Why I Don’t Care About Going Viral

The big thing out there right now is, going viral. Everybody and their aunt wants to go viral. Huge exposure, and your 15 minutes of internet fame. Heck, I wanted to go viral. Just one post. Please, please, please, just let me go viral, just once. That was, until yesterday. Yesterday taught me a lot about my audience. I learned about who sees my posts, and who I really want to be reaching.

Yesterday I wrote a post about a local company and how they were doing social media right. It was a very moderate hit, as posts go, but there were some very useful clues to be found about my business and who on the internet is watching me.

Let me state that this blog is viewed in 67 countries. Personally I see that as pretty good for being in operation for just a few months and not spending a dime on advertising. Honestly, it really means nothing. I don’t think that I will gain any business of the guy reading me in Marrakesh, but I am glad that he reads my blog and values my opinion.

Yesterday, was an eye opener. This one small post, written about one small company, over two small tweets, gave me more information and direction than I’ve had since I began Anocial. My location is Knoxville TN. It is a relatively small city that cares greatly about its local communities. I saw that caring yesterday on Twitter. This post had just about the most retweets than any other post, 80% of those retweets were local. 80% of the people talking about my post yesterday were from the community that I am working to reach. I think that is huge.

Little snapshots like this can give you a great indication of how well you are working your presence on the web. Has my presence on the web been a positive one? The fact that I have clients would lead me to believe so. Am I changing the world? No, well at least not yet. Am I reaching my prime audience? according to yesterday’s snapshot, definitely.

I’m not going viral. That’s ok, I don’t care if I do. I am exactly where I want to be.

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