Will viral content help grow my business?

Nothing feels better than when something you’ve worked really hard on pays off. That’s why social media can be so demotivating. Most of the time, you’ll find that content you spent hours creating gets a few likes and maybe a couple of comments. But, the content you threw out on a whim is the one that sticks the landing and does numbers.

It’s enough to make you question if you need a content strategy at all…

If you want to build an audience and grow your business sustainably, then you absolutely do need a content strategy. ‘Viral’ posts will increase your visibility online but they don’t generate leads. Those vanity metrics might make you feel like you’ve accomplished something, but once the feeling has passed, you’ll have nothing to show for it.

So, yes, viral content could help to grow your business from an exposure point of view, but it’s not the outcome your content strategy should be based on. Instead, you need to base it on reaching a specific audience and getting leads.

Growing your audience

Content is how you’re going to build familiarity and start conversations with your audience but actively growing your audience can’t be done on content alone. Ideally, you want to be growing your network consistently by sending out 100 connection requests a week - and not just any connections, targeted connections.

The best way to increase your connection acceptance rates is to warm up these potential connections by viewing, liking or following their profiles before sending the request. That way, when you show up in their notifications, you won’t be a complete stranger and they’ll have more of a reason to connect with you.

Keeping your audience engaged

As you are growing your network (and therefore the audience for your content) you need to keep them engaged. Viral content won’t achieve this because it’s not targeted and therefore not relatable to the audience you’re building. Instead of virality, focus on being consistent and proving to your audience that you’re reliable.

Whether it’s three times a week or five times a week, make sure you are posting consistently. Use scheduling tools ahead of time but don’t post and forget. Include CTAs that encourage people to engage with the post and make sure you're in the comments to engage right back.

Providing value to your audience

Even when you’ve built the audience and remained consistent, any momentum you’ve managed to build with your content will slow down the moment you stop being valuable to your audience. This is why viral content will never achieve sustainable growth. Virality is not something you can recreate and it will leave your content floating around in the wrong feeds.

When crafting your content, don’t make likes and shares the focus. Keep your audience and what they will gain from your content at the centre of your content creation. Crafting content in this way might not make you go viral on a global scale, but you’ll become indispensable to your audience and potentially become ‘viral’ in your niche.