How to Go Viral…Accidentally on Purpose

This article originally appeared in the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce Regional Business Magazine in 2020.

I went viral once…as a pregnant mermaid.

Here’s the story.  Cosmo ran an article about how couples were creating mermaid photoshoots for their maternity announcements.  Cosmo declared them “Instagram Gold” and cheekily suggested that we should all consider going swimming with someone we love.  They then mentioned that these photos weren’t just for expecting moms.  Men were getting into the action as well. 

And there I was pictured with a sand belly and seashells ala Ariel from “The Little Mermaid”.

How in the world did this happen?

Well, to be clear, I have never posed for a mermaid photoshoot, but on a recent vacation, my children wanted to bury me in the sand.  Being a dad of three daughters, I said, “Sure.”  So, they buried me in the sand and made me a…pregnant mermaid.  My wife found this hilarious, snapped a picture, and put the photo on Instagram with the hashtag #pregnantmermaid.

Apparently, Cosmo searched for mermaid photos on Instagram with that hashtag, found my wife’s photo of me, and I became a Cosmo model.

I was clueless that any of this happened, but I knew that I was becoming an internet sensation when a young woman from my church posted the article online with the comment, “My pastor is a pregnant mermaid!”  I had no idea what she was talking about since the Instagram post was nearly a year old.  Then, friends began to text me and share the Cosmo article.  All of a sudden, my mermaid picture was all over Facebook.  When I heard from people in Japan, I knew it was true.  My post had gone viral.

A friend of mine summarized the lesson well when he texted me saying, “Gordon, all those hours working out, writing, studying...and your wife’s IG made you a celeb.”

But that’s the point.  Trying to go viral is nearly pointless.  Attempting to go viral is like trying to create a catchphrase.  If you try to do it, people find it annoying.  If it happens naturally, it will take off with a mind and power of its own.

In retrospect, there are a few things that created this post’s virality, and in hindsight, you can use them to better enable your posts to go viral as well

First, make your social media posts creative.  Nothing ever goes viral that is boring or follows a trend.  The point of virality is for something to catch the consciousness of a small group that then expands to a larger audience.  That doesn’t happen with boring content.  What made my post go viral was not merely that Cosmo shared it.  What made my post go viral was that friends found it hilarious that I was a pregnant mermaid, and they shared it and shared it.  My humiliation was what people wanted to talk about.  Cosmo helped, but without my audience picking it up, it might have escaped all of us.

Second, be patient and consistent.  In fact, just don’t count on any of your posts going viral.  Constantly reviewing your likes and shares will make you go crazy, and instead of producing good, creative content, impatience will just cause more stress.  That’s the last thing you need.  Maybe one of your posts will go viral, and maybe not, but if you adhere to rule number one, and you patiently produce creative content, you’ll serve your audience and improve your chances. Don’t worry.  The internet is patient.  It won’t punish you because most of the internet doesn’t know you.  Creativity and patient consistency will give them the opportunity to find out who you are.

Third, brand your content.  Yes, my mermaid photo was funny, but Cosmo would not have found it without my wife’s creative hashtag #pregnantmermaid.  That’s one of the beautiful things about social media.  You get to make it your own.  You can creatively hashtag everything you do on Instagram with a quirky description.  You can create videos on Facebook from your bedroom closet.  You can exclusively use Norwegian death metal in your TikTok posts.  Brand everything you do, maybe, just maybe, the internet will find you and make you a star.

So, is attempting to go viral worth it?  Not in the big picture.  The big picture is about expressing yourself and providing your followers with content they care about.  When you do that, there is a small chance that something you create will go viral.  If it doesn’t, don’t sweat it.  Be creative, patient, consistent, and brand yourself.  It also doesn’t hurt to have a little bit of fun along the way.