Going Viral is NOT Better Than Being Social

Going viral seems to be the thing that so many people want to focus on – but going viral comes and goes too quickly.

Sure, maybe Myspace died and Tom isn’t in our top eight anymore. It’s true that Facebook is Meta, and TikTok quickly became the new Vine. Things on social media are fluid, always changing, but it’s all still called SOCIAL media for a reason.

It started as just a way to connect with old friends, and keeping in touch with family from afar. From there, it morphed into a platform for musicians to grow their reach and get their music heard without needing a record label. That’s where things really took off.
Businesses and brands realized– “Hey, if people are on these apps all the time, spending time reading and scrolling through posts, we should take advantage of that!”

Some more successfully than others, of course. Some of that has to do with luck, but MOST of it is how they use and utilize the “social” in social media.

Yes, the internet has changed from the ol’– AOL CD in the mail, trying to get online but getting a busy signal, twenty minutes to load a JPEG only for mom to yell at you to get off the computer because she needs to make a call– but at the same time, they’ve still got the same roots: Connection.

That connection, that desire to find people and things you like and want to surround yourself with is a tool. A tool can be used in many different ways, sure, but that doesn’t change its core purpose: conversation. This very important tool rewards those who use it that way.

When it comes to using social media, you’re going to get back what you put into it.  Ignore the viral videos and randomly popular posts you see in your daily scroll. As much as we’d all love for every post to go viral, that should never be the ultimate and only goal of every post. When you put that kind of pressure on yourself, you’re only going to find disappointment.
Viral posts are rare. Viral posts aren’t everything, and they most certainly aren’t a sustainable business model.

Aim for what social media started as, go back to the roots: connection. Aim for talking TO the people who follow you, and who you want TO follow you. Don’t talk AT the internet and expect it to respond. Connect with your audience. Find other local businesses and entrepreneurs. Create a network– not just an empty box you yell into every day and hope that maybe, one day, someone will hear you.

Aim to be… well, you know the word already: social.