Want a Viral Video? Just Add Humanity

Despite the Internet’s reputation for being mean-spirited, cruel and heartless, it turns out that most people who surf the web love a fairytale happy ending.

How else can you explain the “viral video” phenomenon that was formerly-homeless Ted Williams’ rise to superstardom?
 
The former radio broadcaster (and father of nine!!!) made his rise from ashy to classy thanks to the intrepid reporting of a videographer from The Columbus Dispatch. The reporter, Doral Chenoweth III, took footage of an unkempt, down and out, yet still friendly Ted Williams holding up his sign begging for a helping hand. In the video, Williams briefly summarized his life story (he got hung up on drugs/alcohol and fell off the tracks) and displayed what has been called his “golden” radio voice.

What was remarkable wasn’t the video itself, but the social reaction and action to the video, which quickly went viral, generating more than 5 million views in a matter of days. Sympathy for Ted’s plight was widespread on Twitter and Facebook, but it went beyond words of consolation and turned into something tangible when Williams got job offers as a result of the video. He’s landed a gig with Kraft and other offers keep pouring in.

What does this mean for content and media? It means that one-sided storytelling is fading. The old information flow was from publisher to reader and it pretty much stopped there, with maybe a letter to the editor being the reader’s only outlet. Now, media companies are merely lighting the torch and handing it off to readers who run with it and pass it along to others in a winding relay race.

If we break down the Ted Williams story from a content perspective, it thrived on simplicity. The video, which clocked in at roughly 1 and a half minute, identified a clear problem (he was homeless), suggested a simple solution (he needed work) and was executed with real humanity (he was presented as he was, raw and unpolished).

The last part is essential to the success of this story. For all people’s talk about how computers have turned people into anti-social, heartless, robots, social media and stories like these prove that people respond to content with real, visceral, humanity attached to it.

As professional media companies, there’s always a balance between professionalism and humanity that needs to be adhered to, but there’s no skirting around that necessary ingredient of humanity.

Social media is people-powered. Don’t forget it.