Can you use somebody else’s social content to your own advantage without appearing opportunistic or self-serving?

Children’s Hospital Boston’s pediatric blog makes it clear that you can.

You’re probably aware by now of the YouTube video of twin babies babbling back and forth at each other as if their words comprised a real conversation. The video has garnered more than 18 million views. Ellen DeGeneris showed the video on her talk show (and later offered up a translation of the baby-talk).

The Children’s Hospital pediatric blogger Tripp Underwood found the video interesting enough to sit down with Hope Dickinson, coordinator of the hospital’s Speech-Language Pathology Services unit, resulting in an interview that answers questions a lot of of those 8 million-plus viewers probably had. For instance, when asked “what’s going on” in this video, Dickinson explains:

These two are babbling, specifically they’re demonstrating a behavior known as “reduplicated babbling,” because the sounds used are repeated, which you can hear in their use of “da-da-da.” In a more informal way, I guess I would describe it as turn-taking with babbling, or conversational babbling.

Underwood delves deeper, though, asking if parents of children that age who aren’t babbling should be worried.

Looking for opportunities to demonstrate thought leadership around such popular content should be a standard part of your communication effort. The fact that people are already aware of the content will make them more interested in your expertise and could lead to media interviews and other forms of visibility.