Viral, and How it Gave Ted Williams a Second Chance
We assume you haven’t been AWOL for the last week, and have by now heard the story of Ted Williams and his overnight propulsion to instant fame. In case you’ve missed it, take a look at the video below:
A fascinating talent, and a talent that – in the single day that video was posted online – found Ted Williams a brand new job in the career he loved, with some kind-hearted person also reportedly giving him $10,000 to help sort himself out. Since the video of Ted hit YouTube, his life has turned around completely – Ted himself describes it as ‘a Susan Boyle moment’.
And like Susan Boyle, a very special case indeed. A genuine human interest story of real worth and how people can triumph against adversity. On the other side of the coin, if we strip the story down, it’s also the most poignant example of good content going viral across the globe in a matter of hours.
The good content wasn’t the video though. Well, the video of course sparked Ted’s rise to fame, but Ted himself is the content in this case. Something very unique, offering amazing substance that the public simply wants to see more of. A man with a talent so desperate to work that he stood on the road with a sign promoting himself, showing off what he could do to anyone polite enough to stop and listen.
Marketing yourself isn't all about tactics such as PPC or simply having great web design. Whether a blog post, article, press release or more, that’s exactly the kind of positive action you should be doing with your own content on a daily basis as an online business. Pushing it as hard as it can across a variety of different channels to attract traffic and force people to sit up and take notice of what you can do. We bet that not many people chose to stop to give Mr. Williams the time of day – but quality counted, and he was lucky that the one person who did stop to listen to him was an influential person with a video camera.
Push your content to the right people. Tweet it towards somebody who matters in your industry. That one retweet from them could be far more beneficial than putting effort in down a variety of other avenues. As Ted’s case shows, a lot of catching fire and going viral is simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time – but he also managed to create his own luck by getting out and about, and pushing himself as hard as could in a positive manner on a daily basis. Doing the same with your own content is the best way to achieve results when online marketing. Who knows, maybe one day you can have your own Susan Boyle moment!
