Today, it’s not out of the question to see a teenager skyrocket to success overnight on TikTok and gain a million views and thousands of subscribers. Or to see a child start a YouTube channel and find wild success unboxing toys.
After all, Charli D’Amelio joined TikTok in May of 2019 and almost immediately began rising to stardom. By 2020 she was in a Superbowl commercial. She’s since appeared on TV and in movies, has her own podcast deal with Ramble Podcast Network, and won a Streamy Award.
And we can’t forget about Ryan Kaji from Ryan’s World, who’s only 10 years old and is earning in the ballpark of $20M a year on YouTube. He got his start in 2015 and, within a year, created a video that, today, has over 2 billion views! And now, he even has his own product line and a deal with a kid’s media company called PocketWatch.
Heck, my niece got over 100K views on TikTok with a video of her stepping on a chip bag while wearing checkered Vans. And I have another friend who took a candid video of her boyfriend yelling at the Kansas City Chiefs on TV, which got 180K views overnight.
But what do Charli, Ryan, my niece, and my friend all have in common? None of them set out to go viral. None of them had any idea what was in store for them when they set out to create something. They merely decided to hop on a platform and deliver content.
Did they want likes, subscribers, followers, and comments? Of course. Did they know that going viral was a possibility? I’m sure. But they didn’t start making content with overnight success as their primary goal.
Now, in Charli’s and Ryan’s case, they were able to capitalize on their sudden fame and build brands around that. My niece and my friend have since tried to duplicate their success but were unsuccessful in recapturing the zeitgeist of their viral moments.
Why do I bring all these people up? Because I think we can learn from this cross-section of examples.
These examples are proof that the internet is a fickle place to be. You can be hot one moment and not the next. Or you can enthrall audiences and build super-passionate fan bases who linger on your every piece of content.
But the takeaway is that we really don’t know what’s going to resonate with the people. So, if you set out to create content with the sole purpose and expectation of going viral, experiencing massive follower growth, and achieving overnight success…you might find yourself feeling less than excited about your results.
Keep Your Content Marketing Priorities In Check
The reality is that viral content and explosive follower growth are hard to come by. Charli and Ryan are the exceptions. Even my niece and my friend are exceptions. How many people put out content every day and have never experienced a viral post? How many people have been putting out content for years and only have a couple thousand followers? Plenty I assure you.
And the chances of going viral or experiencing explosive growth are even slimmer when you’re a business entity and not a solo content creator. Not only is it harder (not impossible, only harder) to engage and build a relationship with your audience when you’re a business, but social media platforms make it harder for business pages to be discovered. They give you a little bit of reach and engagement upfront, but then they want you to start paying.
So, when you’re a business, the goal shouldn’t be viral content. The expectation shouldn’t be massive follower growth and overnight success. The goal is to get started with making content. Then it should be to keep making content consistently. Marketing is all about consistency.
We need to keep showing up when and where people need us. We need to build trust and rapport with our audience. Keep adding value. Keep trying to educate, inform, and entertain. Keep listening to feedback. And continuously over-deliver on the content experience.
As you build a system around doing all that, we’ll measure, look at the data, and respond accordingly. Over time, we optimize the content based on what we learn. And as we learn what resonates with our audiences, we’ll get better at making more engaging content that’ll reach more people.
We should expect to see incremental follower growth over time. We should expect to see our reach and brand engagement creep up over time. We should expect to remain patient.
Because if you’re not patient, you’ll pivot too fast, make poor decisions, or worse…you’ll give up.
