Surely one of the most viral photos in history!
Today was a honourable nod and RIP to Greta Zimmer Friedman. I never knew her name till today; but I am sure that there is almost no one in the Western World who hasn’t seen the iconic image in the ‘Kiss Photograph’.
On August 14th, 1945 – it was ‘Victory over Japan Day’ where people spilled out into the restaurants, bars and streets around celebrating the news. Considering how close we in the West came to speaking German / Japanese today, I could only imagine the relief of what people felt.
Freidman was a 21 year old dental assistant wearing a nurse’s uniform with Sailor George Mendonsa who spotted her and planted a kiss on her. The photo was taken and has become part of history. It has earned the praise of capturing one of the unique moments of joy throughout modern history as well as critique from Feminists.
As a heavy Facebook Marketer myself, I think this must have been some of the modern world’s earliest ‘viral images’ that has done the rounds for decades. Even 71 years later, we are still talking about it and sharing this message.
It’s got me thinking about the ‘creation of viral content’ and how we can do it. In my time in business, I have had maybe about 50 posts, videos and photos really go viral in a massive way (one video of my cat breaking 1,000,000 view on Facebook). It’s great creating viral content in that we can get lots of exposure, marketing and new clients from the right content that gets shared, shared and shared.
The question is, how on earth do we create viral content? At the end of the day, we can’t create ‘viral content’ in that we are not the ones who choose to keep sharing it. Our best bet is to create the best content possible, in the hope it hits that timing and sharing niche of the world. My take is this:
– Make all your content as interesting as possible.
– Post all the time.
– Make it relevant to your business so you get value from it.
– Keep an eye on your analytics always so you know how to keep tweaking it.
In summary, keep producing content as interesting as possible! Great photos, cool videos, push the boundaries, go the extra mile and take your best shot.
We may not always create viral photos that last 71 years, but perhaps we can get that bit closer.
Love your work, thank you for the read and stay awesome!
No responses yet