Everyone dreams of a viral reel, right? It can be a lot of fun to have a piece of content get really successful, (and not to dump cold water on your dreams), but it's not as amazing for your account as you may think.
I had a piece of content modestly blow up recently and while it was fun, it wasn't a major game changer for me or my business. In my line of work, I have a fairly narrow target audience- so when a reel goes everywhere, that audience goes from targeted to diluted, and most of the viewers are people who are completely uninterested in the rest of my content.
Going viral can be great in some instances, though:
🦠 If you're an influencer and your follower count is important to you for business reasons
🦠 If you're a retail brand and the content features your items
🦠 Any time you're trying to raise awareness for a cause
Other than those, and limited other situations, there's just not a lot of tangible benefit to a viral reel. Here’s how it went for me:
The Reel:
Constant Notifications
The notifications kept rolling in... mostly likes and also a few saves, shares and follows. A couple of comments... but not the kind I would hope for.
The Good
Receiving the likes and followers was fun! I didn't really gain much for my business though- when a reel gets that big, the audience gets pretty diluted and the people seeing it aren't your target anymore.
The Bad
The only comments I got were people thinking I somehow actually launched a small child with a stomp rocket launcher. If you haven't seen these, they just make a puff of air to shoot a plastic rocket in the air.
REST ASSSURED, the safety of all parties was never in question.
In Conclusion
This experience is why I don't try to make viral content! Unless you're an influencer after follows or a retail brand, there's really no tangible gain. Targeted content that the right people see is EVERYTHING.
I will always preach targeting the right people with your content. It doesn't matter if a million of the wrong people see you- it's much better for a thousand of the right people to get your message.