Going viral on social media is a highly coveted achievement, especially as platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter evolve at a rapid pace. While there’s no surefire recipe for virality, certain strategies can significantly increase your chances of getting noticed and shared widely. Here are the latest tricks to go viral on social media in 2024:
1. Leverage Trending Sounds and Hashtags
One of the quickest ways to boost visibility, especially on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, is by tapping into trending sounds and hashtags. Social media algorithms often promote content that aligns with popular trends.
- How to Use It: Stay updated on what’s trending by checking the “For You” page on TikTok or Instagram’s Explore section. Use trending audio tracks in your videos, and accompany them with hashtags that are currently popular in your niche. But, make sure the trend fits naturally with your content to avoid coming across as forced.
2. Embrace Short-Form Video Content
Short-form videos are dominating social media right now. Instagram Reels, TikTok videos, and YouTube Shorts are all proving to be highly effective for engaging users. These quick, digestible videos are easy to share, which increases the likelihood of going viral.
- How to Use It: Keep your videos between 15-60 seconds, focusing on visually engaging and concise content. Catch your viewer’s attention within the first 3 seconds to ensure they keep watching.
3. Create Challenges or Participate in Them
Challenges are one of the most viral elements on social media today. Whether you create your own challenge or hop on an existing one, this tactic encourages user-generated content, which can expand your reach exponentially.
- How to Use It: Launch a challenge that ties into your brand’s values or products. For example, if you’re a fitness brand, create a unique workout challenge. Promote it with a branded hashtag so that users can participate and engage with your challenge.
4. Focus on Emotional Engagement
Content that evokes strong emotions—whether it’s joy, nostalgia, or surprise—tends to go viral. People share posts that make them feel something, whether it’s laughter from a funny meme or inspiration from a heartfelt story.
- How to Use It: Think about your target audience and what makes them tick. Create content that taps into those emotions. For example, share a heartwarming customer story, or create humorous posts related to common experiences within your industry.
5. Collaborate with Micro-Influencers
While big influencers can help you reach a wide audience, micro-influencers often have more engaged communities. Partnering with influencers with 10,000 to 50,000 followers can provide a personal touch and encourage loyal followers to share your content.
- How to Use It: Choose influencers who align with your brand’s niche. Collaborate on challenges, product reviews, or giveaways. Their authentic recommendation can help your brand gain credibility and potentially go viral.
6. User-Generated Content (UGC)
UGC is content created by your audience, such as reviews, photos, or videos featuring your product. Encouraging users to create and share content related to your brand not only increases engagement but also boosts your chances of going viral.
- How to Use It: Run a UGC contest or campaign where users submit photos or videos with your product. Reward the best entries with prizes or feature them on your social media accounts to encourage more participation.
7. Leverage Memes and Pop Culture
Memes and pop culture references are highly shareable and resonate with large audiences. Whether you’re jumping on a viral meme trend or creating your own, humorous and relatable content can quickly spread across platforms.
- How to Use It: Stay up-to-date with current meme formats and cultural moments. Incorporate them into your content in a way that feels relevant and authentic to your brand’s voice.
8. Optimize Posting Times
To maximize your chances of going viral, you need to post when your audience is most active. Each platform has different peak engagement times, so it’s essential to tailor your posting schedule accordingly.
- How to Use It: Analyze your social media insights to identify when your followers are online. Post during these high-traffic times to increase the likelihood of your content being seen and shared.
9. Interactive Content (Polls, Quizzes, Questions)
People love participating in content that requires minimal effort, like polls, quizzes, and questions. These interactive posts encourage immediate engagement, which signals to social media algorithms to promote your content to more users.
- How to Use It: Use Instagram Stories, Twitter polls, or interactive features on TikTok to ask questions or run quizzes related to your niche. The more engagement you generate, the higher the chances of your post going viral.
10. Cross-Platform Sharing
To amplify your chances of going viral, share your content across multiple social platforms. The more places you can get your content in front of people, the better your chances of getting it shared widely.
- How to Use It: Create content that is easily adaptable to different platforms. For example, share a TikTok video on Instagram Reels, or take a viral tweet and turn it into an Instagram post.
Conclusion
Going viral on social media requires a mix of creativity, strategy, and timing. By leveraging trending sounds, short-form videos, user-generated content, and emotional engagement, you can boost your chances of creating shareable content that spreads like wildfire. Stay agile, keep testing what works, and most importantly—create content that resonates with your audience.
Ready to go viral? Try these tricks, and watch your social media presence soar!
MEWS is a full service web development Internet marketing company and technology integrator founded in 2003, by leading industry consultants with previous technology experience.MEWS is an Internet services and solutions company with interests in website development – Mobile applications– domain name registrations - web hosting.