So you post a piece of content and go away, only to come back a few hours later to thousands of new followers, likes, reposts and tags and then you realize that it has happened…. your content has gone viral. It feels like power because all of a sudden, people care about the work you love so much and this power feels so good that you want to keep it for a long time but as you know, many creators, like celebrities only get "15 minutes of fame" especially if you don't make a plan for fame and end up reacting to it instead of to taking advantage and milking those 15 minutes into a successful career.

This is not one of those articles that will tell you to post 10 times a day, blah blah blah… In this article, we detail 8 paths you can take to go viral, how to trigger the viral action and how to prepare for virality so that instead of just 15 minutes of fame, it becomes an opportunity to build a successful career.

If you want to go viral, you must prepare for it like it’s a marathon. Some people go viral but are not prepared so they get little or nothing out of it and this shouldn't be you.

If you want to go viral, continue reading…

Here are 8 ways you can go viral on social media

1. The Scandal 

This viral path is as its name implies and it requires you to trigger the “Shock or Judgemental” button to achieve this. If people are not triggered to judge you, your content cannot go viral. They also have to be taken by surprise (in an utterly annoying way) to provoke engagement. You would need this scandal to involve someone or a channel that is already famous in order to achieve virality otherwise no one will care about whatever scandalous thing you do. That’s why many people seeking virality through this route have instablog on speed dial because without exposure to their audience (who loves judging), no one will care.

The downside is that this method gives off a negative first impression of you and your work which may take a lot of time and hard work to rebuild.

2. The Creative

This is a viral method you should consider but it's also one of the most difficult paths to virality. It requires you to think of something that will trigger the following emotions from your audience: 

• Fear of missing out (FOMO)

• WOW 

• one or more of the core emotions - Fear, Happiness, Anger or Pride 

A good example of someone who went viral this way is Hilda Baci earlier this year. She did something that triggered excitement and a WOW reaction from her audience which inspired the first set of people to post/write about her Cook-athon. As more people started posting about her, thousands of others joined in not just because they were inspired but because they did not want to seem out of the loop and this is how FOMO get’s subconsciously triggered.

3. The Big-Baller Move

This one is reserved for those with deep pockets. "Money makes the world go round” and it is true. If you have enough money, all you need to do is buy out every possible online and offline ad space that exists to showcase yourself and your work. This means even if people want to ignore you, they just can’t because you’ll be literally everywhere they go. Of course you need your work needs to be good enough to drive excitement, engagement and hold long term value otherwise, no matter how much money you have, people will stop caring.

4. Stand Out - Be Different 

This method of virality cannot be achieved from one piece of content, it is a package deal and this means that your content has to stand out from everyone else in your niche. You have to be so different that it’ll spark conversations (good and bad). People will share your work and talk about you, they will review and contemplate your work, some will love it, some will hate it but they will be talking, sharing and engaging.

5. Make Us Laugh

Every body loves genuine comedy. It makes us feel good and reduces our negative feelings so if you can make people stop, pay attention, relate and laugh out their sorrows, you're on to something viral worthy. Memes are famous and it’s not just because they are funny but because you can relate with them. @sarcasm_only grew an Instagram account to 16 million+ followers by posting memes so this is a tried and tested way to go viral. Just remember that your audience must relate with your meme in order to find it funny enough to share. If you’re not funny, this one’s not for you.

6. Be A Master

Most people that are exceptional at something and put an effort into promoting it, tend to go viral. Poets, singers, dancers, actors, artists, etc… People love associating with excellence and if you are excellent, no need to do much else because your work will be a natural viral magnet. This is the longest path to go viral and that's because it take consistent dedication and hard work to become a master at anything but I dare say it is the most rewarding as you would never have to deal with pressure to prove yourself, and your work will speak for itself. If you want to go viral through this path, rise to the top 3 of skill and excellence in your industry. Even after his death, Steve Jobs is still one of the most famous people in business and that’s because of Apple’s excellence. Excellence is celebrated.

7. Be a Clout Chaser - Fake it till you make it

If you’re familiar with @DanielRegha on Twitter, then that makes my point. He rose to fame by dropping unsolicited advice under celebrity accounts and calling them out for just about everything. He has been insulted, called all sorts of names and laughed at but his followers and engagement keep growing and his tweets keep going viral. If you choose this path to virality, it will take time and considerable effort to annoy enough people to get people’s attention but it will make you go viral. However, be careful not to piss off potential business partners in the process.

8. Pray And The Stars May Align

I know how it sounds but sometimes the stars just align. Maybe you make a painting of your favourite artist and post it the same way you’ve posted 700 other images but on that faithful day, the artist sees your post and reposts it tagging you. Just like that, other people repost and you wake up to find out that you have thousands of new followers, more engagement and new clients in your dms ready to pay you for your work. 

This is what happens to a lot of people that go viral but they can’t take full advantage of it because they were not prepared. If they have 1000 job requests, they start struggling to fulfil them while also struggling to keep putting out engaging content for their new followers that have added extra pressure; so those without thick skins get overwhelmed and go into the shadows, never to be heard of again.

What Can You Do To Prepare For Virality?

Before you say “I want to go viral” ask yourself why? Is it to make money or to feel famous, or you just want validation? If money is your goal, then intentionally think about a process for managing a viral situation. Whenever you put out great work, imagine that it goes viral and think about what you’ll need to milk it for every penny you can. Create an automated process for people to see something they like and go pay for it. Create a website, store front, etc clearly showcasing your work, a payment method and next steps that answers every possible question people will have. This way, if you blow by 12am, you’ll be waking up to credit alerts in the morning instead of questions like: “how can I pay, do you do delivery?, can I get the book in a hard copy?”, etc.

If you want fame then you should have a list of interesting follow up content to keep your engagement alive. If these follow up content can be better than the initial viral content, even better! The better the quality of the follow up content, the more you can rise above the 15 minutes of fame bubble and become someone people watch out for. If you get famous from your best work, your follow ups tend to be underwhelming and lead to the 15 minutes of fame situation where your initial audience lose interest and forget about you. Lots of artists that became famous for their best songs and could not match that with better follow ups can relate to this - I will not name any names. 

Whatever your reason for wanting to go viral, now you know how to prepare for it and what to do to trigger your content to go viral.

Here Are The Best Types of Viral Content

At the beginning of this article, we promised you that we will not be discussing those boring old same things you read in similar articles telling you to post 10 times a week at 5 am etc. However, you should not completely discard those tips as well. as they can impact some of the many factors that ultimately help a content go viral. These are the types of content that can help your content go viral easily:

• Short videos - because people will be reluctant to repost a 30 minute long video

• Memes

• Clever Tweets - clever because if it’s a single tweet, it has to pass a strong message in very few words and if it is a thread, it has to start strong and keep an audience engaged until the end

• Creative Images - for designers and visual artists
  
  

So, how are you preparing to go viral and what path will you choose? We'll be rooting for your viral success!