Going Viral

One thing about long plane rides to Tokyo is that I get a lot of time to read. During this trip I read an interesting article about how "going viral on the Internet" is really just a myth. The article stated that popularity on the Internet is not about a lot of one-to-one shares of information but instead come from large corporations or celebrities. For the most part I have to agree with the article but then decided to do a little research.

First I plugged the title of the article into my favorite search engine and got several hits. Unfortunately you can't look at the article as it came from a print magazine and the only way to get to the article is to have a paid subscription. That doesn't help for links in blogs and so I won't reference it. The 3rd hit pointed out that the author of the article I read just released a book and while I thought the article was actual news, it turns out to be an ad for this book. I wondered how a print magazine with so few advertisements could remain in circulation. Now I know, a lot of the articles are really just advertisements. So much for journalistic integrity and trusted editors. For the record, that magazine just went in the garbage and I won't be reading it again.

Looking at my own blog and the traffic it receives, I have to agree with the article that "Going Viral" is a myth. I have kept at this since 2009 with 71 posts per year and only get about 10 or so readers per posting. Factor in the search engines that stumble across my pages and one is tempted to believe that nobody really reads anything I write. However there is one exception: my Photoshop-clone article. That one article from 2009 has hundreds of page views. No, I wouldn't consider it to have "Gone Viral" but it does help prove the point that in order for something to go viral, it has to be worth viewing.

I have a fairly recent post that surprised me by its popularity: a video game review of Sniper Ghost Warrior 2. For some reason, this review has become my most popular. I don't think I did a particularly better job of reviewing the game compared to other games. Instead I think the content set it apart. Perhaps the impending release of Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 has a few people wondering if they should go back and play the 2nd game before starting the 3rd.

Personally I believe that "Going Viral" is a real phenomenon, it is just rare. Sort of like being struck by lightning or winning the lottery. The content has to be worth viewing, you have to sell it to everyone, and you need a bit of luck.