Starting a new series on how to GO VIRAL with your posts! There is so much to talk about, that I will take each topic one by one. Starting with…

 

The human factor:

It’s all about people! How people react to what they see, read , hear, and interact with one another. 

What they see:

For example: People see a cute image of a cat behaving badly. But it only goes viral if a human passes on the photo or video. 

• Why are people so taken with cat’s behaviour?  

Let’s take into consideration those wonderful Tom & Jerry cartoon films we used to watch and enjoy so much. 

1. There was drama. 
2. Tom’s anger. 
3. Fear for the mouse’s sake. 
4. How clever the mouse was. 
5. The antics both the cat & the mouse got up to, in order to achieve their own personal goals. 
6. There was action and anticipation. 
7. The mouse always won. Even though winning was important to Tom. 

Conclusion: 

• Those Tom and Jerry films became so embedded in our minds. How cute and nimble mice are. 
• And since we all have cats as pets, we watch the antics they get up to. So we feel for Tom.

Here is a typical cat story you can relate to:

We had a ten acre plot a few years back. Some would have called it a mini farm. 

And on our farm we had a lot of field mice. Especially in a rainy season, they breed more than ever, when there is good juicy harvest to eat.  

So we had to have cats that would catch mice. And our cats were great rat catchers… BUT… if we found a mouse in our house during the night, the cats were absolutely useless, most of the time! 

Let me say why. 

Giving you one circumstance to show how it would generally happen. 

I would be woken up during the early hours of the night with a scratchy sound in the bottom half of my chest of drawers. Naturally I would get our cat, hoping it would catch the rat. 

First I would open the bottom drawer, so the cat could see the rat. But oh no, the cat wouldn’t even look at the rat, at the far back of the chest of drawers! Why couldn’t it see it? 

But like Tom, our cat wasn’t interested at first. 

He didn’t know why his beautiful sleep was so rudely interrupted! And it wasn’t too happy about all this fuss. Its attitude was, “leave me alone” and tried to wiggle out of my hands.  

Fighting me, it wouldn’t even look into the chest of drawers exposed cavity. I was most frustrated. Why wouldn’t the cat stop its nonsense and just do as I wanted? 

I tried holding its head towards the cavity. But it persisted in looking the other way, furiously wiggling! 

Then suddenly by pure chance, 

The cat heard movement in the chest of drawers and turned its head and saw the mouse. There was sudden stillness, while the cat took note of the rat, and the rat stared back at the cat…

Aaah then we had real action! The cat leaped out of my hands and pounced for the rat. And the chase was on…. 

            Have you had that type of thing happen with you? 

So you see…

You can easily associate with Tom and Jerry, because you’ve had similar experiences with your own cat. 

One moment it is peaceful and the next moment it‘s instant action. Cat’s personalities can be so fascinating with their many different personalities. 

• But it’s our re-action to what we see, to what we think is so funny or cute. 
• We are the ones who pass on those cute photos and videos for our friends to see too. 

The bottom-line:

Humans have to have their imagination and emotions stirred before anything goes viral! 

So don't forget... always take people’s feelings into consideration before posting.