How to Make Everything Go Viral: Just Kidding

#sxsw #SXupworthy

Iap26192

ATTENTION: You must signup in advance to attend this workshop. You will need to have a valid SXSW badge, and an activated SXsocial account. To reserve your seat, please go here: https://sup.sxsw.com/schedule/IAP26192

No, you can't make everything go viral. You will be lucky if ANYTHING does. (We've been lucky a few times.) So, in 2.5 hours we'll show you ways to TRY to make that happen. If someone promises you they can, go ahead and fire them, or get them to a professional therapist.

You have to go where your audience lives. The vast majority of your audience is probably on Facebook. (Unless you are Pinterest, but they are on Facebook too. Just sayin'.) You are probably not good at the sweet science of internet virality, that special concoction of optimization, finding or creating quality content, and then maximizing its potential. We will teach you all of our secrets to optimizing social media to drag traffic, kicking and screaming, back to your site.

Questions Answered

1. Why must we spend time and effort on Facebook? What about Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and all the others?
2. Why do we have to focus on headlines and Facebook share images? Can't we just post the content as is to social media?
3. Do I have to have a bunch of celebrities in various states of undress on my site to get traffic numbers?
4. Tests? I thought I was done with tests after college? (A/B testing drives everything we do, and we are constantly wrong.)
5. What do I have to do to optimize my website if I want to dramatically increase audience growth?
6. What are the common themes that all best viral content contains?

The first 55 minutes will be devoted to Framing and Facebook tricks. Then a 5 minute stretch. Then 55 minutes deep diving on content, looking at your stuff, and showing you the best we've seen. Then a 5 minute break. Then the last 30 minutes is a free-for-all Q &A, where we try to solve your problems.

Prerequisites:
- You should know the basics of using a Facebook Page. You should be familiar with how to use social media.

What to Bring:
- If you have short bits of content, bring it. If you have a laptop or something to take notes on, it's handy to have.

Presenters

Adam Mordecai

Editor-at-Large

Upworthy.com

Adam is Editor-at_large at Upworthy, where he gets paid to find stuff on the internet and then tell people he'll maybe make it go viral. Usually he doesn't, but occasionally he gets lucky and helps some good cause get the attention they deserve.

Joseph Lamour

Curator

Upworthy

Joseph Lamour is obsessed with pop culture. He not only covers Hollywood for Upworthy, but he writes about Scandal happenings and Vogue foibles for Racialicious, he also does art direction, graphic design, illustration, and basically anything arts-related. He’s even styled nominees for The Grammies.
A Rhode Island School of Design graduate, Joe spends his time drawing, writing articles and lyrics, (he’s a singer too,) and designing. His clients have included Smithsonian Latino Center, Pace-Wildenstein Gallery, The Kennedy Center, The Pentagon, and The White House, among others.
Joseph would like you to know that he enjoys a good mystery, including Harlan Coben and Charlaine Harris novels. His love for the latter led him here: First talking about everyone’s favorite telepathic waitress for Racialicious’ True Blood roundtables, and now for a more in depth look at fashion, entertainment, and their relation to the racial landscape. He also posts at his own blog, Joe Lamour Everyday.

Rebecca Eisenberg

Deputy Editor

Upworthy

Deputy Editor @ Upworthy.com. Nerd. Feminist. Ally. Pop culture nut. Comedy fan. TV enthusiast. Carnivore. Trekkie. Hoping to make the world a better place by blogging in my pajamas.