Goal: Use multiple social networks to achieve internet virality for a USU research article.
* Note - The internet has a short attention span. Therefore, when creating this project, I acted as if the academic article had just been published.
1) An article for general audiences
Submit the academic article to the editors of several popular national newspapers (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, etc.) and explain why an article written about this scientific paper would be a worthy addition to the science section of their publications. Publishing an article for general audiences in a well known paper will greatly impact the ability of the scientific article's content to reach the masses.
*Note - Do not limit article solicitation to newspapers. Magazine publications such as New Scientist and Popular Science will do just as well.
The next steps will be to share the articles on multiple platforms with as many people as possible.
“...virality leverages situations where many people are sharing with many other people at the same time. At each step out from the origin, another round of individuals, all of whom have their own broadcast capability, is exposed to the message.” (Nahon and Hemsley 2013)
2) Twitter
Upon publication of the article, all of the institutions listed above will tweet its release using their science twitter handle)
The tweet might look something like this:
“A new study shows that kids with ADHD who take stimulant meds have higher IQs. Could you have been smarter? #ohlookasquirrel #takeyourmedskids”
Be sure to retweet the newspaper’s tweet at all pertinent USU handles (USUAggies, USUNews, etc.)
3) Reddit
Link the newspaper article to the science subreddit (being sure to give it a sexy title like: "Stimulant medications result higher IQs for children with ADHD").
4) YouTube
Suggest to multiple popular science YouTube channels (such as ASAPscience, Vsauce, and PBS Idea Channel) that they make a video based on the article. These channels frequently produce videos that receive millions of views. If you are unable to convince one of these channels to make the video, make your own in a similar style.
Post the video to YouTube
5) Linking to the Video
-Link the video to reddit.com/r/videos. Be sure to link the newspaper article in the Reddit and YouTube video description
-Also, link the video and article to tumblr
-Do the same for Facebook and any other platforms that seem applicable
6) Memes
Additionally, you could try a meme-based approach
For example:
or
Be sure to link the newspaper article in the description or the comments
Memes can be posted on Imgur, twitter, Instagram, reddit.com/r/funny, and many more sites.
7) Bask in your success
With any luck, the information in the article will have spread to thousands of people who would otherwise have been unaware.
Sources:
Nahon, Karine; Hemsley, Jeff, Dec 06 2013, Going Viral
That was hilarious! Things that have humor in them seem to spread very quickly. There are a lot of people who think they have ADHD who don't and a lot who really have it that will find posting this beneficial to their image because of that. With your plan this article/video will go viral.
ReplyDeleteI love that you used memes in your plan! Very creative. We had similar ideas for our plans but including memes definitely helps widen the prospective audience and makes it more attention grabbing and entertaining. Great job keeping your plan short but effective!
ReplyDelete