Legal Commentary

The Notion Of "Going Viral"

By Patrick J. Lamb

Sometimes things go viral.  Sometime ago, I wrote about a slideshow set to music that became known as "Did You Know."  The show has been viewed well over two million times.  Earlier this week, I was emailed a link to a song about Barack Obama.  This is a song written and recorded after Obama gave a speech following the New Hampshire primary vote on January 8th.  I have no idea how many people have seen this song on Dipdive, but I checked it on on YouTube. Over 5 million people have viewed the song in its various downloads.  (Interestingly, only 250,000 have seen the actual speech on YouTube.)  It took a week or so for the song to be written and a couple of more days to record it and edit, so the song has been on YouTube for less than 3 weeks--and it has more than 5 million hits.  Viral.

Without regard to the political issues, the question that I've been pondering is what makes something go viral?  I don't recall any briefs, Supreme Court or not, that have gotten this kind of play.  I don't know of any law firm websites that have gone viral (even just within the legal community).  Why is that, I wonder.  Do we focus on precision and "technically correct" at the expense of soul and effectiveness?  Have any of us created a presentation as interesting and compelling as Steve Jobs' launch of the I-phone?  Though we specialize as communicators, are we more puff than real?

I am going to spend some time pondering this.  But I would love to hear what you think about it.

Full post as published by In Search of Perfect Client Service on February 07, 2008 (boomark / email).