The Myth of Going Viral

by | Sep 11, 2025 | Content Creation, Reflections, Social Media

Picture this: you wake up to 20,000 new followers following you overnight.

What would you feel? Excited? Overwhelmed? Confused?

When I think about it… the words that come to mind are ones my 2-year-old nephew walks around saying: Holy Heck!

While there’d be some obvious excitement that a piece of content I created hit a nerve with so many people, I also know the truth about going viral. 

Going viral has a time and place, but it’s not a strategy. Influencers and social media managers would rather we believe the opposite, and many of us have.

Here’s the truth: virality is accompanied by negative repercussions. 

Myth-buster #1: Going viral may bring you more followers, but it may come at the expense of your long-term social media plan. 

When I started Stratos in 2018, I met with another social media manager… let’s call her Jamie. She’d gone viral and gained 10,000 followers from one post. Here was the problem: they loved that single post but didn’t interact with her other posts. Long-term, this hurt her reach. When the algorithm saw her follower-to-engagement ratio, it interpreted that her followers didn’t care about her client and showed it to fewer people. 

While having a low follower count can be frustrating, having a small, engaged group of followers is better than a large, unengaged one. 

Myth-buster #2: Lots of followers do not equal lots of buyers.

Weirdly enough, a fair number of viral posts are about business-adjacent topics. They’re often entertaining posts or posts that have more personal facts. Your new followers may have enjoyed your reel or connected with you on some level, but that doesn’t mean they’re interested in your offer. 

For example, some of my favorite social media posts are by real estate agents in other countries. Their viral content is entertaining, so I follow them. Will I ever buy from them? Nope. I’m not planning on moving to their locations.

Myth-buster #3: Sometimes your post can go viral in the wrong crowd. 

You know the saying: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”? When it comes to social media, I don’t buy it. Virality often means your post is pushed far beyond your intended audience—and not everyone who sees it will be kind, or even the right fit for your business.

Sometimes a post will take off in a community with zero connection to your offer. Best-case scenario? You gain followers who never engage again. Worst-case scenario? Your comment section becomes filled with negativity, criticism, or people demanding content that isn’t aligned with your brand.

Have I burst your “I-hope-this-post-goes-viral” bubble? If so, I’m only semi-sorry. 

Here’s the deal: once in a while, I also hope we go viral. I would love to have the validation of a large follower count—even if it’s a vanity metric. Social media sometimes feels like a giant popularity contest that I’m perpetually losing. 

But when I sit down and think about all the potential problems virality brings, I’m not sure it’s worth it. Either way, it’s not a strategy. 

You know what is a strategy? Intentionality. 

We have a TON of resources about being intentional on social media. If you’re ready for that kind of strategy, we have your back. Check out these blog posts to get started: 

And if you want real-time help, schedule an appointment with me to create an intentional strategy together. 

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