The Facebook IPO Fail & Bad Virality

If you haven't been following the Facebook IPO news lately, then you may not know that there's big trouble brewing over the largest social media network's IPO. Stock prices have dipped below $30, companies like SEOmoz are claiming a little slice of credit for the problem, and people are making satirical spoof videos already. When a company like this fails big, it's only to be expected that it would go viral.

Virality is a double-edged sword - while you always want to create content that goes viral in a way that gets you positive attention, it's difficult at best to control negative attention once it goes fully viral, especially for larger companies (and people) that are often in the public eye.

Is the virality of bad press a problem? Or is this outweighed by the benefits of having your content go viral? Has your company ever experienced bad viral press?

Pepsi Missing A Super Advertising Opportunity?

Don't look for Pepsi's great commercials this year. The company will not be spending the estimated $2.5 million for 30 seconds of air time during the most popular advertising spot on TV, the Superbowl. Instead, the company has decided to stop the 23 year run and shift to social media and helping the world, which is a great thing. This new interactive campaign, "Pepsi Refresh," plans on giving $20 million in grants to fund projects for health, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, neighborhoods and education. The website Refresheverything.com is going to be extremely active with people voting and submitting ideas on the most appealing projects for the money. When you go to vote, you can connect through Facebook and Twitter which shares your interest with your friends. I know they want this to go viral and it is a great idea, but I'm not sure how many people are going to talk about this at our status meeting on Monday at TGR. Ultimately, sales will determine if Pepsi made the right choice.

Friday Fun with None - Giddy Up

Yesterday morning, I received a Facebook email from a college friend with the following note:

"Some fun is going on…. just write the color of your bra in your status. Just the color, nothing else. It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of breast cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before people wonder why all the girls have a color in their status… Haha ."

Thinking I'd have a little fun, too, I posted my status update and passed the email along to my girlfriends... who updated their statuses, and passed the email along to THIER friends.

Of course, one of my ingenious man-friends, whom I've known since pre-school, hit me up on chat and promptly guessed what the colorful posts were about. After a little joking around, he came up with the great idea to actually turn this silliness into a REAL FUNDRAISER for breast cancer.

Although this may sound just a wee bit strange, it's not. A softy at heart, he was feeling for the wife of his co-worker, who was diagnosed with a serious illness on New Year's Eve. He wanted to do something to help....

This afternoon, I was browsing the news and noticed the following story trending on Mashable.com: Sharing Your Bra Color Is the New 25 Things on Facebook. (Gotta love that, although I wish they would have mentioned the event!)

As we discovered last night, the original source of the email is unknown, even to Mashable.

Of course, I'd love to know who hatched this witty email, too. I wonder if the person ever considered the onslaught of rainbow posts it would bring? That their prose would serve as such a great example of how something extremely simple can go viral so quickly, that Mashable would stand up and take note? Or that a slightly mischievous, but very well-intentioned guy would not only see this as a way to get everyone out of their skivvies, but also as an opportunity to do some good along the way?

To do your part, login to Facebook and join the "Friday Fun with None" event. It's open to anyone, and is for a good cause. (Even if you don't really participate, show your support by clicking the link to make a donation.)