Virality Is an Outcome, Not a Strategy

Somewhere in nearly every marketing meeting, it happens.

A perfectly reasonable conversation about social media content calendars and audience engagement suddenly takes a hard left turn:

“What if this one goes viral?”

The hunt for lightning in a bottle begins.

It’s understandable. Going viral is the most visible form of success in modern marketing. It’s fast, loud, and comes with all the things brands think they want: massive reach, cultural relevance, a spike in followers, engagement from other brands and waves of copycats. It’s the advertising equivalent of hitting the jackpot on an airport slot machine.

But here’s the problem: Virality isn’t a strategy. It’s an outcome.

You can’t plan for it. You can’t repeat it (reliably, at least). And more often than not, it doesn’t do what you actually need it to do: build sustained engagement, affinity, or growth.

Yet brands continue to chase it. They write briefs around it. Add content goals for it. They type it into Claude: “How to go viral on social media”

Entire social teams get quietly (or loudly) judged by their ability to produce viral content. Whole rooms of social media managers kick up a lot of noise and just as much disappointment.

Because while virality feels like success, it’s usually just a moment. And even the best moments don’t last forever.

But what makes something go viral? We’ll get there, you eager beaver.

The Viral Obsession

“Going viral” is shorthand for “doing social media well.”

It’s a two-word phrase that gets people in boardrooms excited and celebrated in Slack channels. The single outlier Instagram Reel that did so well, it set a new benchmark.

Every time a c-suite employee says, “Why can’t we do that again?” An angel somewhere gets its wings.

Virality is sexy because it’s visible. All the numbers climb: views, shares, comments. It feels like your team cracked some kind of secret code. Surely, they know how to bottle up that lightning and do it again.

Well, they probably can’t. And stop calling me Shirley.

Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok don’t reward formulas. They reward behavior—from both users and brands. And those behaviors are constantly changing. What resonates today might not work tomorrow. What electrifies one audience might fall flat for another.

More important: virality isn’t what your brand needs.
A million views doesn’t build a business. All that attention is fun, but it won’t build sustained interest. A viral post without a system behind it is just a blip.

So if you’re after relevancy, virality is great. But you better have something strong to keep that attention going…

Build A System, Not A Moment

This is where things get a little less exciting, but a whole lot more effective.

Brands that grow with social media aren’t chasing the big hit. They’re building foundations—content systems with pillars they can replicate and tangible values they can communicate. They chase consistent results over time.

A strong organic social system doesn’t ask: “How do we go viral?”

It asks: “Is this content in line with our strategy?”

That mentality breeds consistency and familiarity. Your audience will recognize the patterns and the formats in positive, engaging ways. In tones they expect and values they’ll want to follow.

And here, the understanding begins. The algorithm (we say, as though it were some kind of deity) begins to understand your content. Your audience will become more familiar with your content. The former begins to feed the latter.

And your content will perform better—not because it’s surprising, but because it’s dependable.

Be warned: this is where some brands quietly fall apart.

Imagine going to the gym once and being frustrated that you haven’t lost any weight yet. Don’t let that happen here. Allow your social strategy time to create feedback loops. Learn from what your audience craves and what they hate. Find the trends and pull small levers to back those up.

This is how real organic social systems work. Not with moments, but with momentum.

And here’s the funny part: Once you’re consistent, your odds of hitting a viral post actually go up.

What Makes Content Shareable (And Yes, Even Viral)

Careful readers will notice we haven’t answered the question of the hour yet: how do you make something go viral?

Short answer: you can’t.

So how do brands actually grow on social media?

Here’s a longer answer: you can’t make something go viral, but you set yourself up for viral success by making content shareable.

And there are five key components to make sure your content is shareable and, ultimately, viral.

1. Strong hooks
   If your content doesn’t grab people by the collar and give them a firm shake, nothing else matters after that. The first few seconds that a user sees your content—the first few words of a caption, the first two seconds of the video, the first thing they see on a visual—can change everything.

   You’re competing with everything else they see. Make it count.

2. Emotion
   People don’t send content to other people because it’s “on brand.” They share because it makes them feel something. Humor, nostalgia, familiarity, surprise, validation, even anger. Every good viral moment links back to a feeling. Yours can too.

3. Relatable, not original
   This might sting a little, but no one cares if your content is original. People like and share videos that they recognize. Trends, audio, dances, etc. The trends may be fleeting, but they trend because people recognize it.

4. Platform fluency
   Instagram and LinkedIn aren’t the same. What works on TikTok probably isn’t going to work on YouTube. A strong social media marketing strategy understands the nuances of each platform and creates content specifically for each platform, which increases the odds of sharing.

5. Luck
   Sometimes, sharable content just hits a seam. It speaks to the right people at the right place at the right time. Culture is hard to predict, but sometimes your content will just get lucky (and there’s nothing wrong with that).

All that being said, you can’t plan viral content. But if you keep these components in mind, your content will be significantly more sharable. Do this consistently enough, you just might catch a little bit of lightning.

In Conclusion: Stop Trying to Create Unpredictable

Virality is a great outcome.

But it’s a terrible plan.

Viral content is unpredictable, inconsistent and simply impossible to rely on. And when you use that as your benchmark, you’re pulling your people away from the content that actually builds up your success.

Build your systems. Stick to your strategy. Learn what your audience craves and double down on what works.

Over time, you’ll find that effort compounding into something way more valuable than a single spike of attention.

Need help finding relevancy on social media? We know a thing or two about that at The James Agency. Give us the nod for some industry-leading insights, a fresh organic social media strategy and highly-sharable (potentially viral) content calendars.