745: The Magic Formula for Going Viral on Social Media

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1:13Offer available for a limited time. So happy shopping. Maybe sending them more videos. Like imagine if you follow someone's Instagram and they said, Hey, I just made this really cool video. Tell me what you think. Like, can you imagine how that deepens the relationship and makes you feel like, Hey, I'm like this person really notices me. I'm not just a follower, but like they really care about sharing value. Hey, my name is Jenna Kutcher and I am obsessed with all things business, marketing numbers, and helping you to navigate both the messy and the magical seasons of this thing called life. I'm a small town mama who took a$300 camera, grew a successful photo biz, and now I work from home and run a seven figure online business.

1:52I teach you the tried and true secrets to building a career you adore. Shy away from the real talk? No way. Money, hardship, growth, loss, and marketing are all topics we discuss here. Think of this as your one-stop shop for happy hour with a gal pal mixed with business school. Pull up a seat, make sure you're cozy and get ready to be challenged and encouraged while you learn. This is the Gold Digger podcast. Today we're talking about going viral and I'm going to answer the question if anyone can actually go viral. And maybe it's just the algorithm and watching what content I consume, but I feel like my feed these days has been filled with posts about how people have been able to go viral.

2:30It's so interesting because I will never forget the day I went viral. It was an average day in March of 2018. I had popped up a post about being a curvy woman married to a guy with a six pack. And I didn't think much of that post. In fact, I wrote that post in the parking lot before I went in for a girl's night at my friend's Irish pub. The next day I woke up to hundreds of thousands of new followers, an article written on Yahoo News, phone calls from the Ellen show. So it was a very wild time for me. And while there were parts about going viral that were absolutely amazing, there were also parts about going viral that didn't necessarily make sense to me.

3:07Like I don't necessarily make a living off of being in a swimsuit. And I want to talk about other things than just my body. And so it was really interesting to try to figure out how do I take this amazing virality and exposure, but use it in a way that actually supports me, my business and my livelihood. So today I brought on an expert in the topic of going viral. She is incredible about talking about how to create content that gets seen, that stands out, and that goes viral to attract the right followers that are going to skyrocket your business and help reach your influence to new heights. As a chief of growth at Mindvalley, Marisha Lakhiani has a proven track record in driving strategic vision and tactical execution.

3:51She has a unique expertise in combining the art, science, and technology of marketing to deliver cutting edge solutions that have driven$120 million in revenue for the brand. Needless to say, she is truly a marketing champion, and I cannot think of a better person to talk about the nitty gritty social media strategy of going viral with. If you're ready to learn the key ingredients that make a social media post go viral, as well as how to shift your strategy on different platforms to boost your virality, you are in the right place. It is time to go beyond the hashtags and the filters. It's time to go viral.

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5:09Let's face it, your old platform just isn't cutting it. It's cumbersome, it's expensive, it's causing a rift between marketing and sales. I could go on, but let's focus on the keys to winning. Are you ready for your sales team to reach all-star selling status? Sales Hub is a dream come true for sellers. Visit hubspot.com slash sales to stop dreaming and start selling with Sales Hub. That's hubspot.com slash sales. So tell me the truth on this. Is it truly possible for anybody, regardless of their following, to go viral? What do you think? So I think it's 1000 % possible. And I want to share this case study that I did.

5:55So I was speaking in an event about social media. And I thought I needed to prove a point to the audience. So I needed to go viral. So I wanted to do this case study and actually apply what I teach because I work for a brand. So I'm very good at making other people go viral, but this is applied to everyone. Right? So what I did is I broke down virality into a framework and I started to get more intentional with my content. So I teach you not, my content was getting 84 views. Okay. Okay. That's like my, I have a family bigger than 84 views. Okay. Like I'm wrong. I have a huge family. So basically apart from my cousins were watching my content and then I got intentional and I started to like really think about what I was creating and who I was creating it for and I applied my framework and I got 40 40 000 views I went from 84 to 40 000 views and this is my one video that I just made like like this is my first step at it wow so so there is a formula and the algorithm doesn't take you to three million the algorithm takes you to 40 and and it takes you to 60, and it takes you to 150, and it takes you to a million.

7:08It slowly goes up, right? But anyone can do it. And obviously, you have your flukes that just go zero to 3 million. But if you really want to build a brand as a content creator, you know, build a personal brand, anyone can do it. Okay, you referenced that you work for a brand. Tell me a little bit about how you do what you do and what it is that you do. And then you better believe we are going to dive into this framework and we're going to go deep on it. So I work for a brand called Mindvalley. What we do is like we produce content like no other company. We're producing content daily, but essentially we're a personal development company.

7:46Our promise is that we teach you what school for about to teach you, which is how to be an amazing parent, how to have an amazing relationship, how to be a good leader to your team, how to build and scale a business, how to do branding, how to build a community, how to go viral on social media. So it's all the things that are life skills that you should have learned in school, but they forgot to teach you that in the traditional curriculum. But what we do is we do life school. So we teach you all of those things so that you can get better every single day. Oh my gosh. I love that. So did you develop this formula for Mindvalley?

8:18Like how did this come to be? Because I love that you brought this up, that you tested it on your own account. Cause I think a lot of times social media experts already have hundreds of thousands of followers. And so when they're speaking about strategies, It just doesn't resonate with the person who is starting with 200 or 2000. And so how did all of this framework come to be? So because I was creating so much content with Vision, who was our founder and CEO, and he's so amazing on camera. And I would, so I'm like the newbie content creator because I would look at him and I said, oh my God, he speaks so well.

8:49He's so charismatic. And we're producing all of this content. So I have a lot of data. So I'm looking at what is working, what is not. I'm trying to build this framework so we can make this repetitive. but at the same time hating it when I have to be in front of camera because I have to do my hair and my makeup and the camera setup it takes two hours that I have to create a script that I don't know how to create a script and it is just so taxing like I absolutely freaking hate it but then I started to just think about like okay so I have this framework what if I make it so easy that it just becomes a framework and a template that I just keep replicating how fast can I create content so right now i can actually produce like i can film three reels the camera set up my hair makeup everything in an hour so the hardest part is to actually do my makeup the easiest part is to get in front of camera right now so yes so i'm like we're gonna go into it because i'm gonna teach you guys how to do it and i'm hoping by the end of this podcast you guys are making reels and you are hitting a hundred thousand and then soon a million and you guys tag both of us and tell us how you're doing.

9:54Yes. Okay. So I have been talking to so many women, business owners and content creators, and there is one theme that is so present this year that has never been as present as it is right now. And that is that we're tired of creating content and it is fascinating. I am in rooms with top performing women, some of your favorite business leaders, and the one sticking point that keeps coming up is I hate creating content. It's literally become this thing that is like sitting on our to-do list, haunting us. And we're not necessarily tying the content itself to real results. And so of course we're having trouble getting really excited to sit down and create it.

10:35So I have to know before we dive into this framework, are you somebody who like loves to create content? Because that's a totally different lens than a lot of people are going to be listening with i absolutely hate it like i i cringe every time i have to create content it is like it goes to the bottom of my to-do list after laying on the couch and walking netflix like after that after like even cooking i hate cooking too and even after cooking content was way below that so i absolutely hate it but then there's something to think about right so out of all social media users in the world, all social media users in the world, there's 0.04 % of people that are creating content.

11:19Okay, 0.04 % of people creating content. Out of 0.04 % of people creating content, 98 % of these people have a following under 100 ,000. So actually, when we think of virality and content creation, we have this notion that we have to get millions of views to be viral. but the fact that you're creating content and it's getting 10 ,000 views or whatever it's getting 2 ,000, 3 ,000, 10 ,000, you're still in the 0.04 % of people. So you're still ahead of the curve. That's the first thing you understand. Now it's about just getting a bit more intentional. So I kid you not, when I started creating content, it was TikTok during COVID.

12:03My style of video was dancing and it was like all the trends and like, it was not intentional. I was creating it because I wanted to have fun. Like it was all about me. And then when I started to create content with the purpose of, I want to impact someone. I want to teach someone something. I want someone to like grow their business and scale. And I started creating with more intention. My content started like performing better. So now I'm getting like the minimum thing is I'm getting is like 10 ,000 views, but there's like 30, 40 on LinkedIn. I'm getting like 50, 60. So the content is like picking up and I'm getting tons of, you know, messengers, people wanting to work with me, events, podcasts, all of that because of the content that I'm creating, even though it's not there yet, it's getting there.

12:42But it all became so because I was just a little bit more deliberate. Oh, okay. This is so good. So I am calling this the year of like frameworks. Like, I am going so deep with like, I need frameworks and playbooks for everything. And it's so funny, because five years ago, you couldn't catch me dead with a framework, I felt like I was this creative butterfly and a framework would like stifle my creativity, but I am seeing so much more freedom with frameworks because you have this recipe and you kind of can already predict the outcome. And so walk me through like, what are the steps or components in your framework for somebody creating a viral piece of content?

13:25And I can not wait for the audience to test this out. Okay. So I've broken it down to six ingredients. Now you're going to speak to like, or you're going to follow a whole bunch of social media influencers. They're going to tell you a whole bunch of different techniques. There's so many, some are contradictory. So I'm actually just skimmed it down to the six that it can be your checklist. And every time you hit this six, your content is going to perform like 10 times better than it normally does. So the first thing is the hook. The hook of the content is the most important piece of the content.

13:59It is how you start the first three seconds of the video. okay so the hook is usually the the opening line this is where you grab someone's attention now if someone stays past the three seconds and they like your hook and they don't drop off there they're most likely going to watch 45 of the video so you need to get them past the hook okay now how do you do a good hook so the good hook is like it has to have a strong bold statement and it should be something like a new belief or a new like paradigm shift right so my favorite person to go to for hooks is um i don't know if you guys have heard of dear aline so dear aline is nasty 80s past partner but she has her own channel and she's brilliant and then for example this hook that i really love that she does is uh is i i never do this but here's why you know or this one thing that makes me cringe and then you kind of leave the person wanting more and you want them to continue watching till the end and that hook just does that right so the hook is the most important part.

14:56The second most important part is the protagonist. So I know there's this age of AI faceless videos, and some of them are working, but it's proven time and time again, having a face in a video makes the video perform better. And everybody likes a story. Like we've grown up on Disney movies. We love a protagonist. We love a hero. We love a story. So having a face as a central character of your story, or even having like a, like a story about a person that might out be in the video but that storytelling and that protagonist is very very important now they actually did a study on this so they study like all the viral videos and they found that one in three viral videos have a person talking in the first three seconds of the video so it's it's proven right yeah the next thing that i think is really important which a lot of people completely eliminate is movement so if you learn public speaking they teach you the art of movement so So they always teach you to talk with your hands.

15:52They teach you to use your fingers to count 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, but they teach you to captivate the audience through movement of your hands, your props, anything. And if you're going to notice on viral videos right now, they use movement in the sense where you'll see someone running and then there's something happening. You're trying to figure out what's happening. And that movement helps keep people engaged to want to watch the full video. You can use props. So you can use visual metaphors. I'm sure you've seen the video of the girl where she's saying, like this is your cup and this is the compliments you put or this is the negative things yes so those are the visual metaphors you can use visual metaphors as well it could be movement in terms of running sitting using your hands counting with your finger but any type of movement will keep the audience more engaged than you just sitting there like this right so try to include some movement then the next thing which again some people don't pay attention to which is the edutainment okay okay love this edutainment is you need to give value but you need to entertain no one likes to be bored into watching your content like no one likes to be bored on social media so yeah if you can give some sort of a value and my favorite style of giving value just give one thing away like don't try to because i see people that create content they're trying to give 10 tips and like five tips and do it this is not a book like if you want to write a book write a book but this is literally just a real like you have all you know like this is a ticked off you have like a minute you know so yeah try to keep it short make it one one good piece of value one good piece of takeaway but try to entertain so make it funny make it humorous make fun of yourself you know you can include your your mom your dad you know like anything to make people laugh as well right so edutainment and then dominant emotion dominant emotion is like what is the conversation happening in the world today, right?

17:42So for example, something that everyone's talking about right now is how girls in Sephora, teens in Sephora, like how kids are now consuming so much makeup and they're in Sephora and you see more kids than they're not. That's a conversation, right? So join the conversation, have an opinion, because that's what people want to talk about if you're about that time. So you can increase your odds of going viral by just talking about what people want to talk about, right? So that's another way. And then the last but not least is the call to action, which is what happens at the end of your video. So the start of your video and then the end of your video.

18:12So what happens at the end? My favorite call to action is comment below for something. So the algorithm loves engagement. So if you get people to comment below, you can 6X your engagement. And I kid you not, I was trying to prove this point to my team. So I just posted, because they didn't believe me. When I was telling you, you've got to do this. They're like, yeah, but then, that's not coffee ever like no no we need to do it so i posted a photo and in the in the text like in the in the caption i just said comment below i send you the link and literally i went from having guys like i literally have no engagement i got four i used to have four comments again from my family so now then with that post i got 66 comments so this is how you reverse engineer virality it's like you just be a little more deliberate and intentional with what you put and how you lay your content out.

19:05And anyone can go viral. Give me the six again to break them down. So hook. So start with a hook. Yep. Then you got to have a protagonist. So you need to have a hero. Then you need to make sure there's some sort of movement. Maybe you're recording while you're walking. It can be super raw and organic. Then you need to educate and entertain. So make sure there's value, but it's still entertaining. You need to have some sort of a dominant emotion. So it's what people want to talk about. You know, what is the conversation happening in the world today? You can also use dominant emotion in terms of like an actual emotion.

19:39So one of the most viral emotions is surprise. You can use surprise and then call to action. So how are you ending your video? So how are you leaving your viewers? When we were young, we dreamed of castles and fairy tales. And as we grow up, those dreams might shift into building something real, like starting a business. You need a website, payment systems, a logo, and a way to reach customers. It can all be overwhelming and confusing, but thankfully, that's where today's sponsor, Shopify, comes in. Shopify powers millions of businesses around the world and 10 % of all U.S. e-commerce, from big brands to folks just getting started.

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22:21And so right at the beginning, I like tilt the camera like, Oh, crap, my camera's crooked. And I kept going and I was going to delete that video. That video did the best in terms of performance. So like, it's so interesting, because I think so many people want to appear so perfect and polished, but perfect and polished isn't necessarily interesting and captivating. And so I love that this almost gives us permission to be a little bit more messy or a little bit more chaotic or a little bit more quirky or weird or interesting or whatever that is, because that is likely going to be so much more captivating to watch.

22:59That's 100%. Like people love interacting with people. Like I want to feel like I know you. I want to feel like I'm having a chat with a friend. Like no one wants to feel like they're being sold to. They don't even like overpolished reels. And we've tested this. So if we take a reel and we overpolish and edit it versus a raw reel, which is just your iPhone, the iPhone will perform better. Yep. Yep. Isn't that crazy? It's crazy, but that's what social media is all about. It's supposed to be like a safe space where you're interacting. You feel like you're getting in behind the scenes of someone's life and you feel like there's a human connection, right?

23:34So when you start to put all of these filters on, you kind of kill that connection, kill that depth. Yeah. One thing I want to talk about, because I love this tip that you brought up, and I think it's something we should go deeper on is the last part, which is the call to action. And one thing that I struggle with when it comes to virality is a lot of times people will go viral for things that are so far away from what they actually do, who they want to serve, how they make money, right? So it's like one thing to go viral, but it's another thing to like go viral and be able to actually turn that into results for your business.

24:07And so I feel like 0.6 call to action is probably one of the most important ways to stay in alignment and to really use virality to your advantage in terms of growth. So let's talk about this a little bit. Like if someone is listening to this and like, I really want to go viral, but I also want to make sure it's like actually attached to something that helps me. And it's not just going viral for the sake of going viral. What tips do you have for that? So the most important thing is to know who you're going after. Like, I can't even tell you how many, cause I got messages from a lot of content creators or a lot of personal brands or brands that want to work with me but they don't even know who they're going after so you have someone saying like yeah i'm a fitness influencer but i want to do one-on-one coaching but not about fitness about how to grow your audience and i'm like what like yeah and you're not a fitness influencer like what i'm so confused you know so so the thing is to get really clear about who do you want to attract who's your audience and it It might not be, it might be from your passion.

25:07I think the best way is from your passion and the impact you want to make in the world or whatever your mission is. I think that's the best way, but it must be from your offer. So what is your offer? What are you selling? And then work your way back and say, who's going to buy this offer? Who's my ideal client? And let me see what do they care about? So I think that really nailing that down and you should have like maybe one or two maximum, a subset of an audience that you're going after. But then I think it's also the mindset. So I noticed this, right? Because I have a friend, Rory, who's an influencer as well.

25:36And I was like studying him. I was like, wow, makes him so different because his engagement is through the roof. And when he wants to sell something, people want to buy. And like people, his fans are obsessed. Like it's another level. So and then I realized it's his intention. Like there's a group of people that create content because they want to create content because they want to be influencers. And then there's a group of people that they're not creating content. They're serving. so they want to make an impact and help people because they're so passionate about this topic that they want other people to be as passionate about the same topic as them right and that changes the game because the way they interact the way they share the work of their community the way they know everyone's name like he literally knows people that follow him like i don't know a lot of people that that do that but that when you become so intentional it it comes through the content, the coffee, the interaction, the time, all of that, you can see, you can see it right through it.

26:35Right. So, so I think if you really want to attract the right audience and go viral for the right reasons, get intentional, know who exactly you're going after and then really, really try to connect with them. So really try to give value to that person. Yes. I love this. I think this is super powerful too, because there's going to be two camps of people listening to this episode. So there's going to be people that are literally just getting started with the content creation process, right? Maybe they've just been sharing their lives with their family and friends, but they want to actually start a business.

27:05But there are also people that are listening to this episode who have decent followings who have been creating content for years and years and years, but who have may, who may have over systemized the whole sharing process. Right. And my predictions for 2024 that I shared on the podcast earlier this year was that I really feel like, and this is what you just said, this is the year where content creators need to get back to like the heart of creation and who they're creating for and that connection piece. Because I think that so many successful business owners have almost over systemized and they have teams that are creating their content and you can just feel that disconnect.

27:44And that doesn't mean that you shouldn't get help in this place, but it also means that you got to make sure that you still have that heartbeat and that pulse behind your content. like I know I'm never going to comment on like Beyonce's photos because she's not looking at those comments some some random person who's posting her content is going to see that like Beyonce herself is not going to see that and so I think that we can kind of sense and feel when people aren't actually behind the posting and so I love what you said about your friend Rory where it's like he has this like cult-like following but he knows people's names like he is the one that is in there and connecting and communicating.

28:19And so I think this should be encouraging to people in both camps, whether you're just starting out or you've, you know, you created this system and you have a team doing your content for you that like, it is good to get back to like the heart of like posting the things that light you up and excite you being in your DMS and connecting with the people who are following you replying to your comments. Like all of those things are beautiful. And honestly, at the end of the day, it's going to make you feel less alone and so much more connected to your work and why you do it. Yeah. And then, and then you don't have, so I think the whole goal is not to have an audience, like it's to have a community because what use is an audience, but a community, you can sell diapers and then you can decide to rebrand and you can become a musician and they're still going to love you.