When posting petitions online, change agents can call on people from a community who may be biased towards a particular issue and feel their keyboard support is a way to participate and make a difference. By the time Leo used the petition platform, Change had become a popular site for active activists who first came to Change for a specific issue, but then stayed on to support other activities, leveraging their leverage to shake the world. Together, these members can spread and expand ideas one by one, going viral on the Internet.
Viral is the power to get an company banner design item -- including a video, petition, image, or meme -- spread rapidly across the web. The commonality of viral topics is that the core theme can resonate with everyone. Humor- or love-based memes often resonate easily, as do topics that have special meaning to a large group of people. As internet and social marketing pioneer Tara Hunt said, virality comes naturally when people want to share something that resonates and is important to them.
While many people (and organizations that want to build brands) put a lot of effort into figuring out how to go viral, it can't be forced. For example, a company wants to tie a specific online promotion to the expansion of a product's sales (or market), but often the product launch is clearly more money than real. Efforts that really work are not obviously transaction-based. Instead of thinking about how many clicks we get, we know we're successful, but real success depends on finding and connecting people with similar concerns. The Dove brand, in order to connect with consumers, is a successful business case for trying to resonate with how narrowly the definition of "beauty" is today.