How to go viral on the internet
What this post is not about:
Growth hacking, viral marketing, scam courses trying to sell trick packages to get more views, etc. A guaranteed strategy to get you engagement and views.
What this post is about:
Strategies to get a lot of engagement on the internet, the anatomy behind it, and why it works.
I will not advertise this blog
Given that commercial incentives will pollute the 'alpha' of such a strategy, I'd rather keep these signals unknown to most of the public.
This is in direct contrast to growth hackers who want to advertise their tricks to grow their audience and accounts, with the expectation that as soon as enough people start using their strategies, the 'alpha' gets diluted so much that only the original growth hackers are the biggest beneficiaries.
This also means that you, as a reader, have more assurance that such growth strategies actually work, and that they are only used by people diligent enough to apply them.
Axioms for content creators
Before we get into the nitty gritty of how to go viral, we need to accept a few axioms of the internet.
1. Platforms want every post to go viral.
It's pure self-interest for the platform for every post to go viral.
More viral content means more users, more time spent on the app, and ultimately, more ad revenue.
2. Platforms reward time spent on the platform above all else
This means they dont give a shit about care about the quality or even the positivity of the content.
As long as it keeps you scrolling, commenting, or reacting, it's achieving the platform's goal. Engagement is engagement.
EG: a heated debate in the comments section, even if it's based on low-quality or controversial content, keeps people hooked and returning, which the platform loves.
In practice, certain platforms do boost / deboost content that are inconvenient to them (low ad-revenue, contrarian politics, controversy, etc).
3. Dead posts may never be resurrected
This is a tall assumption. Certain platforms like YT still resurrect "dead" videos if they do get trending by seasonality.
In my observation, platforms with very short half-life like Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, etc almost never resurrect dead posts. IE: posts that flopped will never get recommended by the engines organically, and require searching through the bookmarks by users.
The only way you give a post a chance again in the recommendation system is to repost them again.
4. Recommendation weighings are invariant to content medium format
Assume that a text post, an image, an audio clip, or a video all get the same initial algorithmic push. The recommendation engine doesn't inherently boost or de-boost a post because of its format.
Any observed difference in performance (e.g., "image posts always do better") is likely because audiences respond differently to those formats, not because the algorithm has a hidden preference.
Why this matters: If you assume the algorithm favors video, you might spend hours creating a video when a simple text post would have achieved the same engagement if the audience reaction was the only variable.
Don't increase your content creation cost without clear returns -- assume format neutrality for planning purposes.
5. Audiences engage purely out of self-interest.
Meaning, no one interacts with your content out of charity, goodwill, or accident.
Every view, like, share, or comment happens because the audience member gains something from it. This could be entertainment, information, validation (by sharing their opinion), status (by sharing something cool), a laugh, or a feeling of belonging.
There is no one with 50 mothers liking their posts. No indian clickfarms viewbotting someone's posts. No boomer falling asleep to your music and keeping the playlist going throughout the hotel toilet.
For a productive content strategy, assume the internet is a perfectly fair system with zero foul play.
If you don't, you might get sidetracked trying to "game" a perceived broken system like slopmaxxing and churnalism rather than focusing on creating content that genuinely benefits your audience.
6. For strategy, ignore non-content factors.
While it's true that personal attractiveness, reputation, or even whether people approve of "growth hacking" tactics can influence engagement in the real world (e.g., why some creators include their face in unrelated content), for the purpose of a virality strategy, you must ignore these. 1
Focus on what you can control – the content itself.
Who cares if people silently judge you for reposting, slopmaxxing, or if they don't like your physical appearance. Your goal here is to optimize content for algorithmic and audience response.
7. This guide is about pure virality, not building a loyal audience or business.
Lessons here only teaches you how to go viral -- how to turn on the water hose to max power.
Getting content to go viral and converting that fleeting attention into loyal followers, subscribers, or customers are two very different goals. The strategies for one might even contradict the strategies for the other. This guide is solely for the former.
8. The volume of immediate engagement matters, not the clock time.
This means it doesn't matter what time you post. What matters is if by chance you get a lot of engagement around the time when you decide to post.
It is totally possible to go viral on a 2AM post if it just so happens 1000 people are awake and ready to engage when it drops.
In practice, there does exist optimal time to post, but the problem is that its too difficult to find or predict it 2 that you are encouraged to ignore it.
The tricks
1: Scheduling
Scheduling is such a basic strategy, but it works unreasonably well. The reason it works is often unlike what you think.
The internet has an incredibly short memory. If your post doesn't get significant traction (likes, comments, shares) in its first hour or two, it's almost certainly "dead".
This means the launch of a post matters too much, regardless of how much you, as a CC, like this practice.
By posting consistently at predictable times, you train both your human audience and the platform's algorithm.
- For the Algorithm: Algorithms reward consistent content creators because it ensures a steady stream of material to keep users engaged. Think of it like a reliable TV show that always airs on time.
- For the Audience: Your engaged followers (human and bot, as we'll discuss) know exactly when to expect your content. This predictability makes it easier for them to plan their interaction, especially if they gain something from engaging with you.
2: There needs a symbiotic relationship between CC and engagers
As per Axiom 5, people engage for themselves. To go viral, your content must be structured so that engaging with it (liking, commenting, sharing) directly benefits the engager.
The most powerful benefit is "status." When someone engages with your content, they should feel like they're gaining:
- Intellectual Status: "I'm smart for understanding this / sharing this profound insight."
- Social Status: "I'm cool / witty / in-the-know for reacting to this."
- Moral Status: "I'm a good person for supporting this cause / calling out this injustice."
- Entertainment Status: "I'm funny / I appreciate good humor for sharing this meme."
"Aura Farming"
This is where scheduling ties in.
If your content consistently provides these status benefits, your audience -- particularly the most active ones (bot or human) -- will "aura farm" your account.
They will reliably show up at your scheduled times to extract this value. This consistent, predictable initial engagement is precisely what separates a great CC and a viral CC.
3: Recognize Bots as a Product-Market Fit (PMF) Signal
This is perhaps the most unconventional but crucial insight.
In business, PMF means your product is so good that it practically sells itself; demand pulls it forward. For content, PMF means your content is so compelling or valuable that it generates engagement without active promotion.
The "best aura farmers" are often not humans, but sophisticated bots. These aren't necessarily your bots, nor are they always paid clickfarms. Instead, think of them as automated entities that identify high-value signals on the internet.
There is a public misconception that botted social media hurts small creators because big accounts buy bots to boost their engagement.
Rather, it is because bots are engaging big accounts "against their will" to aura farm them, which guarantees big accounts go viral and small accounts not having the oxygen required to burn towards escape velocity.
The only real winner in a botted network are the producers of bots themselves.
Big accounts just happen to accidentally succeed because they provide a symbiotic relationship to the bots.
What it means for you
If bots are engaging with your content, view it as a strong validation of your content's inherent value and a signal of PMF. Your goal is to create content so inherently useful or engaging that even bots find a reason to interact with it
4: Niche down your content
This means dont try to be too special. Write something to a domain specific topic and stick with it as an account.
If you post about gaming one day, politics the next, and tech after that, your audience (both human and bot) can't easily categorize you. Their "self-interest" in following you becomes diluted and unpredictable.
This conforms to the axiom that every engagement is a result of audience self-interest. They follow you because your signal is dense and predictable.
Be known for one thing. If you have multiple passions you want to share, create separate accounts for each niche.
Ignore this advice if the reason why people choose you is because of YOU and your personality [^3]
[^3:] Which in no time you'll quickly find how hard is it to make the public like you. The curse of "lowest common denominator" is real. Turning yourself into a public spectacle and amusement is a horrible way to live.
5: (Optional) Get into politics
Algorithmically, politics is the best way to go viral.
By taking the most popular narrative today and making it your own, you are basically riding the wave of what someone else has created.
By taking the opposite position, you are capturing every person not already captured by the current narrative.
This is a complete braindead strategy that brings the optimal engagement/effort.
You also get to one-shot all the unsophisticated boomers and juvenile Karens who still don't understand how the internet game works.
The cost is that your account is locked into that position for the rest of time. This should be done with caution because its a one way street. If you only have a single account or you are running a personal brand, definitely do not do it.
However, this explains why Indian slopfarms are so popular and profitable. They understand how to create hundreds of anon accounts and churn politics of every range and sides for mindshare and profit.
TLDR:
An algo is a bot. Creating a post optimized for bots is the best way to go viral.
Assume there is a lot of accounts with interest to automate their aura-farming process on your account -- then make content that maximizes their ROI.
"Aren't I lobotomizing myself for the benefit of the public?"
That's the game. This is the price you pay when you want to clout farm your way to fame.
"Wouldn't bots be NEGATIVE to my account's growth because it dilutes the engagement of my followers and devalues my ELO in the algo?"
This is where "symbiotic relationship" comes in. If it doesn't benefit you, you should start banning or blocking. EG: finance account lose credibility when cryptobots start spamming your account.
But in terms of creating and delivering reach in the early game, bots does seem help in my observations and samples.
Footnotes
-
In practice, this is never true. That is why women post pictures of themselves in addition to the pictures they want to share. It is dirty. Everyone hates it. People make memes about it. But it still works. ↩
-
Finding the best time is harder than timing the market. You have holidays from all over the world. A boomer who by chance stumbles on yoru content and spams 50 different Whatsapp groups. If you try to optimize the when, it often ends up as never ↩