Last Wednesday night my family wanted to watch another Spider-Man movie. I love movie nights, but how many Spider-Man movies are there anyway? I watched the movie out of the corner of my eye and checked my email. That’s when I saw the Health Canada recall of Kinder chocolates.
When food recalls happen, I whip up a quick social media post for my healthcare client. Anything that keeps our community safe is on brand. I pulled text from the announcement, grabbed a Kinder egg photo from the internet, searched Canva for a “sad Easter bunny” and instead found an alarmed one. I hesitated for a moment, not wanting to be too irreverent, but then popped it in and pressed “post” on the Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. It was definitely not great work, but it should keep people safe, I thought. Back to Spider-Man and Dr. Octopus.
Before the movie ended, the Facebook post had been shared 20 times. Within 24 hours it was viral. While there is no clear definition of “viral”, having the post shared over 1,000 times, with a reach of 70,000 people seems to qualify.
I spend plenty of time creating content. I study the trends, I know the theory behind creating viral posts, and this isn’t it. The post didn’t use video, carousels, giveaways, or hashtags. It wasn’t motivational or artistic. Little thought was given to font, image, or colour theory. No collaboration with influencers. No engaging questions. And yet…
The key to social media strategy is to discern what works well for you, and then repeat it. Two things worked well here. The first was timeliness; responding instantly put us ahead of the press so this really was newsworthy. The second was the value of the post to the community; everyone wants to protect their loved ones from salmonella. While there is good reason to incorporate all other aspects of content creation, providing timely, useful information must be at the heart of our work.
Interestingly, the Twitter and Instagram versions did not go viral. That speaks to different audiences, and the fact that Instagram doesn’t lend itself to sharing. But we’ll take the Facebook win. It came with the added bonus of new followers.
Apparently, we are watching another Spider-Man movie tonight. I can’t wait.
Montrose Street Media 