Yesterday the story of the maybe/maybe not imaginary girlfriend of Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te’o broke. Regardless of whether the story is true or not the fact of the matter it spread like wildfire across the internet damaging the NFL prospects of Te’o, Notre Dame, and media outlets like ESPN and CBS who had covered the emotional story in the past.
Look at the image above of Deadspin’s original Facebook post which we saw 51 minutes after it had been posted in the mid-afternoon. It had already received 359 fan interactions, including 242 valuable Facebook shares. A tweet posted at the same time has, as of this post, recieved more than 15,705 retweets and more than 2,200 favorites.
While the Facebook interaction may seem low compared to the 99,000+ fans their page has, are your good news posts about your business getting these types of response rates when posted at an off-hour in the middle of the afternoon?
We have talked before about bad news spreading fast when it comes to local businesses and the need for your good news to spread just as fast…or to encourage the spreading of your good news from your audience.
Social Media channels are powerful funnels for information of all kinds and you should always be prepared for the speed at which your good, bad, or indifferent news spreads.
