What I learnt from going viral as an ESL teacher (and how you can, too)
“I’ve just posted a video so silly, I think I might be fired” I told my friend one evening. He looked nervous. “Ah, I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
The next morning I checked to see the video stats. While I’d been sleeping, 30 thousand people had watched it. I scrolled through the comments. Maybe I wasn’t fired. That evening the number had reached 80 thousand viewers. I sent it to my sister. The next day she messaged back – not 80 thousand now, but a quarter of a million.
Over that weekend over 2 million people watched that video. I compulsively checked the stats again and again, that little black box that told me that right now – right this second – over one thousand people from all over the world were staring at what I’d filmed, alone, in an old hoodie, in my kitchen.
Going viral online can be a vortex, but it can also give you a career boost like nothing else. Perhaps you’re looking to grow your school, or launch your own education business. So if you’re looking to rapidly expand your reach on social media, here’s how to do it, in 5 steps.
1). Listen and connect to generate ideas
You should have a particular audience in mind for your social media. And this should be an audience that you know really, really well. For example, my audience is ESL teachers. How do I know them so well? I am one. Connecting with an audience that’s similar to you was a key starting point for many businesses, such an Innocent.
Once you have an audience you know you can relate to (and who will relate to you), spend a lot of time listening to them. What’s important in their worlds? What problems do they have? What makes them laugh and what keeps them up at night? What makes them say ‘awwwww’ and ‘yayyyyyyy’?
Be a good online citizen; pay attention to what’s going on in the digital world around you and embed yourself in that culture. It’s time consuming, but apart from anything, you get to meet a lot of really wonderful, talented, interesting people.
Next step: look out for posts that gain attention from that audience. Get that idea and then make it 10 times bigger than anyone else has imagined. Memes are a great basis for video content – you simply take that idea and then convert it into video format. If you’re not seeing much out there on the web, dive into the conversation by asking questions. Keep the conversation about other people as much as you can. ‘HEY, LOOK AT MY PRODUCT’ is a terrible introduction, and the internet version of bursting into a party and telling everyone about how amazing you are. People will smile and nod, but then awkwardly look away. The party is not about you.
Also, look out for what kinds of videos are getting attention. There are some common tropes that are being used across fields that you can jump onto. For example: one popular trend involves personification of something non human (animal, object or abstract idea). My videos hinge around one key idea: ‘what if languages were humans? What would they say to each other? What aspect of language do we take for granted but is, when you deconstruct it, really weird?’’
One final tip for trend-listening is to get on TikTok. Being creative with a blank page, or blank screen, is very difficult for anyone, as your mind just doesn’t know where to start. If someone yelled at you: ‘SAY SOMETHING FUNNY AND INTERESTING’ you would just be speechless. But for some reason that’s what our minds do when we pressure ourselves to make content. That’s why TikTok is (in my opinion) genius. The format allows people to jump on ‘trends’; the joke format is already made and the content creator (you) just has to give it a twist relevant to a different group of people.
2). The best content is: emotional – relevant – educational
A hard fact of business is that it doesn’t really matter how great your idea is. It only matters when people connect with your idea. It has to cause an emotional or practical connection. In fact, the best ideas connect with us on multiple levels. Ask yourself when you make your video: Does this invoke an emotional reaction? (I aim to make my videos funny, and occasionally a little controversial – just enough to spark a conversation). Is the content relevant and useful to my audience? And does it teach them something new, or give them a new perspective? If it does all three of those things, you’re on to a winner.
This is most important in the first three seconds of your video. If you begin your video with ‘Hello, my name is so-and-so from the so-and-so company’ you have just bored your audience. That information is not emotional, relevant to your audience, or educational. So most people have already scrolled past. Think of a ‘hook’ instead – a dramatic moment that’ll get people thinking ‘What is this, now?’
I like to think to myself ‘Is this something I’d enjoy watching?’ but it can be hard to maintain objectivity when it comes to your own work. Asking the emotional-relevant-educational question breaks it down into questions you can manage.
3). Make, make, make; there are no excuses
I was making videos for a year before I started gaining traction. People often see a popular video and don’t realise that this is probably the 100th – or 1,000th – video that the creator has made. Just keep making; every time you do, you’ll increase your chances of being successful. Malcolm Gladwell writes about this idea in ‘The Tipping Point’, a book I haven’t read, but often talk about like I have read it.
And feel free! Instead of trying to create a ‘perfect’ clip, focus on your energy – that’s what people will respond to first. Behave as if you would when talking to your best friend. Do a silly dance. You have to be ok with representing the flawed reality of you, with making fun of yourself, with admitting there’s loads you don’t know, and with being the butt of the joke. In a kind way, of course.
Once you have an idea, make it happen right this second. Don’t plan it for next week, don’t wait for anything. If it’s a meme, make it and release it into the wild in the next five minutes. If it’s a video, make it that very day. Every moment your idea is not out there is a moment that someone else could have the same idea. Don’t lose your moment.
4). Learn from each post
It’s not enough to spew out content in order to get better – you have to reflect in order to improve. Put out five posts, for example. Which one did best? Why? What feedback did you get on each one? Once you figure out what works, lean into that concept as heavily as you can. Then post five more times. What did well this time? Why? Be brutally honest with yourself.
5). Pay attention to the details
The details will make or break your video. I use Premier Pro to make my videos, and it takes hours of editing to make a three minute clip. But the results are ALL in the editing. Here are some things to consider:
- Portrait over landscape. Unless your main channel is YouTube, shoot your video in portrait. And shoot at eye level. No one wants to look up your nose. Frame your clip well.
- You must shoot your video in HD (I use my phone).
- Facebook will prioritise clips of over 3 minutes. YouTube also prefers longer clips. Tailor the length of your video to the platform. The platform you choose, by the way, will depend on your audience. What social media do they spend their time on? Meet them there.
- Consider what props are in your video. One video that I did performed really well, and a lot of that is thanks to the fact that the characters in the video were playing a particular board game that a lot of people love. The props and other little details are another way to increase the emotional-relevant-educational stakes.
- The pacing and cuts of your video are essential. Your content must – must – have the right rhythm (this is something I’m very much learning). Avoid ‘thinking words’ at all cost – every time you say ‘errr, ok, actually, well’ is dead time to your audience. Cut it out. Improve the pacing while editing but cutting as close as possible to the start and end of speech. You can also cut the zoom in and out to increase the pacing of your video and to let the audience know a joke or key point is coming (Trevor Noah does this really well).
- The title and thumbnail of your video also matter. The thumbnail needs to be something that looks good when it’s the size of your thumb, not something that looks great while you’re designing it. Basically, include your face and three or four words of text in super bold. If your video isn’t doing well, try switching up the title and thumbnail. Sometimes that gives it a boost!
And a final note. Posting on social media can have an impact on your mental health. You get some pretty weird comments. I’ve been told I’m beautiful, I’m fat, my house is messy, I’m great, I’m annoying… Someone once just commented ‘die’. I still find it weird to read comments about myself as ‘this woman’. It’s all: ‘Have you seen this woman?’. I constantly feel like I’m overhearing conversations about myself. That does something to your brain. Think about what you’ll do in order to retain your sanity through a vortex of social media. Personally, I like hugging trees. Trees are real!