What a viral reel with 250K likes taught me

Find Your Superpower newsletter 084

Read time: 5 minutes

Topics covered: Instagram reel, going viral, branding, mastermind last call

Thanks to my viral Instagram reel from Tuesday, I have been working an additional 2h daily.

It has been exhausting, but I have learnt so much from it.

Today, I want to share three lessons from it with you.

But first, some Instagram reel stats after four days:

• 6M views
• 244K likes
• 200K shares
• 38K saves
• 30K new followers 

1.  Virality is not something you can plan for or conjure up

In one of my newsletters from early 2024, I had discussed making some Instagram skits that didn’t go viral.

To be fair, the routine of work, life and parenting took over, and I stopped making them after a few weeks. 

But the point here is that you can’t predict what people like... or really like.

For example, the ice-bucket challenge that went viral in one year raised more than US$115M for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research, but the creators of the ice-bucket challenge could not recreate that same level of interest in subsequent years.

In my LinkedInese reel, I couldn’t have predicted that people would appreciate my kind of humor: a cross between deadpan and sardonic, and a mix of reality and parody.

My major influences are Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report, which I watched all the time when I lived and worked in the United States.

2.  Nobody tells you about the associated stress of going viral

I have been publishing magazines for 11 years, I have been running a B2B content agency for 7 years, and I have been personally running my LinkedIn account for nearly four years.

I think it is fair to say that I am a veteran content creator.

It is easy to make one video reel. Now what? Make another 50? That’s time I simply don’t have. The only reason I made the videos with my daughter is because she’s on her school holidays.

Second, I have received more DMs and likes and follows from Insta-influencers in three days than in three years. Some new followers told me the video reel is popular in Brazil networks. How on earth did this happen?

I haven’t had any new haters yet, and thankfully most people seem to like the reel, but one thing I know about visibility is that the critics magically appear just from you breathing air.

3. Being famous in itself does not pay the bills, you need to learn how to monetize

Today is the last day of enrollment for my 12-month virtual Brand Builder Mastermind launching in January 2025. We are now at 150 Mastermind cadets and my rocketship is fueling for take-off.

You may assume that the more sign-ups I get, the merrier. That’s not really the case for me.

I have gently dissuaded people from joining my Mastermind, especially when their goal is to get X number of followers or a LinkedIn Top Voice badge.

Why? When I see that their goals are primarily about being famous, I simply don’t think I am the best content creator trainer for them. 

There are other content creator communities where being famous is the goal in itself.

Listen up my friend, the fame monster is real. Everything becomes superficial when fame is your North Star. People become tools to step on, climb up on, or to extract from to get more followers and popularity. Some really ugly behavior goes on when people are consumed by the fame monster.

On top of all that, likes on social media don’t pay the bills. I know many micro-influencers (10-100K followers) who aren’t monetizing their following and still have day jobs.

And yet, if you are a true industry expert who is top of category in a domain niche, a very well-defined, small email database of 2-3K subscribers and a highly curated 5-10K followers on LinkedIn of potential clients may be all you need for monetization as a small business or a side hustle.

If the above describes you, I want to work with you.

You are my people, my tribe.

This is my zone of genius.

PS: My Brand Builder Mastermind is a simple virtual subscription to build a brand, speak & write better, and make money from it.

150 Mastermind cadets have already been onboarded.

Enrollment closes today, 8 December 2024 (Sunday) at midnight (GMT +8).

Please join us before doors close. 

LAST CALL!

Thanks for reading issue 084 of my weekly Find Your Superpower newsletter.

For those of you who are new to my newsletter, Find Your Superpower is subscribed to by 46,000+ people, and discusses the following three goals: (1) Making a career transition, (2) Professional branding and (3) Reinventing ourselves for the future of work.

PS: Follow my new Find Your Superpower LinkedIn page!

PPS: My Mastermind is closing enrollment at midnight (GMT +8). Join now!