One of the many things people find really strange about me, is that I don’t watch reality TV shows.  That’s because, as an experienced marketing professional, I know what’s happening behind the programs and they become predictable.

However, I DO LOVE watching how some people respond to these shows.  That’s why, no matter how busy I am, I try and get a look at Twitter when the UK version of X Factor is on.  It’s a lesson in sneezing!

The X Factor: A lesson in sneezing

Like every commercial TV show, the object of this program is to sell advertising.  The more viewers the show attracts, the more awareness and sales it’s sponsors and advertisers will achieve.  This is why shows are pulled off the air when their viewing figures are too low for too long.

For people living alone or with partners, who were not TV fans, watching TV used to be a solitary activity.  However, now that viewers have tools like Twitter, the experience has been dramatically improved and it’s a massive amount of fun too!  If you take a look at Twitter when the X Factor show is on, you will see intelligent people (business owners, lawyers, accountants, jugglers ect) making the same points, about the same performers.

From a marketing perspective, what happens is that these Twitter users become what Seth Godin refers to as ‘sneezers.’ They spread the X Factor virus via their Twitter account – but more importantly, they spread the X Factor virus to the kind of people who are most likely to be sneezers!

How come?

If Bob follows Mary on Twitter and discovers the X Factor show via Mary, he’s extremely likely to follow the show AND tweet about it too, so he can join in the fun!  That’s why the #X-Factor hashtag becomes a trending topic every time the shows on. It’s marketing brilliance and the producers of the X Factor deserve a huge amount of credit.

A marketing lesson

There’s a lesson here for anyone, who wants to grow the readership of their company blog or website.

First the hard part: You need to do like the X Factor producers have done and produce content for your site that will get people talking about you.  Then, you need to make it super-easy for people to share that content, with LIKE MINDED people. If you do those things, your site will have people sneezing like a meadow full of pollen during hey-fever season!

Is it easy? No.

Is it possible? Yes.