276: How to create "viral" content

Is going “viral” the goal for your business? Do you need the traffic to reach your goals?

Going viral doesn’t always mean sales, but it does mean exposure. However, virality as a business is very different to going virtual as a content creator - so let’s talk about it.  

If you LOVED this episode, make sure you share this on your Instagram stories and tag us @contentqueenmariah.

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⁠⁠⁠KEY EPISODE TAKEAWAYS 👇

✨The definition of “viral” content 

✨ How to find your style of content 

✨ Why some business owners don’t need viral content 

✨ How to create viral content 

SHOW RESOURCES 👇

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @contentqueenmariah⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

Other than that, enjoy - chat next week 💕

PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

This is episode 276, and we are talking all about making viral content. Welcome to the Content Queen podcast. I'm your host, Mariah, entrepreneur storyteller, digital nomad, creator of Content Bootcamp, and founder of Content Queen. I'm here to teach you how to share your unique story, create content, and market your business with strategy through the channels that work for you.

Each week, I'll deliver a story to help you connect to a powerful strategy around marketing, business and content creation. Also be joined by amazing souls and entrepreneurs who are here to share their own journey, along with actual steps to help you take your business to a whole new level through amazing storytelling, powerful and marketing and content strategy.

Let's do it. Hello, gang. If you're watching the video, which you might see on Instagram, if you're following us at content Queen Mariah, you'll see that I'm wearing an hoodie, which is very comfortable. Which means you don't have to look perfect to create content. And I am in this cute little studio, which is the bus last week, it was from the bed This week, um, Mitch has created a little studio for me, so go and check it out.

He's also the real MVP 'cause he's currently holding an iPhone light up for extra lighting. Like he's literally gonna stand there for maybe 10, 15 minutes. Probably 20 holding his phone like that, that deserves a video on its own. So take note of that, Mitch. Create a snippet of that. This is getting really behind the scenes of how we, we operate here at Content Queen, but I wanna talk about, uh, viral content because.

Whilst being a business owner, we're not content creators, so we're not here to create viral content in terms of we're not here to go viral and make money on a platform like TikTok, although it would be nice viral content if done right in the right way for your business can change business' lives. Like it can dramatically change how a business operates because once it hits virality.

And people are interested in the business, it can lead to conversion because we know if we think about a marketing funnel, the more people that we have, the more chances we have of selling our products and services. But when I say viral content for business owners, I mean the content that connects with the right person, the right audience, and gets the right amount of traction, technically viral content.

Is anything that's reached over a million, but we could really say that virality, we all have our own definition. If we are a business owner with maybe a couple thousand or a couple hundred followers, maybe tens of thousands of views is viral for us, and that's what we need, right? So. A couple of weeks ago, I, I have had clients go viral, so it wasn't, it's not necessarily new to me, but the concept of thinking about viral content has come up more so lately, because I think now we just know we need to reach more people.

But again, it has to be the right people. There was a business owner that decided to go on TikTok. She was an Instagram coach. She spent a lot of her time on Instagram. Her first video went viral and it was a dancing video. Now, she went on to say that that was a terrible idea on her part because then she became viral for the wrong reasons and she got the wrong followers.

So that meant her what was meant to be an Instagram coaching page became people following her that wanted to see her dance. So that was something that she mentioned was if she had her time again, she wouldn't have done. So that's why when going viral for our business, we want it for the right reasons.

But this came up because it's interesting, okay, when we have a vi a video get traction, what does this mean and how can we repeat it? So I had a client that I did a video. Now I knew this video was gonna perform well. Did I know it was gonna perform as well as it did? No. I'm totally honest with you. I didn't, but I knew from a few things, which I'm gonna talk about how I knew that.

So basically this video was pushed out and it reached, its up to nearly 5 million, and the last time I checked the stats, there was around 3000 or so followers from it on Instagram. Very good. If that was on T, if that went as viral as on TikTok, she would have. Tens of thousands of followers, if not more, because it's just they work.

The platforms work a little bit differently. Why their algorithms and the people that consume them and all the things. So then it got me thinking, okay, this has happened to multiple clients, so what does this mean and how can I help? You all listening, achieve something similar. That's going to help, as I said, help not just create viral videos from a meme or something that's got nothing to do with your business.

So that's what we're gonna talk about today. Now this client is. The, the business is called Understanding Zoe and the owner, the founder, who is a long-term client of mine, did her podcast episode on it. So Leticia Andre's podcast, the Essential Shift Podcast. She broke down that viral video, what it meant more from like a business perspective.

So I will link that in the show notes if you would like to check that out in more detail. But I wanna go through the, the, the two things. Um, that help me. And then the third thing that's continued to help and what it looks like for other clients. So the first thing that you want to think about while creating videos that are going to reach multiple people or tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people on social media.

For the benefit of your business is finding the style that works for you, and I think this is not what everyone talks about. Now, we could arguably say that viral content usually comes from something that's going to spark or create conversation. And it is top of funnel content, which if you check out in the show notes, I've dropped Maddie Avery when she come on the podcast and talked about content for the funnel.

So check that out. If you're like, what is top of funnel content? What does that even mean? Now, finding your own style can mean multiple things. It can be the, the way you talk about things. So you might go down a humor route, an entertainmenty route, an inspiration route, or a controversial route. So that's the first step.

You might mix things and see what works, but in the other layer of that is the actual type of content. So whilst at the moment we would see that video content is more likely to go viral because on platforms like Instagram reels, they push reel content out to um, more people. But it doesn't mean that you couldn't create a carousel that went viral, but.

Video is usually the easiest way. But then what type of video is that? Because I've had clients that go viral from B-roll with text, so just footage with music and text and no talking. But then I've had other clients from talking and then I've had a mixture of the two. So it's finding the style that works for that business and works for you as the person creating it, as the business owner actually going out there and doing it.

It so someone could go on and be like, you have to do a seven second hook at this, at that, uh, turn around backwards and do a back flip, but doesn't mean it's gonna work for you. And that's what I wanna argue in this podcast is what I found has gone viral for different clients. S Yes, it has sparked interest in people, maybe not always positive interest.

They might have something to say like most people do on the internet. It has sparked something. Now we can go through formulas and frameworks of, usually it's showing the process, beginning, middle, and laughter. It is, uh, problem, journey, solution. You know, all these storytelling frameworks, which yes, work.

But I think first you have to find that style. That works for you and you seem to be getting some traction with clients, which is the second one, sorry, with customers seeing a little bit of traction and asking why. So with the client, and I'm gonna use understanding Zoe as the example, but I'm gonna share another client, in example.

Three is. I started to notice on TikTok if I posted B-roll with text and music and the B-roll was, IM, uh, the text was impactful. It was sparking thought, sparking conversation. It got, or sharing a story. It got traction a little bit, you know, 5,000, 6,000. But they had like small following, really small following to begin with, and I went, Ooh.

This is interesting. It seems that when I do this style video, it works, whereas when maybe the client would talk to camera, it wouldn't get as much traction. So I was trying to double down on the things that worked, but I also asked why. Why did that work? Well, maybe because the audience are parents, so when they're scrolling social media, they're not necessarily.

Listening to things. So Leticia talking to camera or any founder talking to camera in that situation, it might not work, but they will scroll carousels or they will read a reel with something impactful and they will comment because they don't need to be listening. 'cause maybe they're got the TV on at the same time, maybe their kids are listening and they don't necessarily want them to hear what's on their phone.

Because you know, they get distracted or it's just stuff that they don't need to learn about. So that was, I was like, okay, why is that working? And that was my assumption, so that when I made the real, that sparked a lot of interest. I knew it would spark debate because it was very simple. So it was a analogy of comparing.

Um, apples and oranges, which is neurotypical versus people that are neuro diver virgin and how, that is a analogy that is used. It was one that this client had used in a presentation and I thought it was quite interesting. So that was where I went down that lens. Like, this is interesting. People might find this interesting.

Well, they did for 5 million people, found it interesting. Or near 5 million. So I knew from finding our own style, seeing what got traction, analyzing that traction, and then the third step was repeat and start to understand. So now I know that that is a little bit of a recipe. It doesn't mean it's gonna work every time, but that is the style of video that works for that client.

And then I can play around with different messages, different sounds, different things. And of course, does this mean I'm just gonna post that kind of content? No, because we're a business, we're not content creators. We also need to promote our services. We also need to share testimonials, share, share different types of content that isn't just that type of content.

Because there was no call to action. There was no, and it wasn't a direct message for signups. So does that always convert to signups? No. Or purchases, whatever that inquiries. So now that I know that I can repeat the process, but also starting to understand, well, what do we do with this information? What do we do after that video gets traction?

So there's a few things that we've done, and I'm more than happy to do, I guess, an extra episode on this, just let me know. But we did some things like we reposted that video. Obviously it went on to TikTok. But we reposted it as a trial reel, which is a feature on Instagram that just pushes videos out to non followers.

So we tried, we did some of that. We also piggybacked off the comments in the post and created extra bits of material carrying on that journey. Did those videos go viral? No. Did they get good views? Yes, but what I think happened is it continued to grow the current video. That's what I had seen, and I'm happy to break this down and do some content on it if you would like.

But then what I've seen in another client is very similar. So we now know what is going to get the audience's attention. Now for this client, they talk to the camera. That's their style. It's not B roll with, it's not trending audience and none of that. But we know when they talk about a specific topic, it always gets attention.

So what we do is if we are about to, we, we need to increase our leads. We need to, um, we are about to introduce something new or we see a dip in engagement. We know that we can start talking about that specific topic to increase engagement again. So what we've done in this instance is we have on their TikTok account three posts pinned to the top of their page, which is about how to work with them.

So once a video goes viral, which has happened multiple times, or even at least like. Yes, I've had the millions, but even 180,000, 60,000, 20,000 is really good. So when those videos get that increase in engagement, people go to their profile and they see the lead magnet or the the next step, and we see an increase in inquiries for that video or an increase in inquiries for that call to action.

So we've been using this as a way to okay, engagement's down, or we need to build those leads back up. We now post about this topic and we run that and we see it increase and we, of course, we see the comments that aren't always nice, that are a bit of hate, but it's to get that increase of engagement, to spread the video out there and to spread the awareness of that business.

So it's not simple. Some client in terms of it doesn't mean it's gonna happen like that. But some clients, it can take weeks, some can take months, some it can take years. But it's always just trying to find those little gaps of traction or little messages of traction from your analytics and seeing what you can do with that.

So I'm gonna repeat. The first step is to find your own style from a perspective of the type of content like controversial, entertaining, inspirational. And then the second bit being the style of video or the style of post if you like to write, if you like to speak, whatever that is. The second is analyze your current content or analyze any content and see where there's been a bit of traction.

Was it the topic? Was it the way you presented that video? It could be both. It could be nano those, and then you repeat and you understand. You understand what is gonna perform long term so that you can pull those levers when you need to. But in the end, what is your goal? Y is going viral. The goal, of course, it's to reach more people, but you need to have the infrastructure and the business and the business model to be set up for, if you can, you handle X amount of customers, X amount of clients.

So it might not be the goal to go mega viral, millions of views, millions of people buying your products and services or whatever that looks like. It's just understanding. Okay. If and when I have a viral that a video that gets traction, do I, am I set up for that? Do I want that? Do I need that? I had a call today with my accountant that's like, look, I don't necessarily want new clients right now.

I'm really happy, but I know I need to have the brand out there. To some business owners, that is their goal and that is, okay. Your goal might not be to go viral. But if you are looking for a little bit more traction in your business, have a go at that and let me know how you go. But be a content queen or king, and remember that developing your strategy and story develops your business.

Thank you so much for joining me today, and please don't forget to share this with all your business and entrepreneurial friends. You can do this by adding it to your Instagram stories and tagging us at content Queen Mariah, or just tell them about it. If you do rate and review, it helps me get amazing guests on.

Create more amazing content and keep showing up for you guys. So if you love listening to this stuff, if you love all the value, please rate and review and follow me on Instagram or TikTok and let me know if there's any topics, any questions that you have, please let me know. I'll love to do a podcast on it, and I'll talk to you soon.

Bye.

PodcastMariah MacInnesmarketing, marketing advice, how to be authentic online, business ownerComment