This document discusses how to create viral social media content. It explains that smartphones are ubiquitous and people use them to avoid boredom. While institutions struggle to engage online, there is a method to engineering viral content. The "Trojan horse" approach involves crafting content that makes people feel it is important, special, relatable, or that their friends need it. The document instructs attendees to brainstorm social media ideas fitting the five Trojan horses and emphasizes regularly posting engaging content to increase chances of going viral. It recommends books on influence, persuasion, and viral phenomena.

1. Being Viral
Creating the Right Conditions to Make it Happen.
Resources Link: alex2.us/casespi
In Social Media
CASE Conference, South Padre Island, July 2015

2. you literally have the power to change the world.
Right now
You all have probably one of the most powerful
tools known to mankind ...

3. A Smartphone

4. 65%
of US Adults own a
smartphone
93%of US smartphone owners
between 18-29 years old
use their phone to avoid
being bored
U.S. Smartphone Use in 2015. Pew Research Center

5. In this digital age
We live in an era of constant connectivity
and yet many institutions still struggle to use
social media to engage with students, faculty,
and the community.

6. This is how many
departments feel about
social media...
Some updates engage hundreds of people,
others just get a charitable ‘like’ from a coworker.

7. There is a method that can help remove the guesswork
about what works and what doesn’t in social media. The specific details
change from case to case but the principles apply to both small and
large social media campaigns.
Viral content can be engineered.

8. Facebook: 5K views
YouTube: 17 million views
Facebook: 300K views
YouTube: 10 million views

9. The Mental Barrier
We are constantly bombarded
by irrelevant information.
Our brains are hard at work
protecting us from this
information overload.
However, sometimes these mental walls actually can get in the
way of relevant and useful information.

10. “The best way to deal with any wall”
Build a Trojan horse that will get through the mental barriers
and deliver our message.

11. The Five Trojan Horses of Viral Content
“This is important
to me.”
“This makes me feel
special.”
“OMG, this is so me.”
“Oh, my friends
definitely need this.”
“Everybody is doing it.”

12. “This makes me feel special.”

13. “Everybody is doing it.”

14. “This is important to me.”

15. “OMG, this is so me.”

16. “Oh, my friends definitely need this.”

17. Activity
Get in groups of 4 or 5 people.
Using each of the five Trojan horses of viral
content, create an idea for a social media
post/update.
Can be a simple text post, video, or entire campaign. Be creative.

18. You significantly increase your chances
of winning the lottery
… if you buy a ticket.

19. You have better chances of making a piece of
content go viral if you post relevant and
engaging updates regularly.

20. Engaging updates also help train the social media
algorithms to give your profile more exposure.

22. Go Further
Contagious: Why
Things Catch On
Brainfluence: 100 Ways
to Persuade and
Convince Consumers
with Neuromarketing
Freakonomics: A Rogue
Economist Explores the
Hidden Side of
Everything

23. Thank you!
@MrAlexGarrido
LinkedIn.com/In/AlexGarrido
josse.garrido@utrgv.edu