by Katie Meyer

“Make it viral” are words no marketing manager wants to hear. A massively shared campaign is the goal of most brands on social media — but it can’t be forced. Often, the fastest-growing social stars of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram go viral accidentally; they are discovered by independent users, without any brand’s help, and are shared across follower groups until they’re everywhere.

How does authentic virality function from the inside? In this post, we examine student photojournalist Tim Tai’s unexpected climb on Twitter after he became the unwitting centre of a national news story.

The Revolution Will Not Be Photographed

In the fall of 2015, a string of racist incidents at University of Missouri — ranging from a swastika painted in a unisex bathroom to epithets chanted at football players — sparked protests. Missouri students demanded a more adequate university response to the incidents. A tent city formed on Missouri’s main quad as students held out for the resignation of the university’s president, Tim Wolfe. “His silence is violence” became a popular chant.

Enter student photojournalist Tim Tai.

When Tim arrived at the tent city to document it on a freelance assignment for ESPN, he was turned away by protesters — and the incident was captured on video. In the video, Tim tells the protesters, “the First Amendment protects your right to be here and mine.” The protesters’ turn against the freedom of the press was unusual; protesters generally embrace journalists as part of the democratic process, as well as a vitally important presence to help document and combat police brutality. A media studies professor, Melissa Click, was also captured calling for help to push journalists out of the encampment.

For many, protesters turning away a reporter symbolized something bigger: an overly-insular, politically correct, and coddled culture on campuses around the United States. The “trigger warning” generation gone too far. A video of Tim being turned away rather aggressively hit the zeitgeist. Columns on the event rocketed to the most-read lists on The New York Times and The Washington Post.

What did all of this do to Tim Tai?

Eye of the Storm

In the year preceding the process, Tim Tai’s Twitter account (@nonorganical) received an average of 2.7 favourites, comments, or retweets per tweet with little follower growth. Aside from one popular tweet in spring of 2014, the period from November 7 2014 to November 7 2015 was quiet.