Creating Viral Content

TikTok Shop is not messing around. At Spree, we're building a shoppable video platform, but also a studio where we help brands and creators onboard, market, and sell through social platforms. Think of it like influencer marketing in a post-cookie world: full funnel from awareness to purchase, but all in one short-form video. Recently, our TikTok Shop partnership has been getting a lot of love. A few interesting learnings from this holiday season: 1. 'Viral' products are a shortcut. We uploaded one 'viral product' into the system and started getting sales before we posted our first video. Naturally, we ordered a few hundred more ASAP. 2. TikTok Shop success aligns closely with the rules of great influencer marketing. Get a creator with an engaged, lean-in audience. Find a product they actually like that their audience will actually like. Sell by telling a story, not by telling viewers to buy. 3. Most brands want to be on TikTok Shop but don't know how. It's complex. But once you've done it dozens of times (per day, in our case) it moves fast. I don't care if you're a mom and pop stationary shop, a creator merch brand, or a Fortune 500: you want to experiment here with a team who knows this market. 4. Live is great, but don't sleep on shoppable VOD. A perfect 30 second video of a product can do the work of a one hour live stream. Both are valuable, but too many people are talking about live shoppable and not enough are talking about shoppable shortform. 5. Trends + Product = Sales. Wednesday Addams' dance is popping? Sell the costume. King Bach flashlight dance is trending? Sell the flashlight. Spotify Wrapped is everywhere? Sell headphones. 6. Creators beware: not all audiences want this. If you make gold digger prank content, don't start selling The Feminine Mystique hardcover. If you are a creator and want to try it, make great content first and let a brand ride along. 7. Create like a creator. This is the rule for every brand on every social platform, but certainly pertains here. Don't do one tentpole shoppable live stream on TikTok and judge TT Shop on that. You need to habituate your audience, build a format, and keep it entertaining. In case you can't tell, this is addicting for a social media wonk like me. Smart influencer marketers are already testing this market understanding it will be a huge part of their ecommerce future. And those who haven't need to start today. #ecommerce #creatoreconomy #tiktok https://lnkd.in/e926z8zm

A school hired me after spending $$$$ on social media management. 10,000 followers. Beautiful content. Zero enrollment conversions. Here's what they were doing wrong... Their Instagram looked like a magazine. Stunning photos. Perfect captions. Daily posts. But when I asked to see their enrollment data from social media, the room went silent. "Well, we don't really track that." $$$$. Zero accountability. After 28 years in education and now helping schools with their marketing, I see this pattern everywhere: Schools confuse popularity with purpose. Here's what their "successful" social media actually looked like: → 10,000 followers (90% weren't even local) → Beautiful sunset campus shots (zero parent value) → Generic inspiration quotes (every school posts these) → Student achievements (great for current families, invisible to prospects) Meanwhile, prospective parents were asking: • "What's your approach to bullying?" • "How do you support anxious kids?" • "Can my child get into good colleges from here?" • "What makes you different from Public School X?" And finding nothing. The agency they hired? They were social media experts. Just not school marketing experts. Big difference. Here's what we changed: Killed the sunset photos. Started showing real classroom moments. Stopped chasing followers. Started answering parent questions. Ditched the inspiration quotes. Shared specific student transformations. Forgot about going viral. Focused on going local. Result after 90 days: → Followers dropped (good - they're actually local parents now) → DMs from prospective families increased → Tour requests from social up → First social media enrollment conversions The uncomfortable truth: Your social media manager creating "beautiful content" might be your biggest enrollment obstacle. Pretty posts don't pay tuition. Parent connections do. That school down the street with ugly social media but full classrooms? They're answering questions, not winning photography awards. The math is simple: 10,000 followers × 0 conversions = Expensive mistake 1,000 engaged parents × 1% conversion = 10 new families Your board doesn't need to see your follower count. They need to see your enrollment impact. Stop paying for vanity. Start investing in value. What metrics does your school actually track for social media ROI? #SchoolMarketing #SocialMediaROI #DigitalMarketing #EnrollmentMarketing #MarketingMetrics

At Chubbies we went “viral” many times. In fact in one year, Chubbies was one of the top 10 most-watched brands on the Internet. We identified a recipe for maximizing our view count from a content perspective, and we pursued that relentlessly and single-mindedly. And by hacking in that direction (and failing quite a bit, I might add) we started to see a higher and higher hit rate of “viral” content. You’ll notice, though, that’s not what Chubbies is doing today. We aren’t pursuing “virality”. We are no longer aggressively maximizing our views for the sake of maximizing views. Because what we learned as we went down that path, and as we got more and more specific about how we measured the impact of our content and our marketing, was that we actually wanted to do something quite different. We didn’t want a fleeting interaction with a piece of content that could’ve come from anywhere. We wanted our viewers, and our potential customers to really understand who Chubbies is, what we care about, and to leave with an emotional connection to our brand. And in the content world, often times even mentioning that you are, in fact, a brand is enough to fully stop virality in its tracks. “Advertising“ - and customers are extremely intelligent about smoking out advertising masquerading as content - is simply extremely difficult to get to any sort of virality. And the reality is that Branded content - where you must leave the customer with a deep emotional connection to your brand - looks like, walks like, and talks like advertising much more than it does social, or meme-y content. And that’s OK. What we realized Chubbies was that it wasn’t virality that grew our brand. It was something else. We formulated different KPI‘s for our content performance, and, as we architected our content and our marketing towards those KPI‘s our virality actually went down. And while our ability to create content that would organically shoot up to millions of views declined, our ability to build Brand in a monetizable way went up. So for any brand builders out there working to build an emotional connection with an audience, no matter the size, don’t get distracted by the shiny KPIs other folks are using or that the social platforms are endorsing. Instead, keep a fully open mind and an analytical framework to find out what it takes to truly grow your Brand with a capital B. What you find might surprise you.

Well, we’re only 42 days into 2025, and I’ve already had my first viral (1M+) video on LinkedIn… And the two videos before that? They racked up nearly 100K impressions each. LinkedIn video is having a moment—and after testing different formats, I’m bullish on its potential for personal/employee brands and company pages alike. Here’s what I’ve learned from my last three high-performing videos: 1️⃣ Timely + cultural relevance = engagement gold. - My poppi vending machine breakdown (1M+ views) tapped into real-time convos about Super Bowl marketing, influencer strategy, and industry shade. - My videos on Alex Coopers Unwell beverage launch tied a celebrity to an industry wide challenge: plastic packaging. - People don’t just want news; they want analysis, hot takes, and a little DRAMA. 2️⃣ Short-form, fast-paced storytelling wins. - Keep it under 60-90 seconds with clear takeaways. - Hook your audience in the first 3 seconds—whether it’s a strong visual, an on-screen text hook, or a punchy opening line. 3️⃣ Conversational tone, not corporate speak. - People connect with people, not marketing jargon. (Even on Linkedin!) - Keep it relatable, punchy, and engaging—the goal is to make people STOP scrolling. 4️⃣ Green screen + tiny mic format = winning combo. - Doesn’t need to be highly produced, but good audio & thoughtful editing slays. - Green screen visuals makes it more engaging and gives context to the conversation. Have you tested LinkedIn video yet? Drop your thoughts (or your own best-performing video) in the comments! ⬇️ #LinkedInVideo #MarketingStrategy #ContentMarketing #SocialMedia #PersonalBranding #EmployeeBranding

The Truth About “Viral” LinkedIn Content... After 2+ years helping B2B executives grow through LinkedIn, I've discovered something that may surprise you: Most "high-performing" posts do nothing for your bottom line—or any meaningful KPI for that matter (revenue, brand authority, etc) The pattern is beyond clear across dozens of business leaders I've worked with: Those who chase virality (generally) fail to generate actual business results. What most get wrong? They pursue broad appeal instead of targeted impact. Large accounts with impressive follower counts often generate fewer qualified leads than focused experts with smaller, highly targeted audiences. I've seen this firsthand across thousands of posts… The business leaders who see real results follow a different playbook—they understand that remarkability comes from substance, not virality. They create content that helps people solve real professional problems, asking: "How can I provide maximum value to my target market in the most interesting way possible?" In this carousel, I'm sharing my framework refined through years of working with high-performing B2B companies to transform LinkedIn strategies from engagement-chasing to revenue-generating. Swipe through to discover how to create LinkedIn content that doesn't JUST boost engagement … but actually grows your business:

Ummmm...Any social strategists wondering what just happened?! The McDonald's team either just executed the most brilliant marketing campaign of the year, or a train went seriously off the rails... 🚂 🔥 Or both 🤷♀️ Let's break it down. Grimace sits perfectly at the intersection of a few powerful trends - 90's nostalgia, extreme authenticity, the joy of the unhinged, and brand mascots gone wild... 💜 💜💜 The #GrimaceShake trend is a prime example of the new ways that brands can captivate audience attention in marketing. Here's what we can learn from it: 1️⃣ Measure the New Success: McDonald's is redefining marketing success metrics. Users who make content about a brand care deeply - they invest their time and creativity into MAKING something in the brand's narrative. New fandoms can be measured - and 1 instance of UGC engagement is worth 10000 likes. 2️⃣ Drive Unexpected Virality: McDonald's Grimace shake unleashed a wave of fan-driven content, turning the campaign into something far beyond its initial intent. Fans dressed up, created art, and even made Grimace a queer icon. The hashtag #GrimaceShake got a mind-blowing 689 million views in just 15 days! 3️⃣ Embrace the narrative: Content creators took the Grimace shake trend to the next level by crafting elaborate narratives, horror films, and documentaries around it. The evolution of the trend kept it fresh and proved that audiences are not only intelligent but also wildly creative. Lo-fi horror has been making a comeback ever since Stranger Things blew up, and this trend doubled down on it. 4️⃣ UGC Highlights Community -Empower It!: McDonald's allowed fans to shape Grimace's perception and the shake's story, blurring the lines between creators and consumers. This created a vast network of user-generated content that boosted brand awareness and customer loyalty. The Grimace shake showcased the marketing potential of embracing and amplifying user-generated content. It builds a sense of community and a deeper connection with customers, resulting in massive brand exposure. The Grimace shake campaign demonstrates the influence of audience engagement and unexpected virality. By embracing customer creativity and enthusiasm, brands can expand their reach, foster loyalty, and create a strong sense of community. Successful marketing campaigns connect with audiences, ignite their imagination, and make them storytellers too! Every brand is an entertainment company, and the best ones give the audience the microphone. 🎤 (🍦🍦🍦 Also anyone else surprised the ice cream machines worked long enough to make all these shakes???) #viralmarketing #tiktokstrategy #usergeneratedcontent #grimaceshake #grimace

Everyone's obsessed with going viral. But after analyzing 1,000s of creator campaigns, I've noticed something counterintuitive: Virality rarely translates to sustainable business growth. Brands are chasing the wrong metric entirely. They're measuring: • View counts • Trending status • Brief engagement spikes Meanwhile, the brands consistently growing on our platform focus on: • Conversion consistency • Community development • Creator relationship quality The math doesn't lie: A single viral post might reach 1M people with 0.1% conversion. But 20 targeted pieces of creator content reaching the right 50K buyers? That's how you build a business that lasts. The creator economy isn't about moments. It's about momentum. — Leo Limin

I've generated 1B+ views from short-form videos.. And I've noticed a pattern: The videos that explode share two specific metrics that stand out from the rest. It's not likes, or comments, or follower count. The two numbers that actually predict virality are: The first metric that matters most for a viral video is Average View Duration (AVD). This measures how long the average person watches your video before swiping. So it's not about your total watch time. But it’s about holding viewers’ attention right from the first few seconds. When AVD is high, the algorithm recognizes your content is engaging viewers. And it rewards you with more distribution. I've seen this with podcast clips. When viewers stick around for the full clip, that video almost always outperforms others. The second crucial metric is the number of shares. When someone shares your video, they're essentially saying "this was so good, so interesting that I had to send it to someone else." That's valuable for the algorithms. Shares signal to platforms that your content is compelling enough to be recommended to others. This creates a powerful feedback loop: More shares → more views → more algorithm favor → even more distribution. When analyzing video performance, I look closely at where viewers drop off. And I can pinpoint exact moments when people lose interest. For example… If viewers abandon a video at a specific point, I'll check what happened there, often it's something confusing or unclear. This data gives me a chance to learn and improve. I've literally re-edited videos, fixed the problem spots, reposted them, and seen dramatically better results. It's an iterative process that gets better with each attempt. The key takeaway for any creator… Your hook (first 3 seconds) must clearly frame what viewers will get from spending time with your content. If they're confused about the premise, you've already lost them, and your AVD will suffer accordingly. If you're creating short-form content, focus on these two metrics: - Average View Duration (AVD) - Number of shares These are the real indicators that your content is resonating and that the algorithm will reward you. Likes are nice, but retention and sharing drive real growth.

MrBeast’s onboarding docs leaked and wow, I never realized how intense producing best-in-class Youtube videos was. It’s a 36-page memo but here's 4 points useful for startups and Inari (YC S23): 1️⃣ Extreme focus: make the best YOUTUBE videos. The memo starts off clarifying that the team is creating the best Youtube videos, period. Not funny videos. Not good looking or Hollywood videos. Just be the best in Youtube. Clarifying that goal means they can form processes to win that niche. His example: producing Youtube videos means they can ship engaging videos weekly instead of once or twice a year like in Hollywood. 2️⃣ Being the best requires operational excellence. The memo feels oddly reminiscent of PG’s founder mode essay and startup best practices: be high agency and obsessive about details, eliminate bottlenecks, performance manage anyone holding you up (especially external dependencies), and keep open lines of comms. - “I want less excuses in this company. Take ownership and don’t give your project a chance to fail. Check. In. Daily. Leave. No. Room. For. Error.” - “If multiple people are responsible for the same thing, then that’s a problem and needs to be fixed immediately.” - “Don’t take anything at face value, always dig.” 3️⃣ Anatomy of a viral Youtube video. “Hook people at the start of the video, transition them to an amazing story that they are invested in, have no edull moments, and then have a satisfying payoff at the end of the video with an abrupt ending.” Titles are important for getting someone to click. Add intrigue and make it feel extreme. If a user clicks a video called “World’s Largest Bouncy Castle” but doesn’t see that, they’ll feel lied to and click off since it didn’t hit expectations. The first minute is the most important since it has the most loss. This is why we freak out so much about the first minute and go above and beyond to make it the best we freakin can. Match expectations of the clickbait and front-load the interesting. Minutes 3-6 are the next most important parts where you plan all the most exciting, interesting, and simple content. The goal is to make them fall in love with the story, the people, and the overall video itself. If we can get them to watch the 1st half, there’s a very high chance they’ll watch to the end. Once you have someone for 6 mins, they’re invested and will continue watching without realizing. Typically the not as good content should be in the back half. Every video needs to "wow". Anytime we do something no other creator can do, that separates us and makes our videos special. It changes how they see us and it makes them watch more videos and engage more. 4️⃣ Use “consultants” as cheat codes. The memo pushes for using consultants (or experts) so they don’t reinvent the wheel. Someone has already done what you’re trying to do and likely spent years perfecting it. Find them. Pay them. Use them. Why waste time rediscovering what someone else learned previously?

Your C-suite is asking you to make content that goes viral. So...now what? You ask them why they want to go viral. They'll say to get more followers. You'll ask them why they want more followers. They'll say to see a better ROI on social. You'll ask them to define a better ROI. They'll say they want to see more sales conversions directly tied to the social media and content team. They don't necessarily want more followers, they want more conversions, but in their minds more followers = $$$. Here is what you can tell them: Going viral is great. However, it doesn't always translate to new followers or even sales conversions. What we want to do is focus on high-quality content that resonates directly with our target market. There might be fewer eyeballs on our content, but our content has a better chance of getting in front of the people who are most likely to convert into paying customers. Story time: A friend of mine is a pretty popular photographer in Phoenix. She had a reel go viral on IG that garnered almost a million views. From that reel, she received only four new followers and zero sales conversions. She had been testing content formats to see what resonated best with her target audience. The reel was a video of one of her brides walking with her bridesmaids and didn't even feature her main offering, photography. By all accounts, she went viral, but it did nothing to grow her account or her bank account. More eyes on your content doesn't always equal a better ROI. Half your job as a creative is to ensure the C-suite understands what you do, why you do it, and the outcomes. Make sure you understand how to communicate strategy effectively and be able to back up your strategy with data. P.S. - I'm Emily, your go-to source for a mix of insights and humor drawn from 15 years of experience in corporate marketing. Hit that connect button, and let's embark on this professional journey together as friends!