Going Viral – Advice from Mr Bingo, Seb Lester, Steve Simpson and Aoife Dooley
Going viral is the holy grail of online content and can make careers, and kill reputations, in a matter of hours. Companies and individuals invest vast amounts of time and money trying to work out just what the key factors are in getting a post to travel around the world on a wave of clicks and likes. Artist Mr Bingo, typographer Seb Lester, and designers Steve Simpson and Aoife Dooley have over 65,0000 Twitter followers and 1 million Instagram followers between them.Their work resonates online in a way that few others achieve with regularity. On Sunday, they gathered on stage at Offset 2016 to share their pearls of wisdom.
On developing an online persona
SS: Whatever you put out there, it has to be you. It’s pretty hard not to be yourself. The more you pretend, the more you have to remember.
AD: I set my account up to keep myself busy. I didn’t think that I’d get the reaction I did. My character is based on myself and my boyfriend’s sister.
Bingo: My person is me. Slightly exaggerated and I leave out the boring bits of my life like when I have dinner and concentrate on the insults.
SL: My clips create an illusion – people don’t know that I might have tried something 15 times before I get a take for my videos right.
Stop! aul fellas trying to disguise themselves as teenagers, ye can see ur wrinkles through the mist of lynx ye pox pic.twitter.com/nwvMl0AHl1
— Your One Nikita (@YourOneNikita) March 22, 2016
On getting and chasing likes
SS: You can post something and get a good response. You don’t really know why. Then you think you are repeating that formula and nothing happens. Sometimes you hit, and sometimes you miss.
SL: I respond to likes. It’s a good way to gauge how you are connecting with people. My work is somewhat driven by the online response, but I have to do what I like.
Bingo: I use social like comedians use small gigs – to test material. Sometimes it is tumbleweed. Sometimes it takes off.
On implementing a posting strategy
SL: I have a strategy and try to post once a day, but success can really change everything and other demands appear. I can usually post something in 15 minutes and do when I can.
AD: I try to post each day. If you don’t post for a while, your page goes stale. But I try not to be predictable – I need to mix it up. If something doesn’t do so well, I will take it down.
SS: Posting work from sketchbooks is important to me. For instance, if I show a finished work and it includes branding, often it will get missed as people aren’t looking or that. People respond to process best. When I am online I want to see how people work and the process. I show what I want to see.
On launching a project or campaign
SS: Campaigns now come with a social media strategy. The tweets and Facebook posts are orchestrated.
Bingo: I spent years cultivating a following. Now, with this following I can launch something from scratch. It’s amazing how work self markets. For my Kickstarter book I did four tweets and that multiplied. There was no plan.
On why they do it
AD: I like what I do. This isn’t an act and it doesn’t get boring. If I don’t get a reaction, I just go again.
SL: You have to do stuff you enjoy anyway. It would get boring otherwise. I need to feel a sense of progress and that I am improving.
On it sometimes getting weird
SL: I have a strange situation where one man with half a million followers shares everything I do and I very quickly lose control. There are people making money from my videos on Youtube. It’s bizarre.Bingo: People have got tattoos of my work. I met a guy once who had a picture I drawn on his leg. I got a photo of me with it.
SS: To see your work as a tattoo is a great honour.I want people to put a © underneath it, as the work is mine. Otherwise I demand they remove it.
SL: I met a guy who had a tattoo of my work down his back. It was an insane compliment, but the tattoo wasn’t terribly well rendered. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that.
On using analytics
SS It’s dangerous to change the likes. Potentially there are times when no one is going to see a post. If you are going to use analytics alone to run a campaign you might find it hard. It’s a piece of promotion, not your life. Be natural.
SL: I use analytics, if post between 2/3pm GMT as the East coast wakes up – that is a sweet spot.
SS: But everyone, especially companies are looking fro sweet spots, so there are gaps everywhere else.
AD: It really depends on your audience – I tend to the post after the soaps. After corrie.
Bingo: My audience are highbrow and more sophisticated. The don’t watch soaps.
On boosting posts
SS: I paid to push a post once. I said I’d never do it. I spent £30. When I posted it, the money lasted three hours, then Facebook pulled it down. I had broken some rule of theirs. I complained but they never got back to me.
SL: I did it to try and understand the Facebook algorithm. I paid £50 on Facebook and did ok. But Instagram just explodes for me.
AD: I pushed my page, but I didn’t like it. It felt like I was forcing my work on people. I’d rather people found it through sharing.
On responding to followers
SS: I’m trying to get clients to commission me. I try to be positive about my work and my clients. I try to engage with the people who comment on my work. That’s important for my clients.
AD: I always respond in character. People think my character is a real person.
Bingo: Brands want people to engage with them. I have done secrete work for massive brands where I have gone in and responded on their social media channels and charged them for doing it. I’m not allowed to draw penises though.
On choosing the right platform
SS: Carpet bomb all of them and work out what works for you.
SL: Instagram, the 15 second videos are perfect for what I do. It has shaped my work.
Bingo: I like Instagram. I see the world in squares now.
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Owen joined It’s Nice That as Editor in November of 2015 leading and overseeing all editorial content across online, print and the events programme, before leaving in early 2018.