Gone Viral? Here’s How You Can Make It Count

So you’ve posted something on a social media platform, and it’s gone viral. Perhaps you even got 1 million or more views. 

What do you do with this information? Surely there must be a way to replicate this success in another viral campaign. 

In this article, I’ll show you how to make the most of going viral. Read on to get some great free how-to resources:

Analyzing the viral content

Before doing anything and looking at any metrics, it’s essential first to analyze the content to determine why it might have gone viral in the first place. It would help if you asked yourself the following questions:

1. What did I do differently? Was the type of content different from that which I usually post? Would I consider it quality content?
2. At what time of day did I post the content? Does this kind of content typically go trending during this period? 
3. On what social media platforms (such as on your Facebook page, Instagram, or TikTok) did I post it? This is an essential consideration of viral marketing.
4. Who was the target audience of this post? Was it a good time to go viral, considering this? What’s the human interest element?
5. On what day of the week did I post it? Was it during a holiday or a special event in my area?
6. Considering the above, how can I attempt to replicate its virality? 

This may seem like a hit-and-miss, and sometimes marketing feels that way. However, there are more specific metrics you can analyze to better your chance of creating content that goes viral. Let’s look at those next: 

Exploring the metrics

So now that you’ve done a preliminary analysis, it’s time to assess some tangible metrics to help create future viral content.

I suggest looking at the following metrics to consider for your next viral marketing campaign:

1. Views: This is self-explanatory. It’s the number of times someone viewed your content. Try to find commonality in the content of your recent post compared to others you’ve posted. This way, you can determine what type of content to produce in the future to replicate this performance.  
2. User engagement: This is a broad term encapsulating likes, clicks, comments, shares, and various similar metrics. On YouTube, it may also include how many people would subscribe after viewing the video. User-generated content in the comments section can prove helpful in the long term. So if your viral content produces a lot of comments, you may wish to copy it. As with views, look at previous posts to determine the similarity in the desired response.
3. Impressions: This refers to the amount of times your content was displayed on users’ screens. If your impressions are significantly higher than usual in your viral post, then you’ll want to consider why this is. Is it possible that you used the right hashtags at the right time? Did you use best practices (even accidentally) on that platform? Did all this help you go viral?
4. Click-throughs & conversions: Of course, if your viral post produced a lot of click-throughs, this is something you’re going to want to replicate. Consider why this might be: did your post resonate with the audience and make them comfortable with your brand? Was it posted at just the right time to go viral? What might be the success variable of this viral video or post? You may find that all your viral videos have commonalities.

With great publicity comes greater responsibility

The more famous (and often rapidly so with viral posts) your brand gets, the more critical it is to register your trademark. While you are protected under the common law if you have an unregistered trademark, it’s hardly comprehensive protection. 

Arrange a free consultation with one of our trademark attorneys today to learn how we can help you register and protect your business.