Marketing Briefing: How the meaning of ‘viral’ has changed with social media fragmentation, overuse of the word
If you spend any time on a platform like TikTok or Instagram Reels, it won’t take long to see an influencer talk about something being, or going, viral. Whether or not you believe that thing — be it a product, recipe or something else altogether — is actually viral may depend on whether or not you’re in the same cultural niche as said influencer.
As social media has continued to fragment, it’s become harder and harder for content created with a specific cultural niche in mind to go beyond that niche and hit mainstream audiences. Virality, then, may mean something is simply viral within that niche rather than hitting a level like the Ice Bucket Challenge, according to marketers and agency execs, who say that the difficult landscape has changed what viral means.
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Source:: Digiday
