Last week I came up with a funny idea for a graphic. I called it “The Most Talked About People On Social Media“. It had a photo of the most talked about people on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. As you can see those 3 people are Rihanna, Justin Bieber, and Albert Einstein. I had no idea that it would go semi-viral just a few hours after posting it on Google+!

I came up with the idea after noticing day after day that Einstein was showing up on the “What’s Hot On Google+” feed (now located under the “Explore” tab). Everyday there is either an Einstein photo or quote that is seeing a lot of activity. Seriously, Einy is everywhere on Google+. And it sparked a thought that led me to search out who the most talked about people on Facebook and Twitter were.

I found an article on Rihanna being the most talked about person on Facebook in 2012. That was easy enough to find, and credible enough to go with. And being that Bieber has more Klout than the President, and he’s constantly in the Trending Topics, it was a safe enough assumption that Bieber fever is the dominant force on Twitter.

So this fun little graphic I created came out of my own observation and a creative humorous spin. Here’s what happened next:

For the majority of the next day my post was on the “What’s Hot On Google+” page and was reaching thousands of people. I had no idea that it would go semi-viral, but I was ready to see what would come of it!

The degree of popularity it reached was nowhere near something like the most viral video of all time. However, after it lost it’s steam I had some time to reflect on what I learned from this experience. Below are 4 of the most interesting things I took away from my semi-viral experience.

Each social network has different responses

People on Google+ love when you make them sound smart. For the most part, I was met with positive feedback for the graphic I created despite the few Trolls– but I’ll get into that later.

People on Facebook hate you when you talk about Google+. It’s true, die-hard Facebookers are by nature Google+ haters. It’s almost as bad as the Mac Vs. PC war. Some people just don’t want to hear anything about Google+, especially when it makes Google+ look better.

People on Twitter don’t care, they’re too busy tweeting about Justin Bieber. Okay, maybe that’s not entirely true, but it’s funny. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Twitter!

Some people need to lighten up

One bit of resistance that kept showing up was people asking for statistics and claiming my claims to be false. They demanded to see the source of my information and refused to believe me until they did. I wonder if they analyze every cat meme they see with such criticism. “There’s no way that cat was thinking that! How do you know that is what he was thinking? I want proof!“

Seriously, it’s just a funny meme. Nobody is dying over it. No one will be getting fired for it, and no kittens were hurt in the making of it. It was intended for entertainment value. If your first response is, “I want to know where you got your statistics,” I think it’s time you sat down and played Angry Birds or something. Lighten up! Here’s a video to help you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbTeNorhQXI

Always put your name on your artwork

I knew before I posted that image that somebody was going to take it and repost it without giving me proper credit. So, what did I do? I made sure I put my name on it. Not only that, I did it in a way that Google+ enthusiasts would recognize, with a “+” in front and my full name spelled out.

Within the first 30min. of me posting that image, somebody had copied it to their desktop and reposted it as their own post. If that wasn’t bad enough, they posted a lower resolution version of the image, which was really unfortunate. This person actually got more shares and +1s than mine in the first few hours, which gave them a pretty good headstart on my post.

I was more put off by the fact they posted a low quality version than the fact that they didn’t share it directly from me (giving me credit). If you’re going to steal something and share it with the world, at least steal the best quality!

Forget trying to keep up with comments

As obsessive as I am at following up with people when they comment, there was no way I could keep up with this post. It was actually pretty annoying. I wanted to respond to the intelligent comments, but by the time I would get to it, there was at least a dozen or so that I would have to sort through to get to the one I was after. It just wasn’t possible to keep up with all the comments.

After all that, it was a pretty fun experiment. I don’t know how people like +Mike Elgan, +Michelle Marie, and +Daria Musk stay sane when they have at least a few hundred comments per day (it seems like). This is one more reason why when people say Google+ is a “ghosttown” I just look at them, smile, and nod.

What do you think about my fun little graphic?