Quit Trying to Make Viral Content

Why Virality Doesn’t = Success There’s nothing worse than going viral. Yeah I said it. You create a piece of content with or without a strategy and then the algo fell in love with it. Next thing you know, you’re exposed to different people from all walks of life who have no problem sharing with you why they liked or strongly disliked your content. Your DM’s have become a portal to hellish messages from not so nice and sometimes questionable people and you become overwhelmed with WTF. There’s hope though. Don’t get me wrong there’s a least 1 or 2 people in those messages that legit might turn into something fruitful. Just no guarantees.

I talk to founders who want to create content to go viral every time they post. Nope, not gonna happen. Not only is that unrealistic but it’s disingenuous. I’m not saying you can’t have a post that goes viral but you can’t predict it. If your intent behind creation content is virality then you’ve already lost the plot. Let me be clear going viral can absolutely change your life and there’s plenty of examples of that. However, you just can’t hang your content strategy on going viral. Especially when you’re a business owner who needs a consistent ROI.

Content and Consequences

It doesn’t matter how many followers you have 5k, 25k, or 100k. If you you’re not able to make meaningful connection with your followers what’s the point? Opportunities will come to you because what you wrote or shared resonated with the right person. That’s the gift.

I used to create content on IG every day for years and was obsessed with going viral. It never happened. I couldn’t figure out the right formula. Timing, content style, clothing, music, caption, hashtags, and trends. Le sigh.

Then one day it happened. Totally unplanned. I still have no idea what was the winning combo. My gut tells me timing. It was during the pandemic. Here’s my viral IG reel that got almost 300k views. It was bananas. The follower requests and messages I received were scary. Note: I did not earn more money or become famous overnight.

Going viral is like be shot out of a cannon with no soft landing. I will admit it’s great for like the first five hours your post is live… after that you’re fighting for your life lol.

Create with soulful intent. I always say your content should work for you.

Here’s how I approach content creation with this lens “Elevate & Create”.

Does this content bring awareness to my business

Am I selling a new product or service

Am I teach my community something new

Most importantly how am I building meaningful relationships with my community or potential clients.

Be Consistent

The other thing that is also most important. Ask your community questions.

-What do they want to see?

-What service would they like to utilize?

-What are some problems they’re trying to solve?

-How can I help?

Build relationships that’s the key to great content creation not going viral. Virality isn’t a strategy. It’s like a little extra buttercream frosting on the yummy cake that was already delicious.

“Don’t chase virality. Build something people want to come back to.”― unknown

MY FAVORITE AI FIND

Higgsfield AI is a generative AI platform that creates images and videos. I used it to create a video for a presentation. It was seamless and didn’t give me any weird outputs with a direct prompt. I’m still playing with it to see how it creates video with me in it. However, for basic video creation that’s aligned with your work, I recommend giving it a try.

3/22/26 ChatHub app is an all in one web based platform that can run multiple AI chatbots at the same time. Let me know if you’ve used it. I think I’m in love.

3/14/26 One of the easiest ways to make professional presentations by AI is Chronicle Chronicle is an AI tool designed for teams making business critical presentations, without sacrificing flexibility and style. It’s super intuitive and the templates makes it a breeze to use.

MY DAILY TECH STACK

iPhone 13, Claude, Perplexity, Descript, Opus Clips, Cap Cut, Reve, Canva, Riverside, Restream, Instagram Edits

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