I’ve been endlessly scrolling through TikTok and Instagram, and I think I’ve been toying with the idea for a while now: why is there such disparity in views on some of the stories, while others, which I actually thought of creating for them, have only had a handful of views? I’ve figured out a few things that really have an effect since I’ve been out there, dancing for a while (and shown a bit of embarrassment for a few flops I won’t mention), and found a few patterns that work. Here is a list of what has been helpful to me.
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Use a teaser to freeze the scroller in place
Up to the first half-second of your story, there’s a decision that has to be made for your reader whether to stay for the entire length of your story or not. I used to believe a good hook was a bold move or some great music, but the best ones are generally the ones that are the simplest. Asking a question with a bold text overlay; the words “wait, what?” in a face; or dropping the viewer into the middle of something interesting do better than a slow build-up.
Now picture you took a break from all your scrolling… It’s unlikely that it was production value. Some impulse caused you to stick around for another minute because it aroused your curiosity and trigger your desire to know more.
Exhibit restraint in the use of interactive content
This one I took some time to get, but interactive stories always win over passive ones. If a user is coming to a poll, they are meant to engage with it in some way, whether it’s voting or answering a question or trolling the slider—the whole idea of the poll is to engage the audience not just watch, and it’s when they do so that platforms repay them with additional reach.
I’ve enjoyed tremendous success making personality-style content and mini-games around interactive tools. For instance, I made a drastically shortened series of stories with a favorite pokemon picker where users picked a pokemon at random and voiced their thoughts as to why it “chose” them. It may sound stupid, but the engagement was crazy—people were duetting, stitching, tagging a friend and saying their own song. That’s the kind of content that breeds conversations, and the difference between you asking people to watch and you asking people to play is that you’re not asking them, you’re demanding it.
For people that build on their love for a piece of history or as a fandom, tools that allow you to create a format without investing a lot of effort. You put it up once – the audience does the rest, creating their own reactions and results.
This should be the same length as the other sentences
I think I’ve discovered the sweet balance for the length of the story, and learned the hard way. Don’t make it too short and the algorithm doesn’t have enough time to recognize the story as interesting. Stay on the topic past the payoff and people end up leaving. I would aim for 15-30 seconds for most story content and would try and get the ‘reveal’ or ‘punch line’ around the 2/3 mark of the narration.
When you present your story with a lead-up (such as a random picker bringing him/her to a result or a countdown to the answer) then the anticipation is working some hard for you. However be sure, do not rush and do not prolong it.
Shirts, pants and skirts are suitable
Yes, I know, people are always saying, “use the most popular songs”, and it is the same message over an over for a song that gets repeated. There is however a reason it continues to appear: the algorithm actually loves content ranking the concept of using audio it is an emerging trend. But it’s more than simply dumping onto random video a sound that is popular among creators – it’s discovering a way to seamlessly embed the sound into the content.
If it can be found, try to keep the beat drop of a trending song on the beat as well on your reveal. If it comes with a spoken hook, play a visual, rather than just hearing the hook you like. A viewer can discern that a trend is being forced on them, or if it is a fit.
Nothing more frustrating than this than arriving at the right time with the right message and never getting the desired response.
Timing is all-important but not just about hitting some magic hour. I think I’m doing better posting when I am able to be there when the first 30-60 minutes after posting to reply back to comments, duets, and a sharing back to my own story. The earlier the slot that gets engaged, the bots think, “hmmm, this is great stuff to be seen by a wider audience.
Make It Easy to Share
All my common viral stories have had in common a reason for someone to tag someone else. It could be a random result then a “tag someone who’d pick this” or it could be something that’s actually relatable that you want to just share with a friend or… simply content enough that it feels like you’re making a favor to whomever reads it… there is no bonus in making content share-worthy – it’s what makes it go viral in the first place.
Link every post and believe that isn’t enough
Avoid overthinking every post. Here is a lesson I learnt early in my life we need not all be masterpieces. Some of my best-performing content was content that I had an idea and immediately wrote, with no real exercise in trying to plan it. Some of my best-performing content was content that I wouldn’t have been able to even plan, I had an idea and I just wrote it up. If you produce too much it makes spontaneity redundant, if the story is too spontaneous it’s authentic enough to share.
Final Thoughts
Unfortunately there is no trick to getting it to go viral, some unpredictability to it always exists. So you’ll always be coming across content and interactions that will position you higher than simply posting and hoping for the best – but hooks that stop the scroll, interactive formats and well-timed trending audio will do that on a regular basis. Try it out, see what’s successful for your target audience, and do it again if it works!
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