My event went viral when I posted it on Facebook announcing that the Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton, was the guest speaker for our online Blockbuster Rotary Meeting.
Quite naively I had no idea that for some Facebook communities out there, Brett Sutton is the object of their desire. Some communities even attempted to hijack my event, by passing it off as their own.
When my colleague told me about the high-profile speaker he had secured for a future meeting, I was impressed. I went into publicity mode and posted the event on Facebook and for the first few days I watched the response to the event grow.
Then I started to panic when the event had reached over six hundred registered attendees and the club was looking at upgrading its Zoom licence.
A major factor for this response was due to the Covid crises, Brett Sutton is a household name. Then the event went viral. Previously going viral for our club meant viral within the Rotary community, this time going viral was the real deal, the wider community.
With that came hundreds of messages, and comments that had to be vetted. The tone of some of the comments made it apparent that the meeting would have to become a webinar, so that only the panellists were visible. It was too risky to go live with the wider community present.
In 10 Elements That Make Events Go Viral one of the reasons is that your event is highjacked, and this is what happened to mine. Unbeknown to me when I created the event on Facebook pages like ‘Brett Sutton is Hot’ existed.
Whilst I can be forgiven for not knowing about that, I should have anticipated some of the twenty-seven thousand plus responses, because we were dealing with a speaker that is very relevant at the moment. I should have done a thorough search online.
One Facebook user demanded to know how much we were paying Brett Sutton. I explained that Rotary Melbourne does not pay for their speakers. He accused us of profiting from him. I explained that the meeting was free to all. He apologised, and then talked about how disappointed he was with the way press conferences are run.
At that point I decided not to continue the conversation with him, because the last comment had nothing to do with Rotary, and I didn’t want to offend him.
I was aware that the user wasn’t talking to me, he was talking to Rotary Melbourne and I was replying as Rotary Melbourne. I was conscious of the fact that I was representing my club.
What I learnt from all of this was that next time we have a high-profile speaker, I need to consider a few things before I post online.
If, you have ever wondered what a Blockbuster Rotary Meeting is like, here it is, in its entirety.
Before I go I should explain why Brett Sutton is known as a ‘CHOttie’ in some online communities: Chief Health Officer + Hottie = CHOttie
Ari Talantis 