Don't think social media has an impact?
Tell that to my tweet that went viral last night from the tornado in Broken Arrow.
As many of you know...Tulsa, OK made national news last night for the tornadoes. Oklahoma is in the spotlight now in light of the recent devastation in Moore and OKC. Tulsa is my home and when I heard of the tornado heading our way I packed up my laptop, iPad, and my dog and headed for my friend's house. At the time this was a great idea for the storms were not near her neighborhood. But as you will see from my photo, we were right near all the tornado action.
Many people do not think social media has an impact, but you can see countless examples of social media giving the inside scoop to national disasters like the OKC/Moore tornado and the Boston Marathon. Not thinking my image would take flight, I posted it on my personal account for my followers to see. Within minutes my image was being retweeted by storm chasers and I was receiving tweets and even a phone call from NYC from CNN's Anderson Cooper's 360 news show.
Now looking at my tweet it may not seem that it went viral, but it only takes the right people for you to see a huge impact in your social media. From the 7 and counting retweets it received, the photo was on CNN and other new stations shows and websites within the hour. My tweet was also changed many times and other people's tweets were then retweeted....creating more virality.
Now there are countless examples of virality on social media and me having my own personal story continues to prove the point that social media has IMPACT. Simply by being involved in a trending conversation on Twitter allowed me to have my image featured on national news and had people calling me from all over asking if that was my image on the news.
Here are some other places my photo showed up:
So how can we translate my example to your business?
1. Participate
You cannot go viral if you are not in the game. If you do not have a Twitter account for your business, let alone yourself, get one.
2. Listen
In order for you to get noticed and potentially go viral, you need to tweet things that are interesting and unique. For my example I tweeted what was big news in my city and it happened to go viral because I pushed the button and it was a hot topic that people were reading in real-time via Twitter search. Know what events and what is trending in your field.
3. Act
Knowing what is going on is half of the battle. After listening to what are the hot topics that are trending and relevant to your business giving the input, act on the trend. Send a tweet, allowing you to take part in the conversation. With social media you never know, you could end up on CNN.
Just like anything viral, seeing my tweet on the news was totally unexpected, but again it would not have happened if I did not hit send on my tweet. I encourage you to being participating in Twitter for your business and listening to the trends that are relevant for your customers.
If you have read this article and need help with Twitter feel free to send me an e-mail at Kersten at Speakeasy Market Strategies dot come. I do also have social media management programs available for those that need Twitter, but would like someone to manage it for them.
P.S.
Here are a few Vine videos I took prior to the funnel cloud appearance.