The Virality of Good Intentions

It seems that everyone wants their idea, product or service to go viral. Though nobody seems to be able to make it happen consistently, many have discovered that unusual, innovative or even bone-headed ideas posess ingredients with potential to spread like a wildfire.  Because the compelling elements of a viral stories can be positive or negative, their impacts can boost the cache' of  its main characters or leave them exposed to a harsh light of ridicule.

Perhaps you are old enough to remember the tainted Tylenol scare in the early 1980s.  Its story was told virally, in part, spread by jokes, rumors and even halloween costumes featuring cyanide-laced caplets of the pain relieving medicine. With each uncomfortable laugh, the phenomenon grew and the reputation of Tylenol sank.   Credit Johnson and Johnson's sense of corporate responsibility and savvy public relations for neutralizing the contagious spread of this negative publicity and saving its brand. 

Contrast the viral spread of negative publicity with with the positive viral successes of Facebook and Twitter.  Nowhere do you find big budget advertisements or TV commercials.  The compelling nature of these tools spread from person to person has played a large role in the growth of these services.

True that all organizations, given a choice, would want to spread only the most postive messages about themselves.  And in the old paradigm of broadcast public relations their mantra of control the message could be used more easily to cover unfortunate missteps and sinister misdeeds.   With few tools to spread words to the contrary, individuals outside the press had few opportunities to disseminate a dissenting view.  The owners of the message owned the primary tools to shape it.  But no more.

Armed with blogs, social networks, twitters and tweets, individuals everywhere have gained the potential to disseminate facts and share their opinions with millions of others.  From city hall to China, this helps to keep organizations, image makers and marketers honest.  To thrive in a world where the best and worst of news can be spread in an instant by almost anyone, organizations must increasingly live by the virality of good intentions to achieve their goals.