Facebook status fib goes viral

The days of a sickie for over-indulging the night before may well and truly have come to and end for employees from Generation X onwards.

This Facebook blunder has received huge viral attention from virtually every Facebook user in Australia. What exactly happened? Ok:

Boy goes out partying
Boy wakes up next morning, not in good shape
Boy updates Facebook status to reflect current physical state of (no so) well-being
Boy emails work, with a little white lie as to why he won’t be in today
Boss is a little bit cluey and works out the real truth, through Facebook!

Not only is this unfortunate error forward-worthy because it is a laugh, but it seems that the article has been forwarded from one friend to the next as a ‘public awareness announcement’, to remind each other of the potential impacts of applications such as Facebook on their work lives vs their playtime.

Facebook cost this young chap more than just a hangover

It is this emotional attachement, the ‘this could very easily have been me’ feeling that can push an online viral campaign from mediocre status to huge success. It almost belies the need to forward it, as opposed to a ‘maybe I’ll forward it because I have nothing better to do’.

To make a scenario such as the above work in your company’s favour, all you need do is get your brand in the signature of the original e-mail chain, or perhaps your logo planted somewhere in the attached images within the e-mail comment, and you could be set for a very successful viral campaign.

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