Viral moments can’t be engineered – you gotta just feel the Bern

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By now you’ve probably seen the multitude of memes featuring Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders sitting cross-legged in his brown jacket and warm woolen mittens at President Biden’s inauguration this week. Someone even went as far as creating a nifty tool that allows you to insert him into any Google Maps location you choose. And – in the ultimate sign that a social media sensation has already jumped the shark – major publications are now covering the meme as a news story.

In addition to making me chuckle almost nonstop for the last 36 hours or so, this latest viral meme made me think it might be a good time to discuss another one of my not-so-favorite questions from leaders: “How can we go viral?” (If you missed my post earlier this week about leaders asking “How can we be more like Wendy’s on social media?” you can check that one out here.)

To be clear and for the record: you cannot engineer a viral moment. You cannot force something to “go viral,” even with a lot of money. To put it even more bluntly: There is no magic wand your social media team can wave to suddenly make thousands of people scramble to share your content. Harry Potter himself could not do it (though maybe JK Rowling could).

But if we deconstruct the commonalities of our most viral memes, there are a few shared characteristics that are noteworthy:

1. They are beyond timely. One thing leaders fail to understand is the speed at which social media operates. The window to become part of the conversation is not days, it’s not hours. It’s literally minutes. And one of the biggest reasons companies fail to “make things go viral” is because they simply can’t act quickly enough to take advantage of the moment. The original photo of Bernie just sitting there minding his own business started circulating online right around 10 a.m. (my time, CST) on Inauguration Day. It took just minutes for people to start posting about Bernie’s fashion, or lack thereof. And then it took just minutes more for the memes to start flying. Social media teams need to have the permission and the leeway to act in the moment without 10 levels of approval. Companies that want to have any hope of capitalizing on the moment must ditch the red tape and clear the path for quick action.

2. They are funny! One of the things that makes memes go viral is that people see them, are entertained by them and then want to make their own version. They want to up the ante and gain accolades for having the funniest version of the meme. Without the amusement factor and the one-upmanship, a meme will probably fizzle before it gains much traction. It IS possible for companies to seize the moment and jump in with their own version of a new meme. Case in point, bonus points to the team at Crocs!

But for companies, a lot of times, the rules around “how to do corporate communications” get in the way. If your company or brand wants to be funny online, embrace that. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – social media teams are some of the wittiest, snarkiest and honestly foul-mouthed people allowed to work in corporate America. They will be funny if you let them.

3. They resonate. Almost every viral social media meme I can think of is in some way extremely relatable to a large portion of the public. Here are just a few examples. Not only do these images convey a feeling or emotion that is extremely relatable, but they are so relatable that you can probably tell me the words that belong on each picture without me even showing you the text.

Back to the Bern. What made this particular meme go so big so fast?

1. It was super timely. A very large portion of the country and indeed the world was tuned into the multi-hour live broadcast, and we were all passing the time until the main event. No one had to explain the meme – the instant anyone saw it, they knew exactly what it was from and understood the context. It’s also important to note that it was spontaneous – no one knew Bernie would be wearing that, sitting like that or that a photographer would capture his image in that moment.

2. It was funny! Bernie obviously stood out amongst the fashionable ladies and the dark-suited men in his practical thick brown coat and his super cute woolen mittens. (And it turns out the mittens have a super cute backstory too, which created an additional news cycle and helped the whole thing stay in the public eye for an extended period of time). He was like everyone’s grandpa who shows up for Christmas with his store-bought cheese plate and already telling you he’ll have to leave soon to get home for his show.

3. It was relatable. God, we have all been there. Stuck sitting at an event for a couple of hours waiting for a thing to happen. On top of that, he was cold, which is also relatable, especially here in Minnesota. One of the first tweets to gain some real traction tapped into that “we have all been there, Bernie is all of us” notion, especially those of us who have spent the last year on Zoom calls:

(Also note the timestamp on that tweet – less than half an hour after the original image hit the internet.) It was a spontaneous moment that was truly relatable to millions of people, and it was light-hearted and fun. We all need light-hearted and fun right now, and people at home in front of their computers and with some time on their hands embraced this one with particular zeal. The result is what you see still circulating on the internet with some impressive staying power, two days after the fact.

SO… if you are a leader who asks “How can we go viral,” stop it. Instead, ask “How can we enable our social media team to take part in viral moments when they happen?” That’s the real question and the one that will actually affect change. And while we’re at it, can we stop saying “go viral” entirely? I have always hated that phrase, even more now after 2020. Please and thank you.

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Since we’re all here, of course, let’s look at some of those Bernie memes because they are SO GOOD. If you’re one of my fellow social media nerds, make sure you get to the last one!