How to go viral

I post 2 videos on instagram everyday and as someone who has grown to 191K followers, here are my few tips

I have been posting 2 new videos on Instagram everyday for past 1.5 years. EVERY SINGLE DAY! And in this process, I have analyzed my videos a lot, tried and failed and most importantly learnt a lot. Sharing my insights below :

99 Fails and 1 hit :

The algorithm has reached a point where big gets bigger and poor gets poorer which is discouraging but just the way it is. What I mean is , out of 100 videos, 99 may be flops. But even if 1 video does well, it will give you the return of 99 videos combined. This is because the algorithm only wants to show the best stuff so that people keep coming to the platform.

The fine balance between average watch time and shareability :

Here’s the simple math:

High Average watch time and High Shareability = SUPER HIT AND SUPER VIRAL VIDEO

High average watch time but Low Shareability = 100K to 500K views depending on how close is average watch time to the actual video time length. What I mean is if the video is 45 seconds and average watch time is say 30-35 seconds, then very high chance of reaching 1M. But if video is 45 seconds and average watchtime is only 21 ish seconds, it may reach 100K or so.

Low Average Watch time but High Shareability = 100K to 500K views. I have had videos where average watch time is just 7-8 seconds for 45 second video but shares were 2K-3K. In this instance, video only reached 100-200K.

Audio really doesn’t matter :

Picking a trending audio or top trending audio won’t really matter much. Trust me I have tried this. However, a trending audio with an ongoing trend will ensure you views are higher than normal. So, only use a trending audio if there is a viral trend also associated with it.

STORY IS EVERYTHING :

All of the factors : like , share, save, comment are determined by emotion. Lets say, India wins a world cup and you post an emotional story about a player who won man of the match. Instant virality. Why ? Because, that person is man of the moment, people want to watch his content and you gave them something about him which touched them and caused them to react. So, if your story leaves you with emotions : good or bad , it will go viral .

DON’T STRESS ON VISUALS AND GRAPHICS :

Don’t stress too much on visuals and graphics. Think of it like a movie. Ra.one - Shah Rukh Khan movie spent too much on graphics but was a poor story and so it flopped. However, Kal Ho Na Ho hardly spent much on graphics but had the most touching story and guess what, we keep coming back to watch it.

HOOKS :

There is a reason Instagram has now starting showing number of people who watch past 3 seconds. Because that is another signal if you caught people’s attention. So, make sure your hook is strong. Sharing some of them with you which I found.

AVERAGE VIDEO LENGTH :

Make sure video is between 30-45 seconds. Every single day, people are losing attention span. Which means more important content needs to be packed in lesser and lesser time. I am guilty of not following this too often and is also why many of my videos don’t do well.

TRY DIFFERENT GENRES :

Don’t be afraid to try different genres or mix two genres. Like : talking about career while cooking a receipe. This should be fun to watch and audience might even like it.