With the steady increase in social media engagement, everyone now wants to go viral on social media. Everyone wants their posts, videos or pictures blowing up the internet especially if it’s a business or brand-related post. This is because, the more your posts go viral on social media, the higher your social media engagement and leads. Therefore, whether you’re an influencer, a brand, or a business owner, understanding how to go viral on social media is key.
You need to know the right buttons to press and strategies to apply. Let’s look at practical strategies and tips to help you go viral on social media.
Understand Your Audience
This step cannot be overemphasized because although you want to go viral, as a brand or business owner, if you don’t know and understand your audience then there’s a problem. Take some time to identify your audience, know who they are, what they like, and how they engage with content. Additionally, use tools like Google Analytics, social media insights, and surveys to gather more information on your audience. That way, you already know the kind of content they relate to and engage with. Then when you create content tailored to your audience’s preferences, it’s more likely to be shared widely.
Create High-Quality, Shareable Content
Now, when you want to go viral on social media, ensure you don’t go viral for the wrong content or poorly created content. This means that you should ensure that your posts are high-quality and provide value. This could be in the form of entertainment, information, or inspiration. For some social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, visual content, like images and videos, tends to perform better. Therefore, a striking image or a super creative video can make people stop scrolling and engage with your post.
Leverage Trending Topics
Going viral is mostly associated with staying current with trends. This strategy is essential for anyone looking to go viral on social media. Platforms like Twitter and Instagram often highlight trending topics and hashtags. Study these trending topics, challenges, or hashtags properly. Then you can create content that ties into these trends, thereby increasing your chances of getting noticed. However, ensure that your contribution is relevant and adds value to the conversation.
Optimize Your Posts
To go viral on social media, optimizing your posts for maximum reach is important. Therefore, use relevant hashtags, tag influential accounts, and post at times when your audience is most active. Also, come up with compelling headlines and captions that grab attention. Additionally, ensure your content is easily shareable by enabling share buttons and providing direct links.
Engage with Your Audience
It’s quite difficult to go viral on social media when you don’t engage with your audience. It’s not enough to post on social media, you also need to interact with your audience. You can do this by responding to comments, participating in discussions, and hosting live sessions with your audience. This has a way of boosting your content’s visibility in social media algorithms and increasing the likelihood of it being seen by a larger audience. Also, building a community around your content encourages shares and increases your chances of going viral.
Collaborate with Influencers
This might sound cliché but influencer marketing is a powerful tool in your viral strategy. Partnering with influencers who have a large and engaged following can expose your content to a broader audience. However, choose influencers whose followers align with your target audience for maximum impact. Besides, authentic collaborations often lead to higher engagement rates and more shares.
Utilize Contests and Giveaways
Contests and giveaways are effective ways to go viral on social media. People love free stuff, and they’re often willing to share content to get it. So you can design a contest that requires participants to like, comment, and share your post. Then the person with the highest number of shares or comments received a tangible gift. This not only increases engagement but also spreads your content across their networks.
Analyze and stay consistent
It’s one thing to go viral and it’s another thing to sustain the viral success. One easy way to sustain viral success is through analysis and consistency. For example, when Hilda Bassey went viral on social media during the Guinness World Record. Notice that after the record, she analyzed what kind of posts performed better for her and she remained consistent in it. Therefore, use social media analytics to track which posts perform best and why. Understand the metrics that matter, such as shares, likes, comments, and reach. Then, consistently refine your content strategy based on these insights to increase your chances of going viral on social media.
Conclusion
Going viral on social media is not rocket science, it is a process that requires consistency.
However, remember, the ultimate goal is to create meaningful connections and provide value, making your content worthy of being shared widely.