability, shareability and spread

separately to understand success.• Optimize your clickable packages to

get people in the door.

• Look at G2 views to judge great v.

average content for sharing.

• Work harder on controlling spread (aka

audience building).

AND REMEMBER….


STAY CLASSY, SMX.

Why Going Viral Means More Than Getting Pageviews by Sara Critchfield of Upworthy

Marketing

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