Social media marketing is a staple in any digital agency’s toolbox. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram make the perfect sandbox for brands to test out new content ideas. For the 90% of businesses who use social media to increase brand awareness, it’s a goal to go viral.  Brands amass thousands of likes and shares while exposing their business to an untapped audience. But just what makes a social post go viral? We’ll be breaking down three of the most popular social media posts all of time to find out how.

The Power of Meme Marketing

No one could have predicted that the stock image of an egg would be the most liked photo on Instagram. Yet, the @world_record_egg account gained more than 25 million likes in just 10 days after posting on January 4th. But what made the post so easy to like? The creator knew the power of memes. Like we saw with the Bird Box craze, people love to share things that make them laugh. Moreover, meme marketing provides the opportunity to create a community who are participating in a unified action (like dethroning Kylie Jenner’s most liked picture on Instagram). Little do they know, these users are actively promoting your brand to a huge audience!

Key takeaway: Incorporating humor in your brand’s post while using relevant memes has the opportunity to seriously increase your reach and engagement.

Build Anticipation

On June 4th, the breakfast food chain IHOP released a teaser video of an upcoming name change from IHOP to IHOB with no explanation. What possibly could the “B” stand for? The internet went absolutely insane, causing other chains to piggyback on the popular story. The virality of the post amplified as social media influencers and brands alike put in their two cents. People speculated what it could mean, from ‘bacon’ to ‘breakfast’ to even ‘booze’. It was later revealed that the ‘B’ stood for ‘burgers’.

Their sudden rebrand was made in an attempt change their public image from breakfast/late-night joint to a mid-day and dinner choice. The International House of Burgers certainly received some pushback from loyal pancake fans. However, the engagement numbers don’t lie; this publicity stunt was successful. By the time of the burger reveal, the original video had already racked up 6+ million views and had been shared thousands of times on Twitter.

Key takeaway: Building hype around a post over the period of several days or weeks can create mass crowd anticipation!

Support A Good Cause

If you were on the internet in 2014, there is a 100% chance you’ve seen at least one Icebucket Challenge video. According to The ALS Association, more than “17 million people uploaded their challenge videos to Facebook; these videos were watched by 440 million people a total of 10 billion times” since its beginning. Supporters ended up raising over $115 million to help end ALS. But what made this post go viral? Everyone wants to support a good cause. It’s natural for people to want to take part in generous acts to feel good about themselves. Additionally, tagging other users creates a sense of accountability and urgency. No one wants to chicken out of a challenge, especially when all of your peers are participating.

Key takeaway: Rallying behind a great cause can pique people’s interest, especially if there are social consequences behind it!

While we can’t promise that we’ll make your post go viral, we’re pretty amazing at creating social media content for our clients. Don’t just take our word for it: check out some of our most recent work or contact us today!