What's it like to be a Viral Meme?

Have you ever seen a meme go viral and think I  wonder what it's like for the person in the meme? My name is Richard and I made this. I posted the video and about a day later I realised that it was a lot more  popular than anything I'd done before. Because I'd already been doing videos for  quite a long time, I had about 100 just they didn't have very many views. And then a couple of days later, something really strange happened. It became a meme! And because I'm in it, basically I was a meme! A

nd today I'm going to tell you what that's like, because there are a lot of good  things about it, and also some strange things. Then at the end I'm going to conclude  whether overall it was good, or strange. Okay so first, the good things. Obviously the first good thing about becoming a meme, is it gives you a lot of exposure, which  gives the opportunity to do things with that. But obviously attention comes and goes, so to make  the most of it you have to react very quickly. And although it to

ok a lot of  work, and there were some ups and downs along the way, I think I did alright. But there was a lot to learn for me, particularly around the social media side of things. It's kind of like if you're an intern in your first job and then you turned  up and it turned out that you were the CEO. It's a very very steep learning curve. So my approach was basically to pay attention, read the comments, reply to the comment,  and if people make suggestions, take them. Richard, when's this on  Sp

otify? Yep, let's do that. Richard, we want more songs! Okay. Richard, we want merchandise! Okay. Richard, do you have Cameo? I can do. Richard, do you do live shows? Sure, I can do shows. Thankfully I've got the experience of  being a standup comedian for the last ten years. It was also really fun doing livestreams  as well, it's kinda a luxury really, it's like doing a show but I could just  do it in my office, or out in the park. You also meet really interesting people, like  creators tend to

like other creators, so you get to meet people that you might now have before.  And it's really fun seeing what they do with your songs, and and collaborating with them too. And the best thing, is if you're consistent, and you keep making things, and  be a nice person, you get lovely lovely fans. Okay now it's time for the strange things. One of the strange things, is people always refer to you as the meme. So if I meet people or I see  people on a livestream, they often say "oh you're Richard,

Recorder in the Corner", and for me, I'm  fine with that you know, because Recorder in the Corner is a lovely song I wrote and I like it. And another strange thing when you become a viral meme is people always thing that you did it on  purpose, like you planned it. I totally didn't, no. I mean my videos were getting  like 100 views at the time and I didn't expect any more than that. And also people think that for all the videos that you do after, that you're trying to  make the same thing happe

n, and if you don't then it's some kind of failure. And also that's not  really the case either, I mean for most creators we just like making things, and you know if they  do particularly well that's a bit of a bonus. Another strange thing is you completely lose  control over the content that became a meme. People can do whatever they want with the content,  or at least they kind of feel that they can. And often they come up with really interesting and  creative things, but sometimes it's quite

strange. And at the stage of when it was a meme, people  didn't necessarily attribute the song to me, so a lot of people out there knew the song, knew  the song Recorder in the Corner, but they didn't know who I was or didn't know who wrote it.  There are fans of the meme, but not of you, they don't know who you are. So you have got  to work really really hard to be findable. It's happening less these days but  there are still people who say "Oh wow, you're the person that created  this song!" I

mean the great benefit there is they have familiarity  with the meme and eventually found me. Another strange thing is the "Why are you still  doing this?". Because memes are a short term thing, right, they come about and then they  go away. But songs aren't, people will write a song and sing it for years. But for people  who are only familiar with the song as a meme, it can be a bit confusing. So they might be in a  livestream with me and I'll be singing the song, and they'll say "Why are you

doing this  old meme?". And often they're the same people that don't know I created the song. Okay so another strange thing, I don't want to use the word Troll because I think it's  an oversimplification, but whenever you do something successful there are always some people  who want to be negative about it, and you know the vast majority of the time it's just people who  are wanting to get a bit of attention themselves and are just not really doing it in a very nice  way. So it's nothing to be

taken seriously really. Okay so looking back on it now,  overall was it good, or strange? Overall it was definitely a good experience.  It encouraged me to create more, release songs commercially, tour shows internationally,  and get some really really lovely fans. And for those of you who do like my songs and  videos, thank you! It's been a really really nice time, and I'm working really hard to make  more and more of them for you in the future.