Here’s why ‘Virality’ should not be equated with Mass Approval

Justin Bieber’s song “Baby” is the most watched video on YouTube;people see it,recommend it and hundreds of others more will do so.This sets off a chain reaction initiated by one act of curiosity. If someone says “Wow”, you immediately want to check out the “wow factor”.You may or may not like it and maybe be too lazy to like (or upvote or do a “thumbs up” depending on the type of social media platform you are in).

Just using the number of views/impressions as a yardstick to measure approval would present a skewed picture.Also,it is a well known fact that followers and likes can be easily bought. Whenever a movie is launched in India and the hashtag for that movie’s title starts trending (I am talking about Twitter  here) ,you’d notice that most of the accounts that are raving about the movie have the filmstar’s image; highly unlikely for huge numbers of fans who have no sense of individuality to be tweeting at the same time!

Recently I read “Datacylsm:Who we are (When we think No one’s Looking)— which I strongly recommend reading— and the book provided interesting insights about U.S politicians Mitt Romney and Barack Obama who bought Twitter followers to swell their follower count prior to the elections

Buying Twitter followers can also considerably alter your Klout core.

So the next time,your start “oohing and aahing” about something “viral”,keep in mind that there might be more to it than meets the eye.

 

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