“Can you make me go viral?” That’s the big question, isn’t it? How do you grow your social media numbers quickly.
We wish there was a viral button or maybe a magic wand we could wave over our client’s social content to expand their reach and help them make it big. But the reality of it is, most often the viral posts you see and hear about happened by accident. They are usually short lived and are the talk of the town for just a blip, until everyone moves on to the next one.
Although, we do have a few secrets up our sleeve to help your business weed through the noise of social media and find the right audience which will (most of the time) help you expand your reach. Doubling or tripling the number of potential customers who see your posts and engage with them can often feel like you’ve gone viral. And can be a much better long-term marketing strategy.
Our secrets to trending content:
- Do some research! Put your best actor hat on and start scrolling social media from the point of view of your customers. What are they looking at? What are they reacting to? And what are they wishing they could see more of? Once you get a sense of what they like, use that information to your advantage.
- An example of this would be to determine the average age of your client and use their slang, their music, and images they respond to when you create your content. Act like you’re having a conversation with them. Regardless of the demographic, you should start to see patterns of content that are working for your target audience.
- Meet your audience on their turf. Take some time to investigate the right social media platform for you. If you only ever post on Facebook but your target demo isn’t on that platform very often, you’re going to struggle to get any reach at all, let alone go viral. Easiest way to find the correct channel for you? Ask your customers where they scroll the most. Then post there.
- Take a few minutes and scroll through Instagram Reels, especially if that’s where you want to get more engagement. Look for the “up arrow” (bottom left-hand corner) next to the audio that is playing in the Reel. That means it’s a “hot” sound. If you click the scrolling audio name next to the up arrow, it will take you to a page that you can select “use audio”. Now go ahead and make your own “trending Reel” that works with that audio.
- Look at your own posts and analytics. Go back 3, 6, 9 and even 12 months and see what got a lot of engagement. Is there a popular topic you could use again for video content? Is there an employee that everyone loves who could become your social spokesperson? Is there a business partner who shared a post and their account brought in more engagement? If so, repeat those actions, expand on those topics and get some pics of those excellent team members.
- While you’re scrolling social media, watch for trends that are getting a lot of comments or shares. You’ll see a lot of repeating ideas, dances, and video or post styles on the search areas or the “suggested for you” posts. Try out an idea that works for your business and see what kind of engagement you get.
- Browse headline news and hot topics and events for your geographic location or for your industry. You can find these on the social platforms you use personally, by using search engines like Google, by signing up to receive blogs about your products or services from other companies and by scanning websites like Reddit or Quora.
The biggest marker of social media success is determined by your goals. If your goal is to get more people to click to your website that then make a purchase, you don’t necessarily need a viral video. You just need consistent activity with audience focused content that attracts your target customer.
Use some of our secrets for your upcoming social media posts and see if they help you reach those social media goals. And if you do end up with viral content, be sure to tag us!
