Does viral content equal social media growth?

I had a fun chat with LinkedIn expert Marika Luneau last week, where we touched on the shifts we’re seeing in how purpose-driven businesses are using social media. 

I did note that a lot of us are fed up and looking for alternatives… but I also had to admit that I’m seeing more of us creating community-minded content, and putting our values out there more boldly. 

I love to see it! I think even more of us should be doing it! It can be a pretty scary prospect when you haven’t done it before, though. So, I thought I’d back it up with some data.

Viral topics are tough to predict

The data I’m sharing here is from three different posts by the same client. They talked about nuclear waste cleanup, salmon in the Columbia, and a documentary that focuses on the Yakama Nation. 

One post mentioned Trump, which seems like a surefire way to call in the trolls–and it did. The other two posts, however, weren’t topics that we expected to draw this level of attention. 

This same client posts regularly about issues like these, so it’s worth asking why these particular posts captured so much attention. The algorithm is quite the black box, so at this point, I haven’t been able to pinpoint a reason in this case, and it’s unpredictable across viral posts in general.

More reach and more engagement

Controversy paid off in terms of reach–i.e. how many people see a given post–with two of these three posts reaching over 100K users! Their average reach for all of their posts during this time period is 5,765 users, so the viral posts made for a massive spike in visibility.

Okay, reach is one thing, but what about engagement? Our sample of three viral posts received, on average, 122 comments each–and that doesn’t include the trolling comments that we deleted as moderators of the account. We compared that to their next three top-performing posts, which garnered an average of 10 comments each.

Similarly, the viral posts were shared over 800 times each, on average, with one topping 1,300 shares! Meanwhile, their next three top-performing posts pulled an average of 67 shares each.

In short, these controversial topics pulled in 10+ times as much reach and engagement as regular postings for this client.

Gaining more followers than you lose

Exposure is helpful for getting attention on specific issues, but do controversial topics actually grow your audience, too? 

The viral posts I’m looking at here did cause both follower gain and loss! But, the numbers speak for themselves: this content helped them gain 557 followers, while losing only 3. Meanwhile, the three next-best posts drew in 35 followers and lost 6.

We did notice some discrepancies between the data we’re pulling now, versus what we saw in our original reports for August and September–Meta now shows a gain of just 110 followers for that time period. It’s possible that some of the new followers have since peeled off. Whether that was due to them unfollowing our client vs leaving Facebook entirely, however, remains to be seen.

Should you post about your radical values? 

I fully acknowledge that this is just one set of data, and not all social media presences will necessarily experience the same level of benefit as this client did. 

Still, if you’re considering taking a risk and posting something controversial, I’d give that a resounding YES. We can’t always predict what will go viral, and virality always has the potential for negative interactions along with the positive. Still, haters coming out of the woodwork often rallies the people who share your values, too.

Basically, unless you’re coming out in favor of babies on spikes, it’ll almost certainly work out in your favor, in the end. 😉 Don't let the haters keep you silent.