Yesterday morning, I opened the curtains to snow.
Not a little dusting of snow. Proper April snow. The kind that makes you wonder whether spring has simply given up and gone back inside.
This would be odd enough on any normal day. But yesterday was not a normal day.
It was the day non-essential retail reopened in England. It was also the day pubs, cafés and restaurants could start serving customers outdoors again after months of lockdown restrictions.
People had been looking forward to it for weeks.
Then Surrey woke up looking like a Christmas card.
Still, it turns out our restaurant owners, publicans and punters are made of stern stuff. It takes more than freezing temperatures and a blizzard to keep determined people away from breakfast.
My friend Alp, who owns Yangaz Bistro Grill in Cranleigh, put his tables and chairs outside and welcomed his first customers back.
Two gentlemen sat down in the snow for a full English breakfast.
It was cold. It was ridiculous. It was very British.
Alp took a quick photo on his phone and shared it on Facebook.
I saw it, laughed, checked he was happy for me to share it, and posted it on Twitter.
Then things got a bit silly.
Within a couple of hours, people were sharing it. Some of my followers work in journalism, media and marketing, which certainly helped. Then Piers Morgan retweeted it to his millions of followers, which helped quite a lot more.
At that point, my notifications started moving at a speed no human should be expected to follow before lunch.
Then the media requests began.
The Daily Mail got in touch first, quickly followed by the Mirror, Metro, Daily Star, Guardian, Telegraph and others. The BBC has asked to use it too.
After checking with Alp that he was happy for the photo to be used, I have been giving permission and asking each publication to credit Yangaz Bistro Grill.
This morning, I woke up to find the photo on the front page of the Daily Star. It has been shown on BBC Breakfast. It has appeared in the Daily Mail, The Sun, Telegraph and several other places.
A friend in Germany has even sent me a copy from a national newspaper there.
At the time of writing, my original tweet has 20,999 likes, 2,245 retweets and 275 replies.
All from a quick phone photo of two men eating breakfast in the snow.
The internet is a strange place.
There are probably a few useful lessons in all of this.
You do not need a perfect photo to tell a strong story
This is slightly awkward for me to say, because I am a professional photographer and I spend quite a lot of time talking about the value of good photography.
But the photo at the centre of all this was not taken on a professional camera.
It was not carefully lit.
Nobody adjusted the chairs, moved a bin, checked the background, softened the light or waited for the perfect expression.
It was a quick phone photo.
And it worked brilliantly.
Why?
Because it tells the story instantly.
You look at it and understand the moment. Lockdown easing. Outdoor hospitality reopening. Snow in April. Two men refusing to let the weather come between them and a cooked breakfast.
It is funny, timely and human.
Technical quality matters, of course. Especially when you are creating images for your website, marketing, press, events or personal brand.
But sometimes the most important thing is the story.
A technically perfect photograph with no story can fall flat.
A quick photograph with a clear story can travel around the world before you have finished your coffee.
Timing matters
The photo worked because it landed at exactly the right moment.
Outdoor hospitality had reopened that morning. Everyone was talking about it. Journalists were looking for images that summed up the mood. People were making jokes about sitting outside in coats and hats just to have a pint, a coffee, or in this case, a full English breakfast.
Then it snowed.
You could not script it.
The image arrived while the story was still alive.
If I had shared it later in the day, it might have disappeared completely. If the snow had arrived last week, it would have been odd but not newsworthy. If restaurants had reopened in blazing sunshine, there would have been nothing especially funny about two men eating breakfast outside.
Timing is not everything, but it is a lot.
Sometimes you have to share the moment while the moment still has a pulse.
It felt real
There was nothing polished about the image.
That was part of its charm.
It was not a campaign. It was not staged. It was not trying too hard. It was just a funny, honest scene from a village restaurant on a very strange morning.
People respond to that.
We are surrounded by content that has been planned, scheduled, approved, edited and polished until there is not much life left in it.
There is a place for careful, professional content. Of course there is. I make a living from it.
But there is also a place for the quick, human thing that makes people smile because it feels true.
That is what this photo had.
It captured a mood.
A slightly frozen, slightly absurd, determinedly British mood.
Audience matters too
When Alp first shared the photo on Facebook, it got some local attention.
When I shared it on Twitter, it reached a different audience.
At the time, I had around 11,000 followers, including people working in journalism, marketing and media. Once a few of them shared it, the image moved into the path of people who were actively looking for stories.
Then a few bigger accounts picked it up.
Then Piers Morgan shared it.
Then the newspapers came calling.
This is where people often misunderstand viral content.
It is not just about the post itself.
It is about who sees it first, who shares it next and whether it lands in front of people who can carry it further.
That does not mean you need a massive audience to create content that works.
But distribution matters.
A good photograph in the wrong place might go nowhere.
The same photograph seen by the right person at the right time can become tomorrow’s front page.
You cannot control it
Once the tweet started moving, it was out of my hands.
I tried to reply to the media requests. I checked permissions with Alp. I asked for the bistro to be credited.
After that, there was not much I could do.
By mid-morning, my notifications were moving too quickly to follow. TweetDeck looked as if it had developed a fault. I could not keep up with the replies, quote tweets, jokes, arguments and requests.
So I stopped trying.
That is probably the healthiest approach.
When something spreads quickly, you cannot control every comment, every interpretation or every use. People will make it mean what they want it to mean. Some will laugh. Some will argue. Some will turn it into a meme. Some will use it to make a political point, because this is Twitter and apparently we cannot have nice things.
You can guide it a little.
You cannot hold the steering wheel.
Virality is not a strategy
This is the important bit.
You cannot plan this sort of thing.
You can increase the chances by sharing useful, timely, interesting content. You can build an audience. You can pay attention to what people are talking about. You can learn to spot a strong image or a good story.
But you cannot guarantee something will go viral.
This photo worked because several things lined up at once.
The image was simple.
The story was clear.
The timing was perfect.
The weather was absurd.
The national mood was strange.
The right people saw it early.
That combination is hard to manufacture.
And frankly, I am not sure I would want my notifications doing this every day.
Most businesses do not need one viral moment. They need to keep showing up with useful, honest, relevant content that helps the right people understand who they are and why they matter.
A viral post is exciting.
Consistency is what usually builds trust.
You have to publish
There is one lesson I will definitely take from this.
You have to put things out into the world.
Not everything will land.
Most posts will not travel beyond your usual audience. Most photos will not end up on BBC Breakfast. Most tweets will not result in journalists appearing in your inbox before you have finished your morning coffee.
That is normal.
But nothing can spread if it is never shared.
The same applies whether you are a photographer, a restaurant owner, a small business, a charity, an artist, or anyone trying to be seen.
Share the useful thing.
Share the human moment.
Share the photo that tells a story.
Share the detail that makes people smile.
Share the thing that explains your world better than a polished sales pitch ever could.
You never know what will connect.
And even when it does not go viral, it might still reach exactly the right person.
Which, most of the time, is far more useful anyway.
