Once upon a time, I went viral. Here's what I learned...

On Sunday (9th) around 4 PM, I released a post. I'll talk more about the content in a minute, but for now, all you need to know is that it went viral.

As I write this it has 1,838,936 views, 26,358 reactions, 367 comments, 933 reposts.

UPDATE: The following Saturday, it's still going! Currently has 3,231,353 impressions, 46,411 reactions, 574 comments, 1,687 reposts.

There are probably a few of you out there shrugging, muttering "filthy casual" & the like under your breath, but, for me, that's absurd numbers.

And yes, it's exciting & entertaining but, for me, it's the chance to look "under the hood" of a viral post, really look at the numbers & engagement & test it, rather than reading another influencer's version about theirs.

At the minute, just over 48 hours later, it's slowed down considerably so probably finished. Also, the figures from my analytics only run up to 10th (so I'll probably update them tomorrow).

So, first thing, what was the result of the post from my PoV.

?? Basic figures: 2532 profile views, 1362 new followers.

UPDATE: as at the following Saturday (6 days), 3,667 profile views, roughly 1,863 new followers.

So that's 0.137% of people who viewed the post visited my page or 9.6% of people who reacted.

More importantly to me, 53,7% of the people who visited my page chose to then follow/connect with me.

That tells me a couple of things.

My headline is working as it seems primarily people interested in web3 topics visited my page.

It also shows that my page is converting visitors to followers relatively well.

To clarify, if a million random strangers see my name, I only want the relevant ones to visit my profile & try to connect with me!

Now, here's where it gets interesting, after a couple of hundred K views, I edited the post.

But first, you need to understand the post.

I'd love to say this was a carefully crafted masterpiece of engagement marketing, pored over and fine-tuned for hours with a team of experts.

It wasn't.

It was Sunday afternoon, I saw a funny Reddit meme, I stuck it on here with a 1 liner at the start.

No hashtags, no POD, no team to give it an initial boost.

Just a funny meme.

Like I've done dozens of times before over the last few years.

Et voila, a viral post.

Dumb luck?

Certainly.

But, if you throw enough darts at the board, eventually one hits the bullseye.

That's why so many rich people also become "successful" entrepreneurs. And why they claim you have to fail so many times before you get success...

Back to what happened next.

On Monday, I realised this was still gathering steam, and that as it was just a dumb meme, I needed to leverage it.

At probably a few hundred k views, I edited the post to add:

Follow: Archit3ct Ltd | Visit: Archit3ct.io

Follow: Yelay | Visit: enterprise.spool.fi

Archit3ct is my company, and Spool is one of my main clients (pus we just launched the new website).

Just in case it did anything.

So, what did that do?

Again, these analytics are only up to 10th, & I'll only share mine (ie Archit3ct's).

?? Archit3ct LI page - 1844 page views mobile, 337 desktop views, 1,382 unique visitors, around 85 new followers.

?? Archit3ct.io - 353 visitors.

Nothing world-shaking, but better than I expected. Also, nice to see the mobile vs desktop view differences so clearly.

But, here are the critical figures.

New clients: 0

Requests to hire others: So many. Oh, so many cold (and badly written) pitches to wade through.

That's the raw data.

But, what can I (and you) learn from it?

First of all, LinkedIn sucks for dealing with messages and connection requests at scale. My messages are a mess & I've been slow to reply to important ones due to them being lost in the noise.

Next, Virality normally comes from banality.

It's familiar, it's generic, and it's appealing in a harmless way.

This post touched on a situation we've all been in, and you can share it without offending anyone.

Harmless but amusing.

Exactly the reason I chose to share it!

The problem is, specificity converts.

So, am I going to change my headline to "Viral copywriter | CEO & Founder Viral Web3 labs" or similar?

Doubt it.

Is this replicable?

Maybe...

Luck has a big part to play in this.

It needs the right boost, into the right audience, at the right time.

That can be artificially created, that's why influencers charge so much after all.

But, more importantly, is virality worth chasing?

For the amount of time & effort you can put in, even if you reduce that luck factor as much as possible, probably not.

It's useful for brand visibility if you have something distinctive, something memorable to hook them with, or if your product is so generic everyone might be interested.

But, I've had major clients come from posts that had zero engagement, months after I put them out.

No matter how long this one is out for, it'll probably never get me a client.

The niche stuff that 99% of people don't care about is the stuff that converts.

So, instead, this is the strategy I'm going for.

Occasionally, throw a post out there that is a little more viral suitable.

Any more than occasional & it dilutes the personal brand too much, & i'd be amazed to see this work on a LI business page given how naff their native visibility is.

A little time (ie 5 mins) on tweaking it for branding, and pushing it out.

It works, great, if not then no loss.

But, have a plan in place for if something does go viral, even something random.

Chasing it takes too much time, but I'd be a damn fool to miss the opportunity if it happens again.

Dan Thomas