0 to 100,000+ organic visitors in 4 DAYS

The explosive growth of the #masks4all movement, and a checklist for how to create viral content - THREAD

In the last week, the #masks4all hashtag on Twitter has seen average DAILY growth of over 63% (graph above framed as bi-hourly data)

What can this teach us about making viral content? And how can YOU help the movement as a marketer or growth hacker.

Let's start

On Sunday, the 29th of March, the official Masks4all website was launched, and two days later, its leader, @jeremyphoward shared the launch in a Tweet:

The previous week, Jeremy wrote an article in the Washington Post which went viral, in which he sounded the alarm about why Americans need to wear homemade masks to slow the spread of COVID-19:

The buzz from this article drove him to briefing US Senators, policy experts at Yale, and explaining how to make homemade masks on national television within days.

The website created for the movement is home to a wealth of content, articles and documentation about the movement and the efficacy of homemade masks.

In just 4 days, the website has seen over 100,000+ visitors, through the sharing efforts of its founders, as well as some large accounts on Twitter.

The website has established itself as the go-to source of information about the virus and its relation to reduction efforts through grassroots movements in mask wearing campaigns.

The movement and the website, maybe unwittingly, checked many of the boxes we can look at when looking to craft viral content, sometimes known as the STEPPS framework

These “STEPPS to virality” are 6 key attributes a piece of content, a trend, or here, a website can look to target to position itself best for viral growth.

So how exactly do these come into play with #masks4all?

The first of the boxes I can see #masks4all ticking is the one of Social Currency: people can share the hashtag and the website to (it sounds malicious but doesn’t have to be) virtue signal.

It tells their followers “look at this, I’m in the know - I’m informed”

Next, it ticks “Triggers” PERFECTLY.

It targets highly current topic - probably one of the most widespread and current topics of the last few years. Everyone is talking about it - it’s at the heart of the zeitgeist.

It’s affecting you, it’s affecting me.

Next, “Emotion”.

Little needs to be said for this one. The compelling news of the casualties and effects virus each day do their best to drive powerful sentiment to make action happen.

And finally, "Practical Value”.

The entire point of the website is to share practical information. It shares concrete data, guides, tutorials, exact steps to help, to spread the word. Its practical value is its reason to be.

Virality is normally framed as a profit or vanity attribute. Who doesn’t want viral content? It makes people talk about us.
And yet, virality (a fitting word here), will here prove to be a powerful tool for public health.

Today, the website is urgently looking for someone to help them with scaling their growth and marketing efforts.

If you’re a marketer, growth hacker, or just trying to help, please be sure to get in touch with @camwoodsum, a co-founder of the website and see how you can help!

Be sure to mention the website to a friend who might be able to help out!

Finally, if you found this thread interesting, consider sharing it, a retweet would be kindly appreciated!

Stay home, wash your hands.

Thank you for reading!