I posted my "Why I Left Google" article on LinkedIn exactly one month ago today.
To be honest, I wrote the piece for selfish reasons. It was an easy way for me to let my family and friends know about this unexpected (for them) and important (for me) change in my professional circumstances without having to repeat my story over and over again.
But I didn't expect what happened next.
As a marketer, you always want your work to "go viral", not only because it makes your paid media dollars go further, but also because it's a good sign your efforts resonated with the people that mattered most to you. (You create the content for your audience, and if they like it enough to share it with their networks, well, that's a good thing!) And yet, "going viral" isn't something you can ever guarantee, because there are too many factors involved that can't be controlled. So you produce the best content you can, buy some paid media to get those important initial views, reach out to prominent influencers in the hopes they'll share your work with their fans, and hope some other piece of content that competes for your audience's attention doesn't get released on the same day.
But this wasn't "my work", and so I did absolutely none of that. I spent a bit of time getting my thoughts down in a digestable format, and then shared the link to my post on my social networks. That's it.
My family and closest friends began to graciously show their support by liking and sharing my article, not only on LinkedIn, but also on Facebook and Twitter. Some added some kind words on what they felt about my decision. These likes and shares exposed their entire networks to my post, which prompted additional likes and shares from their connections. And so on, and so forth. Momentum began to build, and this continued during the days and weeks that followed.
As of right now, the article has been viewed almost 250,000 times, from at least four different continents. It has more than 3,500 likes, over 350 comments, and almost 600 shares. And those are just the LinkedIn statistics.
So what happened? How did a regular guy writing about a personal decision get so much unanticipated attention? I think there were four factors at work:
1) Intrigue.
To be honest, I wrote the piece for selfish reasons. It was an easy way for me to let my family and friends know about this unexpected (for them) and important (for me) change in my professional circumstances without having to repeat my story over and over again.
But I didn't expect what happened next.
As a marketer, you always want your work to "go viral", not only because it makes your paid media dollars go further, but also because it's a good sign your efforts resonated with the people that mattered most to you. (You create the content for your audience, and if they like it enough to share it with their networks, well, that's a good thing!) And yet, "going viral" isn't something you can ever guarantee, because there are too many factors involved that can't be controlled. So you produce the best content you can, buy some paid media to get those important initial views, reach out to prominent influencers in the hopes they'll share your work with their fans, and hope some other piece of content that competes for your audience's attention doesn't get released on the same day.
But this wasn't "my work", and so I did absolutely none of that. I spent a bit of time getting my thoughts down in a digestable format, and then shared the link to my post on my social networks. That's it.
My family and closest friends began to graciously show their support by liking and sharing my article, not only on LinkedIn, but also on Facebook and Twitter. Some added some kind words on what they felt about my decision. These likes and shares exposed their entire networks to my post, which prompted additional likes and shares from their connections. And so on, and so forth. Momentum began to build, and this continued during the days and weeks that followed.
As of right now, the article has been viewed almost 250,000 times, from at least four different continents. It has more than 3,500 likes, over 350 comments, and almost 600 shares. And those are just the LinkedIn statistics.
So what happened? How did a regular guy writing about a personal decision get so much unanticipated attention? I think there were four factors at work:
1) Intrigue.
Thank you for the update, very nice site..
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