How it started
The Dolly Parton Challenge is the first global viral meme challenge of 2020.
It all started from Dolly’s tweet posted on the 21st January 2020
To date, that tweet has acquired 250,000 likes and 37,000 retweets, and 1,800 comments.
What most people do not know is that the term “Dolly Parton Challenge” has been around for some years already. Indeed, I found mentions as far back as 2013.
Viral success factors behind the Dolly Parton Challenge
I have always used the model suggested by Steve Olenski to understand the unique mix of factors that contributed to a post becoming viral – “Elements of a viral marketing campaign” published in 2015. I made a subjective assessment of this campaign.
- Firstly it was very strong in its simplicity thus enabling others to easily join in and create their own meme versions.
- Secondly, it provides us with a “unique view of the times” because we are invited to compare what LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Tinder mean to us, in a personal way.
Hashtags and Emoticons
Many people are now creating their own versions of Dolly’s challenge.
The hashtags #DollyPartonChallenge and #DollyPartonMemeChallenge are trending, plus a collection of badly spelled versions.
Will you create your own meme version?
Whether you will jump on board and contribute to the growing number of personalized versions is up to you, but overall the social media potential reach stands at 2.5 billion accounts, with 81% of the posts from Twitter, then Instagram and Reddit following closely behind.
This exact time last year we had the “10 Year Challenge” meme (#10YearChallenge). When it was over the results showed that just under 1,500,000 posts were made per day at its peak. Will Dolly’s meme reach the same volume? Currently Dolly’s meme challenge is running at 170,000 per day and still rising. Time will tell.
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Hi Clive, I had wondered about this and started to make one but wasn’t that happy with it. I like yours a lot! It’s amazing how something so simple can go so viral. Of course, being a celebrity sure helps! Thanks for sharing about this one Clive!
Hi Lisa, always good to hear from you. As I love taking selfies and using Photoshop I jumped in quick. You are right about how such things can go viral, but as I said in my blog, if it gives people a sense of self expression, and is relatively simple to jump on board, then it will fly. There are so many parallels with last yea’s #10yearchallenge.