Katie McKiever

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Top 5 lessons from going viral that can help you

4–7 minutes

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This Reel went viral.

Backstory:

I do social media contract work for Sutter Health, a large healthcare system in Northern California, where I help their external communications team with social media content creation and management along with other internal initiatives.

One of my favorite things to do is put together social storytelling posts. I get a deep sense of fulfillment from demonstrating lifesaving care through storytelling. 

I will admit that it’s a lot of work to sift through assets, video edit, caption, select audio, and run through approvals for <90 seconds of content (anyone who’s put together a social video piece knows exactly what I’m talking about), but what a labor of love. 

And to see it pay off in this way means a lot because it’s helping people immensely. It’s educating a population about the resources that are available in their backyard and it also mirrors back to those who selflessly care for others in their worst moments giving care teams something they can proudly share and show off to their social media audiences about the important work they do as healthcare professionals. 

Comments from Sutter Health employees include, “I love my hospital!” and “So proud to work for this hospital! Over here crying!” The comment section can be a very scare place but it doesn’t get much better than that.

The Reel by the numbers:

  • 345,000 views (will probably be more by the time you read this)
  • Reached 98% non-followers
  • 960 shares

The lessons:

  • Magic moments – what makes you feel something in what you’re trying to share? If it triggers an emotion in you, it will in others as well. When I felt my heart flutter or my eyes start to tear up or that one jolt of excitement when reading about this story and seeing the pictures and videos that we had, I knew I had to make sure each of those moments were included in the Reel.
  • Use B-roll – gives the content a documentary feel. It gives space for the viewers to feel more emotion.
  • The audio – B-roll combined with audio that matches the energy and emotion of the story perfectly is the ultimate. I won’t lie. It took me a LONG time to find this audio, at least an hour just to identify a track that could work which doesn’t include layering it onto the Reel and making sure it’s timed correctly with the story’s elements. That’s not standard and not necessarily something I advocate for you to spend so much time on as well, but I knew the perfect audio was out there, I just had to find it. 
  • Time-consuming – this is no small feat. Yes, you can absolutely make super quick and easy Reels and they have as much opportunity to go viral as any others, but to do a full storytelling piece takes a lot of time. I would guess that the total amount of time that I spent on it from start to finish was 8 hours. 
  • Shareable – this should be the priority in most if not all content that you post. You should ask yourself – “Is this shareable?” “Would people viewing this post want to send it to someone else?” As you’ll see in the social media updates below, the shareable factor is HIGHLY important. The metrics for this Reel confirmed that it was indeed shareable which drove its growth and continues to.

THE SCOOP

My next SkillPop class “Social Media Strategy for Business” is sold out. I’m looking forward to seeing those who signed up there! Stay tuned for future dates to be announced.

FACEBOOK: A major benefit of broadcast channels is timeliness. You can send real-time messages to subscribers and now some Facebook Pages have the feature.

INSTAGRAM: Don’t know what to post on Instagram? Here’s your answer. Navigate to your Professional Dashboard in the app, then scroll down to Inspiration. You will be flooded with timely trending Reels and audio catered to you and what your followers like. Copy one of those templates and recreate it using B-roll or other pictures and videos that you have, and you’ve just fast-tracked your Instagram content creation. Let me know if you have any questions on how to find this!

INSTAGRAM: SO helpful. And not just for creators, for anyone who knows the frustration of forgetting to add a collaborator when you’re posting a Reel.

INSTAGRAM: This interview is on my saved list to listen to, but I keep hearing about how good it is, so I wanted to pass it along to you too.

INSTAGRAM: This might just be the most important Instagram metric, and in social media overall, how many shares your content receives is a priority metric.

META: FYI, if you see this label.

PINTEREST: How to share Pinterest boards in your Instagram Stories.

SOCIAL MEDIA: It’s cool when brands do this, but it takes a lot of resources (time and money).

SOCIAL MEDIA: It is “a ruling that strongly defended the platforms’ free speech rights.”

TIKTOK: The consensus is that TikTok is taking on Amazon Prime Day.

YOUTUBE: It’s important to remember in all of these platform updates that the focus is on creators, but brands can translate these insights into their work as well. Just because you’re not a tried and true “creator” doesn’t mean there aren’t actionable takeaways for brands from these announcements.

BUSINESS BONUS

LEADERSHIP: This is where your leaders step into their professional brands.

MARKETING: Love this list!

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