• by Paul Parton , Op-Ed Contributor, Yesterday

A troubling story made the press recently in which a young person’s life had been materially, and negatively, impacted by a salacious rumor that had been spread in social and traditional media. I’m not going to reference the individual or the story here; I don’t want to add in any way to the trauma that individual is experiencing. But, for the purposes of this article and this audience, the importance is not the story itself but the media ecosystem that sparked it and fanned the flames.

The story began, quietly enough, with rumors spread between acquaintances on YikYak. At this point, you would be forgiven for asking, "What the hell is YikYak?," and the simple answer is that it’s an anonymous messaging app that’s popular among Gen Z college students. (The more interesting answer is that YikYak is a location-dependent app that has been resurfaced by Gen Z after failing to gain significant traction among Millenials when it was released in 2013 – ironically, Gen Z are beginning to fall in love with "cringey" Millenial behaviors.) 

Although YikYak is focused on driving conversations within a five-mile radius – which is why it is well-suited to college campuses -- there is a feature on the app called "Nationwide Hot," which showcases the highest-voted Yaks in the country. This story was featured. 

Importantly here, one of the major criticisms, and ultimately the issue that sank the first version of YikYak, is that the platform’s anonymity lent itself to cyberbullying. However, that consideration seems to be in our cultural rearview mirror now so, following the YikYak yakking, the conversation picked up steam on X. 

Clearly, X is not the Twitter it used to be. But with 500 million monthly users, it still dwarfs Meta's Threads user base of 275 million and Bluesky’s paltry 27 million. Ironically, once again, Gen Z make up 31% of X’s user base. Among the enduring strengths of X are that its algorithm favors visual content – images, gifs, charts etc. – and its central functionality encourages in-the-moment engagement on a topic. Both of which make it particularly suitable to the sports-talk media ecosystem, which continues to thrive on the platform. And this story caught fire there.

Next, the story made its way from X to ESPN. The host that introduced it also has several million subscribers on YouTube. Because it was discussed in the mainstream media, the story gained credibility –- despite it being demonstrably untrue. And with that credibility came a host of new "influencer journalists" who used it as echo-chamber content for their own large audiences. At that point, the story exploded.

This was a particularly unfortunate example of a dynamic we see played out daily now. A small, localized, story finds its way into one of the subcultures that make up the anatomy of the X media system. The story takes hold in that culture until there is an "instigating moment" where a louder voice shares the story. From there, it gains credibility and is adopted, shared, commented on, and written about by mainstream media and a host of different media echo chambers. 

Clearly, this was a story that went viral. And what it demonstrates is that even though the virality of ideas is inherently unpredictable, there is a predictability to the process. And that predictability can be harnessed by brands. 

Last summer, McDonald’s skillfully harnessed the effect when its mascot Grimace became an unlikely hero for the New York Mets. Not unusually, The Mets were floundering with a 28-37 record when Grimace threw out a ceremonial first pitch at Citi Field to mark McDonald's "Grimace Birthday Meal."

After that, though, The Mets went on a winning spree, which social-media pundits dubbed, "The Grimace Effect."

An "instigating moment" came when MLB's official Twitter/X account stated: "The @Mets complete the sweep and are now 5-0 since Grimace threw out the first pitch on Wednesday."

Soon after, the story mainstreamed and was picked up and amplified by outlets including ESPN, Forbes, and even NPR. In this instance, though the flames were fanned by the brand (full disclosure, it was my agency – Golin – that helped). Billboards were put up in Citi Field, the Empire State  Building lights turned Grimace purple, conversations on X were activated and amplified and mainstream media were pitched on the story.

In this instance, The PESO (paid, earned, shared and owned) model was reimagined with an owned asset (Grimace) leading the story. Amplification through earned and shared media with paid media playing a small supporting role. The story generated more than 3,500 earned media placements, and more than 37,000 organic social media mentions. And McDonald’s became the most talked about brand in New York for the summer with cultural conversation rates 300% up on their competitors.

Both these examples highlight a different way to think about how stories (ideas) spread in a modern integrated media ecosystem. And they suggest an approach to channel-thinking or channel-planning that goes beyond classic campaign-thinking -- one that understands and can impact the social diffusion of ideas.

Real-time social listening to spot and assess opportunities for brand participation or integration into the cultural conversation –- or to understand which brand-instigated ideas have the potential for broader uptake. An understanding of fan communities and the media ecosystems they employ to fan cultural flames. Assessing the anatomy of individual media platforms – like the subcultures on X or Reddit to determine how adjacent communities can be engaged in a story. Determining opportunities for an instigating moment – and whether the opportunity must be paid, pitched or can be delivered organically.

It suggests the potential for a new channel planning model –- maybe even a new discipline - that reflects and represents the way ideas flourish in the real world. Whether those ideas are good or bad, helpful or harmful. And who knows, maybe the modern professionals who embark on that path will spend some of their time thinking about how to curtail the spread of stories that do harm.