“Can we make something go viral?”
If you work in social media, you’ve heard it. Usually in a meeting, usually after someone’s seen a competitor’s video hit half a million views. And I get it. Viral looks like the dream. Huge numbers, everyone talking about you, a sudden flood of followers.
But here’s my hot take, from someone who manages social content every day: going viral is not a marketing strategy. It’s a lottery ticket. And most businesses would be far better off spending that energy on something they can actually control.
Are views the same as customers?
A viral video reaches a lot of people. The question is, which people? Often it’s a crowd of strangers from all over the world who enjoyed thirty seconds of your content and will never think about you again. Great for the ego. Not much use if you’re a florist in Guildford.
Five hundred views from the right local people can bring in more work than five hundred thousand from the wrong ones. The goal was never views. It was enquiries, bookings and sales. Views are only useful when they lead there.
A million views from the wrong people is still zero customers.
Can you plan for luck?
Nobody really knows why one video takes off and another, almost identical one, doesn’t. Timing, the mood of the internet that day, who happened to share it first. You can make content that has a better chance, but you can’t guarantee it. Building a plan around something you can’t control is how you end up disappointed every single month.
Chasing viral also pulls you away from your audience. You start copying trends that have nothing to do with what you sell, jumping on sounds your customers don’t care about and making content for “everyone”. And content for everyone usually ends up landing with no one.
Viral can go wrong too
It’s worth remembering that not all attention is good attention. A post can go viral because people love it, or because people are laughing at it, arguing about it or picking it apart. A sudden wave of comments from strangers can be a lot for a small business to handle. If you’ve never planned for it, it can feel less like a dream and more like a very public headache.
Aim for useful, consistent and shareable
So what should you aim for instead? Content that does three things:
- It’s useful to the right people. It answers a question your customers actually have, or solves a problem they actually face.
- It turns up regularly. One great post won’t build a following. A steady stream of good ones will.
- It’s easy to pass on. Something people want to save for later or send to a friend who needs it.
Saves and shares are the quiet heroes here. When someone sends your post to a friend, they’re recommending you. That’s word of mouth, just on a phone. And it tends to reach people very like the ones who already like you, which is exactly who you want.
Trends are fine when they fit
I’m not saying never touch a trend. A trending sound or format can be a great way to show your personality, as long as it makes sense for your business. The test is simple: would this post still be worth seeing if it didn’t go viral? If a plumber uses a trending sound to show the five worst things they’ve found behind a bath panel, that’s useful, funny and very them. If the same plumber does a dance trend with no link to plumbing, it’s just borrowed attention.
Use trends as a wrapper for your message, not as a replacement for it.
Measure the things that pay the bills
If views are the only number you report on, views are the only thing anyone will chase. Track the numbers that connect to the business instead. Profile visits, website clicks, enquiries and DMs that start with “I saw your post about…”. Those tell you whether your content is working.
And if something does go viral one day? Brilliant. Enjoy it, reply to the comments and make sure your bio tells people exactly what you do and how to get in touch. Just treat it as a bonus, not the plan.
Slow and steady is less exciting, and it works
The accounts that grow businesses are rarely the ones with one huge hit. They’re the ones that turn up every week with something useful, reply to every comment and slowly become the name people think of first. It’s less exciting to talk about in a meeting. But it’s a lot more reliable than hoping for a miracle.
