LinkedIn is filled with narcissists, and I’ve the info to show it.
It began once I needed to go viral on LinkedIn. Somewhat than merely guessing what would possibly work, I took a data-driven strategy, scraping posts and analyzing what drives engagement. What I found was stunning (and miserable): Essentially the most profitable posts are overwhelmingly self-centered, with folks speaking about themselves in supposedly “inspirational” methods.
As a substitute of becoming a member of the self-congratulatory parade, I made a decision to name it out. I constructed the Viral Submit Generator, a device that routinely creates eye-roll-worthy posts, making the system painfully obvious to everybody. In a pleasant twist of irony, this device mocking viral content material went viral itself.
On this submit, I will share how that occurred and what I discovered about product-market match, distribution, and trendy virality alongside the way in which.
The Start of the Viral Submit Generator
About two-and-a-half years in the past, I made a decision I needed to go viral on LinkedIn. That was my objective: to put in writing a submit that may take off. Naturally, I began questioning what actually makes a LinkedIn submit go viral within the first place.
So, I did what any curious marketer would do. I scraped over 200,000 posts and filtered them based mostly on engagement metrics to establish distinct patterns among the many most profitable ones. I particularly checked if key phrases have been inflicting them to go viral. After analyzing all that knowledge, it was fairly apparent what was occurring.
These viral posts all adopted the identical system. The LinkedIn person shared some private story with a number of dramatic highs and lows, giving obscure recommendation about “hanging in there” or “believing in your self.”
This perception led me to create the Viral Submit Generator, a parody device that generates cringeworthy LinkedIn posts based mostly on minimal enter. The idea was easy:
Inform the generator what you probably did at the moment.
Add any “inspirational” recommendation.
Select a cringe degree (low to excessive).
Get a superbly crafted viral submit that mimics the precise patterns of profitable LinkedIn content material.
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The technical strategy was easy, particularly by at the moment’s requirements. This was earlier than ChatGPT rolled out to the general public. Utilizing essentially the most viral posts of all time as inspiration, I created about 50-100 templates to function the muse.
For the interactive ingredient, an AWS library supplied pure language processing to research person inputs, match them with the appropriate template, and even alter the textual content barely to suit the sentence construction. The whole challenge got here collectively on the no-code platform Adalo, proving that deep technical abilities aren’t essential to create one thing that really resonates with folks.
How a Parody Software Truly Went Viral
Having constructed a device that parodied viral content material, my subsequent problem was getting folks to make use of it. The preliminary launch fell utterly flat. After sharing the Viral Submit Generator throughout X, LinkedIn, and Reddit, all I heard was crickets. No person appeared .
This preliminary failure taught me an important lesson: Having product is not sufficient. Distribution technique makes all of the distinction.
Pivoting techniques, I started tagging social media profiles that repeatedly criticized LinkedIn’s tradition of self-promotion. By positioning the device as being “impressed by them” (regardless of by no means having interacted with these accounts earlier than), these bigger accounts started sharing my product, giving me on the spot entry to their established audiences.
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On Reddit, my posts initially confronted deletion for promotional violations. By reframing the dialog to contain the neighborhood, telling them I created the device for them, and welcoming them to share their greatest creations, these restrictions remodeled into alternatives for engagement.
Individuals who really feel like they helped spark an concept are more likely to help it. By giving folks credit score, I gave them a motive to share what I’d constructed. It was probably the most efficient methods I discovered to succeed in audiences I might’ve by no means accessed as a newcomer.
When Acquisition Comes Knocking
Because the Viral Submit Generator began to take off, I acquired a message from the founding father of Taplio, a platform that helps customers develop their LinkedIn presence. He noticed the device’s potential as a model consciousness play and needed to amass it.
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At first, I wasn’t positive. There was one thing extremely satisfying about constructing one thing that had my identify on it. However as site visitors began to gradual and the fact of sustaining momentum kicked in, the supply began to look extra interesting. I used to be drained. Holding the device alive meant continually selling it — posting, replying, and discovering new methods to maintain folks .
Behind the scenes, the technical stress was much more intense. Sleepless nights turned the norm as I continually nervous in regards to the website crashing whereas hundreds of tourists have been actively utilizing it. As a solo creator with no help crew, the stress of being “web well-known” had shortly misplaced its appeal.
After weighing these components, I quoted what I thought of a excessive acquisition value. The Taplio founder instantly declined, not even providing a counteroffer. As a substitute, we agreed to a 24-hour take a look at: I would come with an advert for Taplio in my generator to measure its model consciousness worth earlier than figuring out a good value.
The Final-Minute Viral Push
Because the 24-hour window began, I seen our numbers dropping. I wanted one final shot at making this work. I believed, “The place have not I attempted posting but?” I remembered there is a subreddit referred to as r/InternetIsBeautiful the place folks share cool new instruments they discover on-line.
I posted there, and it blew up instantly. Somebody noticed my submit on Reddit and shared it on X. That submit went loopy viral. Inside a number of hours, it hit 22 million folks and practically 180,000 likes. It was utterly surprising.
The chain response intensified as Reddit’s official accounts started sharing the device. Instagram pages with tens of millions of followers picked it up, and hundreds of customers began posting about it throughout social platforms. In a single day, the generator reached 1.4 million customers who created and shared their parody posts.
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Then got here the technical nightmare. Too many simultaneous guests crashed not simply my device however your complete internet hosting platform. An Adalo employees member later confirmed their system went down particularly due to the site visitors surge to my generator. After a number of tense hours, the whole lot got here again on-line, and the flood of customers continued unabated.
By the point our 24-hour take a look at concluded, the Taplio founder did not even try to barter. He merely agreed to my unique asking value — a transparent indication I may have requested for extra. However at that time, I used to be prepared to shut the chapter. What had begun as a weekend aspect challenge had remodeled into an acquisition success story in simply seven breathless days.
The Unbundling of Phrase-of-Mouth
Past the acquisition, this expertise revealed one thing profound about how content material spreads in at the moment’s digital panorama. Our typical understanding of virality, one particular person telling two individuals who every inform two extra, has turn out to be outdated.
what I name “word-of-Slack” and “word-of-WhatsApp.” True virality now happens in non-public messaging platforms and closed communities, not on public social media feeds.
Fashionable word-of-mouth has fragmented into what I name “word-of-Slack” and “word-of-WhatsApp.” True virality now happens in non-public messaging platforms and closed communities, not on public social media feeds. This perception essentially modified my strategy to designing shareable experiences.
Once I constructed the generator, I didn‘t trouble with these social sharing buttons that no person clicks anyway. As a substitute, I simply wrote, “Take a screenshot and share it.” Easy as that. I made it so customers couldn’t copy the textual content instantly. They needed to take screenshots.
This was probably the greatest selections I made. When folks took screenshots, they grabbed my yellow background and watermark, too. They might share them anyplace they needed, of their group chats, Slack channels, or DMs. My branding went alongside for the experience. This easy strategy labored means higher than fancy sharing widgets ever may have.
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Submit-launch analytics confirmed that non-public channels drove the vast majority of new customers. By designing for these intimate sharing contexts slightly than public platforms, the device achieved exponentially higher attain than typical social media methods may have delivered.
The Amazon Method to Product Growth
Amazon has a superb framework for growing new merchandise and options. Their groups begin with the press launch in thoughts, actually typing up what they think about the TechCrunch or Enterprise Insider headline could be earlier than writing a single line of code.
This “working backward” strategy forces creators to give attention to what makes a product newsworthy. As a substitute of attempting to determine what options to develop and learn how to construct them, Amazon groups begin from the tip: The headline that may announce the product. Solely after they’ve clearly envisioned this announcement do they work backward to develop it.
For the Viral Submit Generator, I utilized this precise strategy. Earlier than growth, I envisioned how tech publications would possibly cowl a device that parodied LinkedIn’s self-promotion tradition. This psychological train clarified what to construct and why folks would care sufficient to share it.
The protection that ultimately got here from Enterprise Insider, The Guardian, and BuzzFeed adopted patterns remarkably just like what I had imagined — not by coincidence, however as a result of I intentionally created one thing designed to impress a selected dialog.
By beginning with the headline you hope to earn, you create a North Star that guides each growth resolution towards a product worthy of that protection.
Tapping Into Shared Expertise
Regardless of all of the technical points behind my generator’s success, the true magic got here from tapping into one thing deeply human. I linked with a every day frustration that LinkedIn professionals skilled however hardly ever mentioned overtly.
What I created wasn‘t only a parody device. It was permission to snigger at one thing all of us discovered ridiculous, but continued to take part in. I’ll always remember watching folks’s reactions after they used it: “Sure! Somebody lastly stated it!” That second of recognition created a connection much more potent than any technical characteristic may have.
This emotional ingredient explains why my challenge unfold so shortly. Individuals who really feel understood don‘t simply use your product. They champion it. I discovered one thing big from all this: Nice advertising and marketing isn’t about fixing issues or including options. It is about making folks really feel seen.
In a world the place everybody‘s combating for consideration, typically the very best technique isn’t being the loudest or most cutting-edge. It‘s being the one who places phrases to what everybody’s been considering all alongside.
