What Makes a Facebook Post have the Potential to go Viral and why that is good for your Small Business!

For those passionate about social media, few things can match the exhilaration of one of your posts going viral – and that's precisely what occurred for me last week! Every business dreams of viral growth. It is the perfect way to attract attention, new followers, - and greater business opportunities.

So, what does it mean to go viral? A social media post going viral refers to a post that spreads rapidly and widely across social media platforms, often far beyond the creator's immediate network of friends or followers. When a post goes viral, it receives an exceptionally high level of attention, engagement, and sharing. 

The post that went viral: In my post (below), I shared a series of photographs showing a few of the steps I took to create a Number Five design I made for my granddaughters 5th Birthday a few years ago! It had a simple caption, six hashtags, and one link back to Qualatex - nothing unusual or out of the ordinary.

Sue Bowler

Check out my posts Insights! 

Having 1,627,745 impressions on a single Facebook post is a significant level of exposure for the content. Impressions represent the number of times the post was displayed on someone's screen. It is an important metric to gauge the reach and visibility of the content. However, impressions alone don't tell the whole story. To better understand the performance of a post, you should also consider additional metrics such as:

Engagement: Check how many likes, comments, and shares your post received. High engagement indicates that your content resonated with your audience and encouraged interaction - my post has received to date 854 comments and 494 shares and 2.7k likes! This is a first and I would definitely like to keep the momentum going! 

Certainly, this situation is undeniably thrilling, but how could I leverage it to my advantage?

Observing the post gaining significant traction, I decided to harness its potential. It resonated with individuals eager to create the design themselves or connect with others (who potentially could make the design) by tagging them in the post. Acknowledging the importance of engagement in the social media realm, I expressed my gratitude for their comments and thoughtfully embedded a link to one of my blog posts, which offered an extensive tutorial on creating the design. This strategic move resulted in a boost in the Click-Through Rate (CTR). During that period, the post's views experienced substantial growth, introducing an entirely new audience to my blog. Had the blog been monetised, this surge in traffic could have potentially translated into income! 

https://theverybestballoonblog.blogspot.com/2020/06/how-to-make-styled-framed-number-and.html

Here are some of the key factors that could contribute to viral success:

➡️ compelling content: something that captures the audience's attention and makes them want to share it.

➡️ visual appeal: Posts with eye-catching images, videos, or graphics tend to perform better.

➡️ timing: Posting at the right time when your target audience is most active on Facebook can boost the chances of your content going viral. 

➡️ emotion: Posts that evoke strong emotions, such as happiness, anger, or surprise, are more likely to be shared. 

➡️ relevance: Content that's relevant to current events, trends, or popular is more likely to go viral.

➡️ engagement: The more people engage with your post, the more it's likely to appear in others' newsfeeds.

➡️ influencers: Influencers and other businesses can share your content with their followers, increasing its visibility.

➡️ hashtags: Use relevant hashtags and keywords to increase the discoverability of your post.

➡️consistency and community engagement: Consistently posting high-quality content can help build a loyal audience that's more likely to share your posts.

Why are viral posts good for your small business:

⭐️ Increased Visibility: Viral posts reach a vast audience, boosting brand awareness.

⭐️ Brand Exposure: Viral content enhances recognition.
⭐️ Cost-Effective Marketing: Virality often requires minimal ad spending.
⭐️ Engagement and Community Building: Fosters community growth and customer relationships.
⭐️ Sales Potential: Drives inquiries and sales.
⭐️ Competitive Edge: Sets you apart in your niche.

While not every post goes viral (and sadly they don't) consistent quality content and best practices can increase your chances of experiencing viral moments that benefit your small business.

In conclusion, I had a thrilling few days as I watched the shares and comments on the post multiply, and it became quite riveting viewing! 😄

When I began sharing the link to my blog post, that added another layer of excitement, with the number of views increasing by the minute. It went from roughly 400 to 3,000 in just a few days! Notably, my Facebook and blog post followers saw substantial growth, making this entire experience a great success.

I've heard some people claim that Facebook is less effective than Instagram, but after this experience, I'm not entirely convinced!

Happy Ballooning! 

Sue

www.suebowler.com

Follow me @suebowler

Using Facebook's Pages to view Features - How Do You Discover How Your Competitors are Doing on Facebook

We all know that spending time working on social media can be very time consuming. But how great would it be if we could find a way to see what our competitors, the businesses that we admire, or other like-minded businesses are doing on their business Facebook pages. If we could see how and why these businesses are working so well, we could easily try to imitate and follow a similar strategy!

This can be done, using Facebook's Pages to Watch, which is hidden away in Facebook Insights!

Insights can be found at the top of your Facebook business page - you can use this tool to maximise your sharing/posting strategy. This data will help you to understand more clearly what works best for you, while avoiding the things that don’t. If you don't see Insights, click on More.

To find the Pages To Watch feature, you need to scroll down past Your 5 Most Recent Posts:

So what is so great about the Pages to Watch feature?

This feature is particularly useful if you want to see what types of posts are working for your competitors or other businesses like yours. 

You can see exactly what content they are posting, how often they are posting, and when they are posting. You can also view which posts have the most engagement.

With all that information, you can start looking at your own posts and analysing what you could do differently. When you use your insights information, you know which posts work best for you and which get the most reaction. When you learn this, you will be able to create more posts that mirror your successful posts. 

You should post videos occasionally, as they always seems to get more engagement. Or maybe you need to post more regularly? The great thing is that you can compare your activity against the pages that you are watching and you can see quickly if you efforts are working! 

You can watch any brand page on Facebook you want—you don’t even have to like the page. If you have 100 to 10,000 fans, you can create a list of up to 100 pages to watch. 

I would recommend you look at a minimum of five other pages to get started, the more you watch the more opportunities you will get to see what is making them more successful than you. 

The businesses you "watch" are in order of total Page likes, from highest to lowest. Depending on whose pages you view, your business is placed within that ranking to see how you compare with the rest - and oh boy does this kick-start your competitive drive!

If you've never used Insights, you should try to implement them into your daily social media activity, or at least make a goal to check them once a week. This tool is packed with tons of valuable information that will truly help your social media efforts! 

I expect you would like to know whose pages I watch... well, I'm not telling! ;) But, I do enjoy seeing how my renewed efforts are making my page more productive than those that I am following!

Happy Ballooning!

Sue Bowler
www.suebowler.com
#suebowler