Strategy viral advice from the creators of texts fromhillary

5/16/12 Strategy ‑ Viral Advice From the Creators of TextsFromHillary.com : MarketingProfs Article

1/4www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2012/7893/viral‑advice‑from‑the‑creators‑of‑textsfromhillarycom?ad…

Member Login | About Us | Become a Member | Contact Us

Join Over 434,000 Marketing Professionals Search

Resources Home Daily Posts HowTo Articles Case Studies Online Seminars Take 10 Guides and Reports (0) itemsMy Cart

Text: A AEmail Print Save

sponsored by: Booth School of Business

Viral Advice From the Creators of TextsFromHillary.comby Stacy Lambe, Adam Smith

Published on May 16, 2012 0

Tags: Content, Marketing Strategy, Social Media

In this article, you'll learn...

Four key tips on becoming a viral Internet sensation

A detailed example of how Texts From Hillary went viral

One guarantee with the Internet is that you have no guarantee anycampaign will take off. Knowing whether something will become asuccess, let alone a viral sensation, is even harder. In fact, the best onesaren't always planned. And that was precisely the case for Texts FromHillary.

When conceived over drinks one night after work, the idea behind thesite was to create something genuinely funny for our friends. We didn'tknow it would take off like it did, but once we realized it was happeningwe took the following four steps to make sure it took off in the rightdirection.

1. Keep it simple

The Internet loves simple ideas. The best memes boil a concept down to the lowest and mostapproachable commondenominator that allows any consumer to easily get in on the joke and share it with others.

Texts From Hillary was built around the concept of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's responding to texts messages fromvarious politicians and celebrities. That was the extent of the meme. We left everything else open to interpretation. Addingany additional context would have left people out or turned others off.

2. Encourage participation

Because the idea was simple, it was approachable enough for people to contribute and participate in their own way. Weopened the site up to submissions and posted our favorite usercreated fictional texts, but we also encouraged people torun with their own ideas.

Facebook and Twitter quickly become the hubs for people who wanted to get in on the joke and offer their interpretation

your email here!

Recent Posts Articles Case Studies Online Seminars

Join the World's Largest Marketing Community

IT'S FREE! Become a member to get the tools andknowledge you need to market smarter.

we respect your privacy.

Stay connected ... follow us!

More on Strategy

Senior Execs ConsumeBoth Traditional and New ...StrategyPosted 3/12/2012 8:00:00 AM

CMOs: Business OutlookStrong, Marketing BudgetsUpStrategy

Posted 3/5/2012 8:00:00 AM

Inbound Marketing LeadsCost 61% Less Than ...

Home Marketing Resources Online Seminars Events Research Store PRO Members Forum Blog Jobs University



Rate this Log in to add a rating Overall rating Not yet rated 0 rating(s)

Not a member? Sign up...it's free!

of the meme. We didn't care about people stealing our idea. We cared more about people feeling as though they werepart of the joke.

Even President Barack Obama got in on the act during a Rolling Stone interview and again at the White HouseCorrespondents' dinner.

3. Kindle the fire

To say we didn't want the site to take off would be lying. We are both communications professionals (Stacy works as aneditor at BuzzFeed and formerly worked at the Rosslyn, VAbased cleantech PR firm Tigercomm; Adam at the DCbased Public Campaign Action Fund), and we have built networks across several social media platforms. Once we sawthe initial reaction to the site, we knew we should take ownership of it and pass it around.

We created a Twitter account to help feed traffic to the Tumblr site and started sending notes to friendly reporters with asimple message: This is a lighthearted joke created over drinks and meant for a laugh. That is a basic form of attentiongeneration specialty at Tigercomm.

4. Don't be afraid to stop

Mainly out of necessity, but also to preserve our brand, we knew the site needed to come to an end. It was hard to walkaway from more than 83,000 shares on Facebook, 8,400 followers on Twitter, and more than 47,000 followers onTumblr... but we had to.

Luckily, we were handed the perfect setup when Secretary Hillary Clinton reached out to us with her own submission.From that point, we devised an exit strategy, and stuck to it. The people who run the best campaigns recognize whenthey've reached their goal(s). Our goal was to have fun—and texting with Hillary was the highlight!

* * *

Though we are the first to admit this is somewhat of an extreme example, the four steps in this article can easily beapplied to any communications or marketing campaign. The key is to recognize the nature of the Internet. Things explodeone day, and quickly die out the next. However, maximizing the time while you have it is what counts.

Consumers are quick to recognize when ideas are forced, but they do respond to genuine ideas. Whether its advocacy orB2B, the Internet affords everyone the room to create buzz and attention.

Stacy Lambe is pop culture editor at BuzzFeed, a memecentric social news site. Adam Smith is communicationsdirector at Public Campaign Action Fund, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving America’scampaign finance laws.

Strategic Marketing Management Executive Education program. Provides conceptualframework for fundamentals of marketing: develop, implement, evaluate and benchmark strategicmarketing plans. Chicago Booth world class faculty. Download brochure and ROI white paper.

You may also like:

Connect with MarketingProfs on Facebook

NOTE: MarketingProfs does not allow its content to be lifted wholesale and republished elsewhere without a licensingagreement. For more information on copyright and licensing, see here.

Sign up for MarketingProfs Today ... it's FREE!Get our best marketing tips daily—just enter your email address below to subscribe!

your email here!

504 ShareShare

Log in to add a comment!

see all topics

StrategyPosted 2/29/2012 8:00:00 AM

How We Should Think AboutMarketing. A ...StrategyPosted 2/20/2012 12:00:00 PM

SEE MORE DAILY POSTS

Search by Topic

MarketingProfs TodayGet new marketing updates delivered to yourinbox! Sign up for MarketingProfs Today forFREE!your email here!

Get to the Po!nt NewslettersBitesized topicspecific newsletters on B2BMarketing, Content Marketing, Email Marketing,Search Engine Marketing, Small Business,Social Media, This WILL Be on the Test andmore. Sign up for one, two or all...for FREE!Four Typical Weaknesses of Case

Studies [Slide Show]Three Tips for Getting YourProduct on a Major Retailer's ...

Mobile Marketing: A ThreeStepFramework for Integrating MobileInto the ...

Ad Copy AdvertisingB2B Marketing BenchmarkingBlog Comments BloggingBrand Ambassadors Brand AwarenessBrand Equity Brand LoyaltyBrand Positioning BrandingCAN-SPAM Career ManagementCase Studies Channel MarketingChief Marketing Officer CollaborationCommunity ContentContent Marketing CopywritingCreative Briefs CreativityCRM Customer AcquisitionCustomer Behavior Customer-CentricCustomer Engagement Customer Experience

2Like



JOIN OVER 434,000 MEMBERS ... SIGN UP!

My email address is and I'd like my

password to be .

We hate spam as much as you do! See our privacy policy.

ALREADY A MEMBER? SIGN IN!

My email address is , and my password

is .

Remember me Forgot your password?



Resources

MarketingProfs UniversityMarketingProfs DailyHowTo ArticlesCase StudiesOnline Marketing SeminarsGuides and ReportsVideosNewslettersMarketingProfs Mobile Apps

Community

Conferences and EventsKnowHow Exchange ForumDaily Fix BlogMember BenefitsJoin the Community

Company

About UsExecutive TeamWrite For UsBusiness ServicesAdvertise With UsLicensing/RepublishingRSS/SyndicationPrivacyContact Us

AdvertisingBrand ManagementCareer ManagementContentCustomer BehaviorCustomer RelationshipsEmail MarketingGeneral ManagementGraphic DesignMarket ResearchMetrics & ROIMobile

NonProfitPricingPublic RelationsSalesSearch Engine MarketingSegmentationSocial MediaStrategyWeb SitesWordofMouthWritingMore Topics »

Marketing Topics

Copyright © 20002012 MarketingProfs LLC. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you.