One of my clients recently asked:

How can I go viral?

And the answer is something that I’ve thought a lot about. Creating social content is all about being seen and nurturing connections, and I’m going to share my blueprint that has helped our clients go viral. For example, we recently helped one client get 877,000 impressions on LinkedIn and another reach 1.9 million accounts on Instagram.

Note: These are my own insights when trying to help clients go viral over the years, and there’s no sureproof way for every post to hit viral status.

The Right Topic

When it comes to going viral, there are two topics I’ve seen go viral the most: 

1. Strong, polarizing opinions. One of my clients recently shared a post about the CPA profession dying. It was brilliant because a lot of people have opinions on this, and it went viral. In two days, millions of people saw the post and their followers jumped by 50%.
2. Show vulnerability with a personal story: What’s your personal story? Everyone has one, and people want to hear about it. No one wants to be alone in their challenges, and when you tell them where you came from and how you reached the point that you’re at now, they’ll love hearing about it. 

One of my clients created the perfect social media post where he shared how he built his 20+ year-old company and reached success. He talked about growing up in a household with 18 people – you read that right – and how he was the first to go to college. He was also surrounded by drugs, but he persevered where many others would have failed.

And he was vulnerable in sharing this story with the world. It paid off. His post went viral and received well over 500k views.

Why is the topic so important? You’re up against 4.8 billion users – your content must stand out to be seen.

The Right Presentation

If you want to go viral, you need to focus on more than just the content. Yes, content is important, but your presentation (AKA your delivery) also matters. 

Want to go viral on LinkedIn or Instagram (which has 1.35 billion monthly active users)? Your delivery needs to be on point.

If I took the script from the funniest comedian in the world, that script would fall flat. 

Why?

Because I’m not a comedian, and I wouldn’t present it the right way.

Posts that go viral tend to have a few things in common:

• They have a strong hook. You MUST master this!
• The post is well-written. They flow well, there are no big blocks of text, they tell a story, etc.
• Videos are short and sweet. They have captions, they’re visually engaging, and they’re easily shareable.

Presentation is SO important. That’s why I recommend sticking to one social platform and mastering it before you add more to the mix.

The Right Activity

Many people have this misconception that you can post just once and go viral. I’m not saying this never happens, but it’s exceedingly rare.

For any of our clients who have gone viral, it was never just because they posted one post – or even a few posts.

They created and posted quality content consistently, PLUS they engaged with their community through direct messages, comments and collaborations.

If you’ve been following me for any amount of time, you know how much I stress that social media is for more than just posting content. You have to engage and interact with others. In other words, you have to be social.

So, there you have it – the three keys to creating viral content (in my opinion). 

One last thing I feel I HAVE to mention is that viral posts don’t necessarily guarantee sales. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to go viral and wanting to boost awareness of yourself, your brand or your company. Just make sure that you have realistic expectations. 

Don’t forget – a small audience of the right people is far more powerful than a massive audience of the wrong people.

And, that’s a wrap on this Dear Katie question.

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Now I want to hear from you. Do you have a question? 

Submit it here

Until next time, cheers to your success!

Katie