Stop looking back, you did. Yes, you.
Much has already been said about Olajumoke and her fairytale rise to prominence. She has been the talk of the town for a sea of reasons since her picture, if we can call it that, interrupted our world sometime in January.
From initially being mistaken for a model, to being recognised as the breadseller deserving of runways and billboard, hers is a classic example of a fairy tale.
Expectedly, a lot of theories have been expounded to explain her sudden rise to prominence almost within a twinkle of an eye.
From hardwork, to chance, to luck, to prayers, to God, to courage and what have you, many are the things and people that have received credit for Olajumoke’s rise to grace from grass.
But research has shown that one person has not been given due credit. You.
So Nigerian company, BHM that decided to find out what made #Olajumoke go so viral. The answers are quite interesting.
First, they found that the medium on which the now famous first photograph which featured Olajumoke and her tray of bread was shared contributed to how far her story travelled. Why? Because studies have shown that some media make it easier for people, including you, to share stuff than others. Instagram and Twitter fall in that category and those were where Olajumoke’s photographs debuted.
Second, they found that her story “had the ingredients for a hearty virality soup”. Simply put, because that famous photograph pictured Olajumoke, then unknown, doing something big, “modelling”, it was easier for people to connect with it and share. Yes, other studies show that the presence of an amateur doing inspirational things, or a professional doing the mundane evoke the emotions that influence virality.
They also found that the novelty of her story, the presence of notable personalities, TY Bello and Tinie Tempah, amongst other factors contributed to the big bang Olajumoke achieved.
Have you seen how you made her a star?
Tinie Tempah might have been the reason for the photoshoot, TY Bello might have taken the perfect shot, Olajumoke definitely could not have chosen a more perfect time to bomb the shoot, still we won’t be talking about Olajumoke without you.
You, it was, that connected with her. You, it was, that asked questions. You, it was, that hit the like button. You, it was, that shared the photo. You made her go viral! You made her a star!
Click here to download the full report from BHM.
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- Why #Olajumoke Orisaguna Went Viral, According To The Guys at BRI
Nigerians still cannot get over the phenomenon that is Olajumoke, and with good reason… her case is so interesting that a lot of people have been using her as a point of contact for Baba God to #PickUp.
But wait, let’s think about it without involving religion, if Baba God has not picked up, why not just start your own damn phone company?
Viral cases like Olajumoke’s ‘miracle’, phenomenal as it seems, happen around us everyday, we wonder how they come to be, we wonder what jazzthe person is using, whereas in the end, when closely observed, these things are determined by certain factors.
Not to totally remove you from the subject matter, we are talking about cases going viral, not randomly hawking bread onto a photo-shoot. Okay… moving on.
WHAT MADE #OLAJUMOKE GO SO VIRAL?
- The Initial Medium: Virality depends on medium. Ty Bello shared Olajumoke’s story on her Instagram and Twitter. These two platforms are real-time and conversational, which makes it easy for people to share and discuss Olajumoke’s story. Facebook wouldn’t have achieved how fast the story travelled in the time Twitter and Instagram did. Plus who even goes on Facebook these days?
- It featured an amateur/unknown/underdog in an unscripted moment: The virality of stories often depends on a random person, in their own unique way, achieving some sort of feat that a famous person would ordinarily not do, but doing it in a way that people can all relate to.
- It was an emotional rollercoaster: Do Buzzfeed videos make you laugh? Does Maheeda make your eyes pop? Does HONY (Humans of NY) make you ”awww”? The if you can understand all these, then you can understand that for a story to be talked about and go viral, it MUST evoke some sort of emotions from the audience.
- Novelty: Why would people talk about you when they’ve not already seen what you have to offer before? When you are not Maheeda lol. People like to believe they have seen it all, so to get them to stop, find out and talk about you, your story has to be goddamn NEW and different. A good case in point is our subject matter Olajumoke, everyone can agree that no hawker has ever photobombed an international act in Nigeria and made it to print, but, she did. Unlike this other girl, who showed up on Ciara’s page, her case may have been interesting as well, but Olajumoke has already ripped the ‘newness’ off that story
- Notable personalities with a wider appeal were present – and name-dropped:
This video of Bear Vasquez on Youtube has over 40M views, there is nothing interesting about this video, it just shows a guy shouting “oh my God see the rainbow” over and over for 3 minutes. However this video didn’t go viral until Jimmy Kimmel tweeted something about it. Basically, some ‘influencers’ must be part of your viral mix for your story to actually go viral and reach a larger audience. In the case of Olajumoke it was Tinie Tempah, in the case of Justin Bieber it was Usher, in the case of Kim Kardashian’s sex tape, it was Ray J.
Click here to download the full report from BHM.
