Why I don’t care if you go viral
You hear it all the time when you work in social media: “If only we could just go viral,” or “What do we need to do to go viral”?
It’s the bane of every digital marketer's existence due to one truth: you can’t “make” something go viral; that’s what makes it special. Things go viral randomly, due to an ineffable quality. Your job as a marketer is not to make things go viral; it’s to make quality content that grows awareness or converts.
Here’s what they don’t often tell those executives who are asking you to make viral content: sales or followers and virality often come in opposition to each other.
Why? Because each serves a different function.
When something goes viral, it’s because that singular piece of content is compelling in some way. Then, they get to your page and have two options: follow you or not. If your content doesn’t match what you went viral for, you are unlikely to gain a follower. If they blindly follow you, they are unlikely to watch or interact with much of your content if it isn’t the same or similar to the viral video.
You think to yourself, but I have a lot of followers now, so that’s great! But it isn’t for one key reason. Algorithms value attention and engagement over follower count. Ten people watching all of your videos all the way through are more valuable than 1,000 new subscribers who only watch bits and pieces of your content. Those 10 people are invested in your brand, will evangelize it, and likely would purchase a product from you. Those 1,000 people won’t.
The social media world has woken up to this, but others haven’t. Those of us who went through the early world of social media, where going viral did mean a lot, are often still stuck in that idea.
Take for example Rachel Karten, the writer of Link In Bio and a respected member of the social media community, shared as her ins and outs for 2026:
Credit to Rachel Karten of Link In Bio
She valued retention over views and true fans over followers. She hit a nerve in the comments, with people responding:
“I predict a big gap between brands that continue to focus on reach and those who know how to ‘engage’ - cause a lot of the ‘ins’ really express the tactics to do just that…”
“10,000 true fans over 100,000 followers absolutely because its all about the community the creator has built. If a creator has a good community thats trusts and engages with them often thats a win, if a creator has a tonne of followers who don’t even remember their name they’ll never influence them to do anything”
“This highlights a broader shift from short-term performance to long-term value. Consistency, clarity and memorability over pure reach or shock.”
We all see it on our own feeds—we would rather have authentic content, creators, and brands we care about over brands consistently asking us to buy things we don’t care about. In a world where everyone (not actually, but in the broader sense) has access to start posting on social media, we are now looking for something different that speaks to us directly.
It’s why I often have conversations with clients about what their true goals are and why I value or devalue certain metrics. I want you to have sustainable, slower growth that will support you long-term. Not virality that will be a flash in the pan. So yes, we need to clean your email list even though you may lose thousands of subscribers … they weren’t reading your content anyway. And no, I won’t help you go viral.
Lesson learned: Having the hard but nuanced conversation is more valuable than having the short-term but exciting insights. Wins on social aren’t always fun, but long-term success is built on the little growth, not the viral hits.
