A 3 Step Plan to go Viral Online?

A graduate from the University of Texas at Austin ended on an inspirational-note after talking about how to go viral online at San Antonio, Texas’, Geekdom.

“meme” by: Vincent Huang

Dustin Younse, who was a part of UT Austin’s ACTLab program, gave this talk to anyone interested, on Oct. 17, 2012, on the 11th floor of a downtown San Antonio, Texas, building called the Weston Business Centre (better known as Geekdom’s head-courters).

His instructions were simple — the actual procedure and follow through…not so much.

Younse said, “[The first step is to] find a hot meme.” A meme being a interesting image, impressive video, creative diction, a funny hashtag, or practically anything else you can think of that will get people to pass it on electronically.

He said the next step was to “tumble, tweet or make a YouTube video [of said ‘hot meme’].”

“FRIENDS!” by: Sodanie Chea
You guys know this face…the drawn one.

Then, he said, “[The last step is to] profit.”

The feeling of incompleteness is natural. Only three, simply worded steps? Where are all the in-between steps? Is it really this simple? Is there a one-step plan for the weary?

You are right; it is not always this easy.

Younse went on to describe how old media (for example, newspapers) is a scarcity-based economy, where people must physically seek out information to obtain it. Whereas, new media (for example, our modern world wide web) is an attention-based economy, where the scarcity is a person’s attention span.  These concepts build the idea that modern life has made things so accessible that an overload of information can only hold a persons attention for so long, before they move on to the next click. Going viral can only last for so long as well.

“If you have a creative bone in your body, you would probably love to make your living off your creativity,” Younse said.  He revealed the secret to doing this: people have to truly care about what they’re doing or making.

“Road to success” post by: gaorganizer/ created by: Allison Carter

It’s advice that we’ve all heard before in some form, but before déjà vu sets in, Younse veered onto a slightly different — more rarely taken — path.

He said, “You have to redefine your vision of success.”

Younse started off wanting to be a filmmaker, but soon learned that in order to make money, he needed to spend 14-hour days on someone else’s dream. Even after attending film school, he decided to become a computer programmer instead — and enjoys it.

“Just because you start one path doesn’t mean you have to slavishly adhere to it,” he said. “[You] shouldn’t try to do things to get famous. Do things you care about.”