Going ViralGoing viral is the goal of any business, to get millions of views to the website, millions of comments on a social media post or millions of views of new digital content.
Going viral is the dream of all social media influencers, to become famous, a household name where people want to be like them, being a trend setter and not a sheep copying the latest trends, they set the trends.
There are millions of ‘content creators’ and not just on social media, but on the internet.
Going viral does come from the social media era, but it also applies to every business, to get onto page 1 of the search results, to go from being an unknown website to a leading brand and getting millions of website visitors daily. It is every business owners dream to get onto page 1 of the search results for their website, but no-one knows the formula to do this.
This is where it all began, a picture on instagram, a TikTok post that suddenly gets millions of views, likes, comments and shares.
This is the dream of every content creator (or social media influencer) that do the latest dances, the latest lip sync, the latest trend, whatever it might be.
But how did it all start, where did it all begin?
It really goes back to Kim Kardashian and her Instagram posts, getting millions of likes and earning her extra money over her TV show ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’.
The lockdown periods of 2020 really created a need for attention, getting people to connect to you on social media and has not really fizzled out.
There have been a few individuals that have gone viral on social media, in particular TikTok, the video sharing website.
Leah Halton (an unknown 23 year old Australian model) in February 2024 did a 12 second lip sync which resulted in her getting her 37 million ‘likes’, 600 million views and over 2 million comments.
Zach King (an influencer in America) in June 2023 did a video of him riding a broomstick dressed as Harry Potter, earning him 2.3 billion views.
Many celebrities such as Tom Cruise and Gordon Ramsey also do many videos in order to try to hit the jackpot of millions of views.
What is the secret, is it the topic, the backing music, the makeup, the quality of the video?
No-one knows, and social media agencies are still trying to find the magic formula to going viral on social media.
This is something website owners have been trying to do for decades now, to go from having a few hundred website visitors a week to millions of website visitors.
SEO companies are equally trying to find the magic formula to getting onto page 1 of the search engines.
The challenge, like social media is there is no road map to follow, no secret formula to getting millions of website visitors.
There is only 10 spaces on page 1 of the search results, so getting onto page 1 for millions of search results is going to be challenging, particularly as the search engines regularly modify their search algorithm.
Both social media website and search engines have their own algorithms, their way of delivering content to users.
As soon as you open TikTok, you will be sent a video to watch. If you ‘like’ the video, watch it over and over, send it to a friend, or click onto the content creators account to view more of their videos, TikTok assumes you like the content and will send you more and other videos that are similar.
Search engines as soon as you type in a search query will deliver you results that they feel are relevant. If people click on the result and stay on the page/website, the search engines interpret this as being relevant to the search query. If people click on the result and then leave, the search engines interpret this as not being relevant and may well downgrade that website for another.
No-one really knows how digital platforms algorithms work, so the formula to going viral is very much best guesswork and luck.
Pretty much any website owner and content creator is hoping and praying for going viral, getting that one picture on Instagram that will get millions of likes comments and shares. Getting a video on TikTok that gets billions of views and the next day the BBC are leading it as the central story. Getting millions of website visitors because of a new web page that makes all the difference to the sites position on the search engines.
No-one really knows why some websites are on page 1 of the search results and others are not.
Leah Halton had no idea when she filmed herself doing another lip sync, that it would catapult her to worldwide fame with millions of views. Leah has since done hundreds of more TikTok’s, non getting anywhere near the number of views or likes.
The 10th October was ‘World Mental Health Day‘ and since COVID, mental health has been a big topic, particularly for social media users.
Many social media users have committed suicide, from the pressures that social media brings, peer pressure, hate comments, and not getting the attention that they crave.
The other thing to consider is are you ready to go viral? Are you ready to get millions of enquiries from your website getting millions of visitors? Are you ready to get into the mainstream news because your latest TikTok has had billions of views, comments and shares?
Digital Marketing
Marketing And PR Agency
Creative & Design
Web Development
Events & Hospitality
Other service