Using Controversy to Your Advantage — A Case Study on Creating Virality

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I’m gonna go ahead and pop this article off by drawing your attention to a screenshot —

As you can see, July has been a pretty eventful month for me on Twitter.

2.75 million impressions in less than a month. And most of it came from one single tweet.

Just one.

These are the number of impressions for that tweet alone

And here’s the tweet in question

Now before all of you decide to point out the semantics missing from that formula (taxes, overhead, manufacturing, etc), don’t bother.

That wasn’t the point of the message.

The point of the message was to convey that making more money really isn’t as complex as most people try to make it.

But I digress, because this tweet and its message aren’t what I’m here to discuss.

What I’m here to discuss is this question:

“What made this particular tweet go viral?”

The short answer?

Controversy.

The Power of Polarization

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I got all kinds of commentary on this tweet, but for the most part people fell into one of two camps when it came to their responses:

1. “Thank you, I really needed to read this.”

Or

2. “The fuck are you thinking? It isn’t that simple.”

And to be honest, it was really interesting and even kind of fun to watch how people rationalized their perceptions, and how they would go about justifying their thought process.

Now, I said that the short answer to why this tweet succeeded is controversy (and that’s true), but in order for this to benefit you we need to understand exactly what controversy is and why it can be such a powerful force for incentivizing virality.

So let’s start by looking at how controversy is defined:

Can you tell me what the key word is here?

Heated

So controversey doesn’t just happen when people disagree, but when they disagree passionately. And passionate disagreement is what creates polarization in people, putting them into an “us” versus “them” mentality.

Why?

Because the idea causing polarization is personal, and it either validates or directly challenges the individual’s current paradigm. In the case of my tweet, that polarization was centered around money — something that is often very personal for people, as it usually either serves as a great source of stress or as a great source of relief in their lives.

Are you beginning to see why this is so powerful? Call it a dark art if you must, but polarization and controversy are what make a message strong.

It’s what gives weight to ideas.

A very large part of the reason any particular message or movement reaches a crecendo of influence is because there’s almost always a side yelling just as loud in opposition to it.

This is why history has always been so heavily influenced by ideas that heavily incentivize controversey. Religion, politics, ethics, distribution of resources, culture, diversity, this list could go on and on.

But how can you use it to benefit you and your own content?

After all, that’s what you’ve read this far to find out, right?

Worth Standing For or Against

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An idea needs two key elements to elicit controversy:

1. The ability to stir radically different opinions within people
2. Something meaningful to the individual has to be at stake

Take the following statement —

“I don’t watch TV.”

Anybody who does watch tv most likely isn’t going to polarize against somebody that says this. It’s a different perspective sure, but nothing is at stake here. Neither party really stands to lose anything in the face of the other’s opinion.

Now, looking at another statement —

“I don’t/do believe in God.”

As most of us are aware, this statement elicits massive amounts of controversy. Wars have been fought over this difference in opinion, and it’s because a belief or disbelief in God is very intimate and personal for most people — so opposition against their belief becomes a direct threat to their very existence.

Do you see the difference?

My aforementioned tweet had the type of impact it did because money is an extremely personal issue for almost everyone. And because of that, everyone has an opinion on it, a belief tied to it, and a certain relationship with it.

It’s a part of them.

So the key to leveraging controversy? It must break through to the very core of the people it reaches. If the message is too surface, nobody will care enough to strongly defend or oppose it.

The more a message represents damnation for some, while representing salvation for others, the more powerful it has the potential to be.

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