“Going Viral” Should Have An Asterisk Beside It

? I had another “how to go viral” post show up in my LinkedIn traps this morning.?

My asterisk theory can get confusing, but bear with me as this is an important idea.?

One of the big problems with going viral is that as your number of views goes up, your “good” views kind of level off. Let’s use one of my posts as an example.?

So I publish a post. The LinkedIn algorithms put it in front of, say, five percent of my connections and followers, which in my case is around six hundred people. Out of those six hundred people, probably half or three hundred are in my core target demographic, that is sales and marketing people.?

Now let’s say that I get some nice engagement. Twenty people comment on my post, which the LinkedIn algorithms respond to favorably. LinkedIn shows my post to another three hundred of my connections and followers, but also three hundred connections and followers of the people that commented on my post.?

And let’s say this happens again, except now the momentum is less with me and my connections and followers and more with my commenters, who after all between them have a heck of a lot more connections and followers than I do. As my post gets more and more distribution, the lion’s share of it goes to my connections’ followers, and their connections' followers and their connections’ connections followers and so on.?

By the time the wave crests and the whole thing dies down, I see that my post got forty thousand impressions. Yowza. But how good are those forty thousand for me? Maybe three thousand were from my direct network and the other thirty-seven thousand were seen by my extended network and beyond.?

But how well does my extended network match my own connections and followers? Half of my connections and followers were likely in my target demographic, so I likely got fifteen hundred or so “quality” views. The question though, is how many of those other thirty-seven thousand views also fall into my target demographic? The makeup of those people is most likely pretty random.

Time for a little more back of the envelope math. Around three percent of LinkedIn users fall into my target demographic. If I take three percent of thirty-seven thousand it comes to around eleven hundred people.?

So, as a sort of summary:?

• Around 300 people in my target demographic likely had the opportunity to see my post right out of the gate.
• Eventually, another 1200 people in my target demo from among my connections and followers had the opportunity to see it.
• And around 1100 strangers in my target demo had a chance to see it too.?

What I am trying to get at in this whole tortured example is that a post that is seen by five times or ten times as many people, is not five times or ten times as “good” as one of your usual posts. In my example above, it was maybe forty percent better.

This is why I always say go for engagement, especially comments, on your posts. You can’t see the individuals in the crowd that viewed your post, so you can’t do anything with them. You can see who liked or reacted to your content, along with the people who commented and reposted your content.

Oh, and that post on “how to go viral’ that got me started on today’s article? I can’t tell how many views the author got but they did get three comments. The irony here is that their post on going viral apparently didn’t.?

Today’s newsletter is a shorter version of my email newsletter. I usually publish one of the three or four articles from my email Newsletter on LinkedIn, so next week’s LinkedIn Newsletter will be:?

• Reach Is Declining On LinkedIn: What To Do About It?

Next week’s email newsletter will include articles on?

• Reach Is Declining On LinkedIn: What To Do About It
• The Key To Standing Out From The Crowd On LinkedIn???
• 3 Steps For Getting Solid Customer Testimonials To Use In Your LinkedIn Company Page?

If you are interested in this much deeper weekly dive into Using LinkedIn Effectively, here’s a link to the signup page: https://www.practicalsmm.com/free-email-newsletter/

The obligatory disclaimer: I do not work for or have any business association with LinkedIn other than being a user who pays for a Sales Navigator subscription.?