As a content creator, one of the main goals is to attract engagement and traffic to our platforms. Even though we can pump out content every day, the truth is that sometimes this strategy just does not cut it. The real question we should be asking ourselves is, how can we get our brand noticed and build a larger audience?
As mentioned in our week 7 reading, in order to gain attention, it’s important to strike the correct emotional chords so audience members are more inclined to interact with your brand. When creating content that activates strong emotional connections, you also have to make sure that it still represents your brand voice. This is to ensure that you are not posting unnecessary content and you are staying true to your brand values as you also create an emotional connection with your audience through your posts. Another important aspect of making your content go viral is following a trend. As our guest speaker Jodi Dublin-Dangleben mentioned in her interview, it’s crucial to always stay on top of trends and use it as an opportunity to create fresh content and gain attention to your brand.
Photo Credit: Sprout Social
Let’s look at a case study that utilizes these techniques in order for their brand to go viral. Dove is a popular personal care brand that offers skin/hair care products to a wide range of audiences. They are also a brand well-known for promoting inclusivity, confidence, body positivity and self-esteem. In 2022, a famous television journalist, Lisa Laflamme, who was working at CTV at the time, was let go from her job which caused a major uproar as dedicated fans of her work were shocked by her abrupt leave.
Speculations of her leave started to go viral and many people believed that she was let go due to her decision to let her hair go grey. Reports came out stating that CTV was not happy with her decision to go grey as it did not fit their company’s image. Due to this, many people supported Lisa and brought ageism and sexism in the media industry to light after this news story broke out. Dove also jumped on the trend and created a campaign called #KeepTheGrey which encouraged social media users to share photos of their grey hair and to embrace the look. The campaign became viral and many users jumped on the trend to show support and fight back. This is a great example of how a brand uses emotional drivers to make users interact with the content. With this situation, many people were already angry by her leave so in order to advocate for justice, people were quick to interact with Dove’s content. Another aspect of this campaign is that it also utilizes a trending topic. At the time, Lisa’s departure was a viral news story. Dove took this as an opportunity to connect with their audience as their brand already encompasses values around inclusivity, confidence and self-esteem. Due to this, they got an excessive amount of support from their audience and in the end, not only did they contribute to a great cause but they also managed to secure loyal customers.
Photo Credit: Dove
As we can see, Dove did a phenomenal job in creating viral content. Many brands interact in a similar fashion and utilize emotional drivers and relevant trends to increase their brand engagement. It’s more common than you think! Next time you are on social media interacting with your favourite brand, see if they used these tactics to gain your interest. You’d be surprised by the power storytelling and content creation can have on you!
Written By: Brintha Manoharan
Date: November 6, 2023