Everyone wants to be popular. Popular businesses make money. Popular people have lots of friends. Popular artists get their music heard by large audiences.
No one wants to be invisible. Invisible businesses fail. Invisible people are depressed. Artists that publicly state they would like to remain obscure secretly want to be popular more than the popular artists do.
There are two types of popularity the web enables:
1) Insta-fame (or viral fame)
Insta-fame is something relatively new in our society. Thanks to news media, for a while there was the idea of ‘15 minutes of fame’ - a concept the web has killed . The new form of insta-fame is to become internet famous. And once you’re internet famous, you’re forever a part of web culture. Even after your big ‘hit’ you’ll still never shake the references in social media, YouTube remixes, or Google. It could prove difficult, if not impossible to get away from what the web comes to know you as due to insta-fame.
A few examples of insta-fame include:
These videos/memes exist far outside the realm of YouTube. Along with a handful of others, these are memes that make up part of pop culture on the web and are referenced, linked to, remixed and talked about throughout the social web. Also note that none of the above people intended to become popular, it just happened.
You more than likely will not experience insta-fame, it is like getting struck by a bolt of lightning. There is no way to predict who will become internet famous and it’s not a strategy to bank on. Also, while you could capitalize on insta-fame, you probably don’t really want this anyway. This is numbers-based popularity.
2) Reputation-based popularity
If you’re not Techno Viking, becoming popular on the web is actually pretty hard work. It’s not anything you could “force” to happen - instead it is the result of relentlessly contributing on a subject you are passionate about until you start to become a referential person for that subject matter. In other words, when people write on a subject, your name naturally comes up as the go-to person. At that point, your reputation and popularity start to work for you naturally.
Examples of people who have achieved reputation-based popularity include:
These guys may make it look easy, but in reality they have put in an incredible amount of work building their reputation through being thought leaders in a global conversation, writing landmark books and keeping blogs/developing sites that smart people visit. This is influence-based popularity.
If it’s the valuable kind of web popularity you’re after, your only real option is to get to work.
Related posts from The Future Buzz
The Shift Of Trusted, Influential Media: From Brands To People
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4 comments so far
Amazing how quickly the most random people can become popular these days (and then how quickly they fade out of fame).
Also amazing how all 6 examples you provided for insta-fame were YouTubes.
(Chris Brogan has officially made all videos on YouTube now known as “YouTubes”: http://twitter.com/chrisbrogan/status/1044417382)
December 7th, 2008Fame is relative. I’m quite famous in my own circle. I know the top 6 you mention and can exchange emails with most of them. But, that’s not why I’m “famous”… I’m famous because I was the FIRST woman blogger to write about marketing to women online. I was the FIRST woman to write a book about same.
My fame is very strong within the circles of women I have met, via my blog and book. I am connected to more women in the blogopshere than most, and I nurture those relationships as much as possible. I have been asked to speak or be interviewed dozens of times, mostly on the net, by businesses hoping to tap into the women’s market, authors wanting to learn the ins and outs of writing a book, and bloggers who can’t figure out how to make their blog work for them.
But, I am not as famous as dozens of other women. Women you did not mention in your “famous” list. They are famous and powerful via their work on the net, like Jory DesJardins and Elisa Camahort Page and Lisa Stone, founders of Blogher. Or, Arianna Huffington from The Huffington Post. Or, Toby Bloomberg who is an expert at business blog strategy. I am not trying to criticize, please don’t take offense. I just like to mention the gals, too.
In the end, the web allows a business to become a Big Fish in a little pond…that is, within its business niche, sometimes within a geographical region (often then spreading out to a global market) it can become a thought leader and that fame can help increase business, exponentially.
Great post! Now I’m off to check out more of your work.
December 9th, 2008@Yvonne DiVita - agreed with your comment 100%, I was purely using some examples off the top of my head. Thanks for reading.
December 9th, 2008I opt for Reputation-Based Popularity. Speaking of which, it’s time to get to work! (Sure it takes hard work. A lot of it. But when you like it and enjoy it, it makes it that much easier to accomplish things).
December 10th, 2008Add a comment