Charlie Swarbrooke

Going viral would be lovely, wouldn’t it?

All those views, likes, comments, and shares. All of those notifications lighting up your phone screen, from all the DMs you’re getting and new emails flooding into your inbox, all of which are from interested customers looking to place an order or find out more.

And then when you check your website, there’s a surge of traffic piling in from this one post, and plenty of completed checkouts waiting for you to fulfil.

That’s what going viral can do for you, right?

Well, it’s complicated.

Because sure, it has happened. Some businesses and creators have woken up to this very scenario. Some have even had to close their businesses for a little while, so they can work through the sudden order backlog.

But the chance of being this lucky? Next to 0.

And that’s why going viral should never be a goal you set for your social media posts.

Here’s the where, when, and why, as well as the goal you should be setting yourself instead.

What’s considered a viral post?

You’ll get a different answer from every person you ask. Some may say it’s a post with over 100,000 views, while others will say it’s a post that gets over a million views within the first 48 hours.

Depending on the platform you’ve posted on, the answer is going to be different too.

Take TikTok vs Instagram, for example. Views on TikTok tend to climb pretty rapidly compared to a platform like Instagram, and you might even only have 10 or so followers on both sides. But your TikTok video is getting 1000+ views while your Instagram reel is sitting on 150.

As such, if TikTok views are easier to get, virality is going to carry a much higher number.

And this is kind of the problem in a nutshell. A viral post is so difficult to define.

So if you’re setting the goal as ‘go viral as often as possible’, you’re setting yourself up to fail.

There are just far too many parameters to think about and fit into. You’re going to waste time, energy, and maybe even all of your ad spend (if you have any to begin with).

In terms of setting a SMART goal, it falls down on pretty much every letter.

But that’s not the only reason you shouldn’t be aiming to go viral on social media.

A viral post doesn’t mean more sales

There’s nothing about a viral post that will immediately guarantee sales.

You’re likely to get a few more, for sure. Because when you go viral, your net casts out so wide that you’re going to pull in a few of the fish you were after.

But you’re also pulling in a catch filled with fish you don’t want and can’t do anything with. It’s these fish that will outnumber and overwhelm the golden few.

And these other fish might like your content. They might leave a comment. They might visit your profile or page. They might even check out the website. But that’s as far as their interactions go.

It stays on the page, in the feed, and away from your sales margins. Then you have to face the fact that you’ve put all this time and effort into going viral and you might not have much to show for it.

It’s incredibly disappointing to see, and it can leave you with some serious misconceptions over how successful you really are.

A viral post might not look anything like your usual content

A lot of creators try something different, and it’s that post that hits the algorithm in just the right way. And when it does, people flood in to see who made it and what else you’ve got.

However, when they check out the page the content came from, they don’t stick around for very long.

Say a construction business that usually posts videos of the team, or project before and afters, suddenly puts up a video about rescuing a kitten from a job-site. That video gets a lot of attention, a lot of comments, and a huge surge of shares (and maybe even some media attention!).

What happens when the next 3 to 4 videos are back to the normal schedule?

(Spoiler: nobody who found them from the kitten video is going to be watching)

If a viral post is very different to something you’d usually post, you’re going to find it difficult to build on the attention you’re getting. It’s not impossible, but it requires a very good strategy that you may need to come up with on the fly.

A viral post could let you down, rather than build you up

This ties in well with my point about viral posts not automatically creating more sales for you on the other side.

Because let’s imagine it does. Let’s imagine you hit the one in a million jackpot of getting a load of new sales, new customers, and new followers eager to see more from you.

Imagine you have woken up to all that positive, meaningful, converted attention. Are you ready to handle all of it?

If your warehouse isn’t stocked to the point of being able to fulfil all of these orders at once, you’re going to have to delay fulfilment and shipping.

If your customer service team consists of one or two people who answer queries on a weekly basis, you might get quite a few angry follow-up emails or tickets.

If you’re a SaaS company, you could get a million new bug reports that will take a lot of time for you to sort through, replicate, and iron out.

And if you do have to halt proceedings to try and catch up, you need to communicate that. And you need to communicate it ASAP.

But even when you do, there’s no guarantee everyone will wait around until they get value for their money. You might see refund requests, as well as poor reviews; in fact, I’d say you should expect to see these things.

Especially if in the rush to keep all of your new customers happy, some orders arrived with items missing, or with the wrong items in, or damaged from faulty packaging.

Because you weren’t prepared to go viral. Now, you could have to run damage control on your business’ reputation, instead of enjoying the positivity it’s brought you.

So scrap going viral. Aim for connection instead.

You don’t want to waste time on social media. That’s why you’re thinking of big numbers and trying to hit them each and every time.

But when you aim for viral content (even if you don’t say so out loud), you’re not going to be connecting with your audience.

After all, you’re trying to connect with anyone and everyone. That doesn’t bring in much of the right attention. When it does, it’s brief, it flitters out, and it can have some pretty serious downsides.

Instead, focus on connecting with the audience you want to attract. The audience who wants to pick up what you’re putting down. The audience you’ve started building already.

Because no business has 0 followers. There’s always at least a few people you can build the concept of your target audience off of.

Connecting with your audience: What to remember

It’s all about knowing who they are, what they want, and how you can give it to them. Sounds simple in practice, I know.

In reality, it can be hard to keep these three things in mind when you’re approaching how to post on social media.

So let’s make it easier! Here’s a couple of things that’ll help you hit the right spot every time:

Get your hook just right

The social media hook is an art-form. It’s the thing that takes the 1 to 2 seconds of attention you’re allowed before someone scrolls past and turns it into what makes them stay.

But you’re not trying to go viral here, so you’re not just trying to say something interesting, controversial, or just outright weird.

What you’re doing is thinking about what your ideal customer (or viewer) wants to hear or see in these 1 to 2 seconds.

Best practice: Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Make sure the hook focuses on them, not you or your business. Think about what they’re looking for, or the way they’re feeling right now.

Try to offer long term value

You’re not trying to make someone stick around just for a quick laugh, where they’ll drop a like and then never think about you again. That’s valuable for some people using social media, but it’s not valuable for you or your actual audience.

Your audience wants to see what you really have for them. They want to know what you can help them with. They want to get the insights only you can provide.

Sure, they’ll love knowing you’ve got a sale on, or that you’re offering a discount. But they want to see real, actionable advice from you too.

If you own a beauty salon, make posts on at-home beauty care tips, whether that’s product recommendations for tackling oily skin or aftercare tips for the treatments you offer.

If you’ve launched a new video editing platform, make easy-to-follow tutorials on the impressive editing tricks you can do with it.

If you run a restaurant, showcase your menu and explain why the flavours work together, or how to pair a main with a side. Make it easier for someone to recreate these tastes at home.

The more you provide content like this, the more you come to be seen as someone your audience can trust and rely on. You’ll be known as a good option when they need something, because you’ve made it easy to be thought of as one!

Going viral shouldn’t be the goal; connection is always better

Stop trying to capture everyone’s attention. Focus on capturing the attention of the people who want your product or service to begin with.

Cast your net smaller. Be more specific with your hooks. Build your posting strategy around the people who could benefit from being in touch with your content.

Stand out for who you are, rather than the trends or the attention you’ve been trying to chase.

Authenticity leads to well performing posts, and it’s all because you’re connecting with the right people in the right way.

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