I want to talk about the availability heuristic, and how it can often lead you down the wrong road when it comes to content ideation.
The availability heuristic states that the more something sticks out in your mind, the more likely you are to believe it to be true. Let’s say you’re walking down the street in Los Angeles and see ten different people wearing a Lakers hat. The availability heuristic states that because of this, you are much more likely to come to the conclusion that everyone is a Lakers fan these days—just because you recently saw a bunch of people wearing Lakers gear.
But often, this just isn’t the case, especially when it comes to content creation. The qualities we first recognize as the reasons a piece of content went viral are rarely accurate. You have to go deeper and look at all the other factors—not just what immediately jumps out to you.
What do I mean by this? One thing I often hear is that “relatability” is a big driver in virality. That is, the more relatable a piece of content is, the more viral potential it has. But is this really true, or is this another example of the availability heuristic rearing its ugly head?
Let’s ask ourselves what being “relatable” really means. Eating breakfast is ultra-relatable—millions of people do it every day. Yet “eating breakfast” videos don’t seem to make their way around the Internet. Neither does “brushing your teeth” videos or “doing your taxes” videos or hundreds of other activities we all do.
Yet Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” videos, showcasing attempts to blend absurd, seemingly un-blendable items like iPhones and golf balls go viral with millions of views… despite not being relatable at all. Therefore, it’s not just relatability that counts—there has to be something more to it.
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