The internet is fueled by cats. Cute cats, funny cats, grumpy cats, cat photos and cat videos. It’s cats, cats, cats, all day long. I’m actually okay with that because I like cats. We even had two cats, Clyde and Truman who lived Roundpeg  and if you followed us on social media you would see them regularly featured.  Clyde even had her own Facebook page and probably has more fans than I did.

And it is this love of cats that kind of inspired us to do a fun promotion for our marketing seminars. We designed an ad with a headline that said:  Free Kittens with every seminar. If you read the fine print, we weren’t giving away kittens but you did get a chance to play with our cats

It was a little bit out there, so we wondered how our audience would react, so we created a more traditional version as an alternative.  We both graphics on Facebook and on LinkedIn, thinking we  we knew exactly how this was going to play out. We expected the kittens to do well on Facebook and  the more traditional version to score points on LinkedIn. 

We were wrong!.  The cats got barely got a ripple on Facebook, with few people noticing and interacting.  It certainly didn’t t get the viral shares I expected. Instead the traditional graphic, when reshared to my personal page with a bit of text telling friends and family where I was going to be in the next month got lots of engagement.  

LinkedIn just the opposite. The traditional schedule got a few thumbs up but the cats went viral. The image was shared and reshared.   People kept commenting and talking about it, long after the seminars were over.

The lesson we learned:  Don’t be afraid to shake things up. Be a little silly and to go outside your box or simply look for ways to do exactly the opposite of what everybody else is doing.  If you can do that, you are more likely to get noticed.

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LORRAINE Ball Marketing Strategist

After spending too many years in Corporate America, Lorraine said goodbye to the bureaucracy, glass ceilings and bad coffee to follow her passion to help small business owners succeed

Today, this successful entrepreneur, author, professional speaker, and host of a weekly marketing podcast, More than a Few Words, brings creative ideas, practical tips, and decades of real-world experience to every conversation.

As the founder of the Digital Toolbox Community, she helps business owners use internet marketing to grow. And in her spare time, she loves to travel, and take photos. You can see her photos at lorraineball.com