What It's REALLY Like for Your Podcast to Go Viral For The First Time | Ep 15

Imagine you open up Instagram and you’re inundated with notifications. 

Comments, likes, follows. One of you videos has gone VIRAL – it's the dream, right?! 

But is the pursuit of virality in business marketing really all it's cracked up to be?

When I first started marketing my life coaching business through content, getting views was *everything* and going viral was IT. 

And it didn’t take long before one of my Reels reached 10,000 views. A few  months after that, a TikTok hit 200,000 views. And the experiences are WILD, to say the least. 

So from someone that’s “gone viral”, here’s what it’s REALLY like to get all those eyes on your business, and what it does as a result. 

Want to start a podcast? Download the FREE Podcast Starter Checklist, a 15-point guide created specifically for entrepreneurs, life coaches and course creators.

Music by Kadien: Instagram | Spotify | SoundCloud

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Virality is advertised as the thing that's going to grow your business. Going viral can be achieved by putting the cutest puppy in your video ever, but the puppy is going to be the thing getting the like. For the first time in business, I saw what was essentially a funnel in action. Hello and welcome to the Big Vision Business Owners podcast. This is the place for business owners that have a message that they want to share with the world, and we'll be talking on this podcast about how to get seen online, how to raise your visibility and actually get your message out there so that you can have that impact on the world. We are all about creating a true connection with your audience, building a community around your podcast, what you do that feeds into your business. That can lead to growth, leads and more sales. And, finally, we're all about changing the world changing the way the world thinks, by helping you to share your message so that you could have that impact, leave that lasting legacy and be part of greater change in the future, and I'm your host, sean Tell Dyson, who's here to do it with you. Along the way, I'll be sharing my expertise and experiences with being a Big Vision Business owner, with being able to create content online the clever way, which means not having to spend hours on your phone, and together we'll be looking at how we can raise your profile online to get your message seen and heard. And with that, let's get on with today's episode. Hello and welcome to the next episode of Big Vision Business Owners.

Speaker 1: 1:36

And today we are talking about the idea of virality. Virality is what so many people yapp on about, and I have seen an ad that's been targeted towards me that basically tells me that they've hacked the TikTok algorithm and that they can teach you exactly how to get, I don't know, something like a million plus views on a video, on like one of your first videos, and sometimes virality is advertised as the thing that's going to grow your business, why it's going to be the be all and end all of what's going to happen, and some people are really confident with that and they love that idea and they want their stuff to go viral. They chase the virality. But at the same time, whilst we understand that virality can have a benefit, there are some misconceptions around it and the fact that virality doesn't equal everything. But also the idea that something could potentially go viral scares the living daylights out of some of us, and this episode today is going to be talking about the concept of going viral, but also how to cope when you do have your first viral video, and to address the fact that if going viral and what that means and makes you feel and panic about is coming up, how you can start to work with that and understand it so that you don't get afraid of posting and posting bravely, because if you listened to last week's episode, you will know that I started to mention and really hound the point that you're going to need to get your opinion out there and your opinion is going to divide people. I didn't go into that side so much last week, but it is going to get the attention of multiple people, some of which don't like what you've got to say, don't agree with your point of view and we'll tell you about it too, which is always good fun. But going viral has its place in the system. It has a point at which it can be beneficial if you're set up.

Speaker 1: 3:43

Now I've seen videos going viral about Business is going viral and having this really cool peak, but they're not being able to create the sustainability that they need. So I'm thinking of it's usually the videos that come out for this. It's usually a product based business where they had a video go viral. Loads of people ordered their product, whether it be earrings or candles or something like that Great. They then have like 500 orders to fulfill, something that they are not really prepared to do because it is just them in their home sorting it out, which is not a problem. That whole setup's not an issue. But to suddenly go from like having I don't know a steady like 20, 30 orders a week to 500. And what that does is it creates this false sense of confidence and the misconception that that's gonna mean that this is it. We've made it because it doesn't. It's a peak point of time and if you can't then replicate what you did to get that virality and it wasn't just chance then you're not. You're gonna have that feast and family experience where you have the feast and you then invest in loads of products, which I've seen that you invest in new products, more of the same, and then you can't shift it. You might even take staff on. I've seen that in videos.

Speaker 1: 4:57

Now, in my situation for going viral for the first time, it was scary and it didn't lead to sales per se, but it did lead to a lot of people joining what was at the time the Single Girls Club. It was the free online group I had supporting my business. Now, the time scale of all of this was that I dabbled with the content and I kind of committed to being a quarter life coach I think that's what I was calling myself at the time, in April 2021. And it was come see, come start, and I was posting and I was learning to do pointy videos and stuff like that. About three months it was made you do like yes, that's right. And then I had my various SIST operation, which I can't remember the exact time.

Speaker 1: 5:42

Did I decide I wanted a podcast? Before that, I knew I was gonna use the bed bound time to do it, or did I prepare it for release around that, or did I record it when I was bed bound? I can't exactly remember. But I then started to create the podcast from the July and I did a mixture of different pieces of content. It was me showing my solo trips, it was me talking about the core life crisis and the impact it had on people, and it was all about single life the podcast and I took clips as part of my content creation process and having enough content to put out there.

Speaker 1: 6:17

Every single week I took clips from the podcast and put them out there. That was part of the process. I also did videos on what I was doing and why. I also had book club running and that was part of the single girls club and it was that video that went viral in the October of 2021. So I had done a video on the book the Panic Years. The Panic Years is a book by Nell Frazell and it is about the way that you start to panic if you're still single. Yet you wanted a family and you wanted children, and so she spoke about her experiences of that and I did some video. I'm sat on this sofa, I've got the book in front of me and it's some sort of B-roll B-roll before B-roll was popular.

Speaker 1: 6:57

I've just realized, didn't even know that I'm sure that's what I'm doing and I just talk over the top of the video and definitely do some sort of unwanted identity, talking about if you're a single woman that's worried about this. We're discussing this book and here's the single girls club online group and I remember I must have when can you go live? Oh, no, 1,000 followers. You can go live on TikTok. So I remember one evening maybe I posted it in the afternoon, I'm pretty sure it was a Sunday night posted it and I decided to go live. I don't think I'd done it much. I think it was the first time actually that I went live. I've done all the settings to get that privilege and so I went live.

Speaker 1: 7:39

Live was doing well, I can't remember what I was talking about going on and I came off of it and I remember seeing the little red notification come up at the time and it said I'm pretty sure it does this still. It said 99 plus and I thought, oh, I mean I've heard rumors that going live really does help your videos, but this is odd. It was a particular set of circumstances that came together, which was the video I put up had gained traction because I had established myself as a single woman, this inspiration for single women. So I had the real estate. It was being pushed out to the right people and then I so happened to be on a live, which does actually it does slightly push your videos out. I don't exactly know how TikTok does that. It's not like direct correlation. Just because you go live doesn't mean you're gonna definitely get more views and more likes, but I have found a basic correlation so I do get it. But just so happened that the traction of that was growing.

Speaker 1: 8:33

Plus I was live, and because I was live, I'd left it for 45 minutes and wasn't incessantly checking. I remember looking, and I think I don't know what the first thing was I'd have to go back to my messages and see what I sent people if it's still on there, because it might not be on there because of WhatsApp but screenshots of what was happening with the video. And I remember messaging my friend like it's at like 10K and every time I refresh it's going up by like 1K views and a lot of likes. Like, oh God, and you saw, for the first time in business, I saw what was essentially a funnel in action. So we all know about the concept of funnels, I believe. But you've got at the top. You've got the world. I used to have a big poster on my working all up there. Got the world. That is who you can pitch to at any given time, especially with social media.

Speaker 1: 9:18

Then after that, you've got people that come into your world in a free oh no, sorry, come into your world by seeing you online, right, they are exposed to you in some way Instagram videos, podcasts, maybe if they're searching for something but they see you and then they engage with you in some particular way and that's usually either following. But there's a higher tier version of that, which is when they give you their contact details, email or phone and that funnel whilst it wasn't the most effective or wasn't, I mean, it was just what I'd made in three months, four months, five months, with zero business experience. Before that, I saw the video numbers going up, I saw the likes on the videos going up and then I saw the requests to join the single girls club group really coming in. So I think I had notifications on at the time of some description. I don't think I ever had TikTok, but I remember feeling quite stressed.

Speaker 1: 10:12

I remember feeling like what am I going to do with all of these people? Because I don't know what to do with them. In hindsight, they weren't necessarily qualified leads anyway. I mean it's great to have some lead gen and to have some exposure, doesn't matter what, but it was overwhelming is the first thing that you think about, because you're like those people are commenting, they've got questions, how do I keep this up. People are trying to join the group, but how do I then manage that?

Speaker 1: 10:42

Because I think I'd had some experience with the group where just people were saying where they were from and it was a bit like a I don't know, like the lonely hearts ads of like I'm this, I'm this and I'm based here, but for single people finding friendship, and I didn't want it to turn into that. I wanted it to be a place where we chatted, actually talked about the issues and had a place to develop, as opposed to just finding like pen friends, so going viral. I remember sitting down on the floor in this living room as opposed to sitting comfortably on my sofa. I just remember having my hands in my face, just like this If you're watching on YouTube, that is, you can see thinking I don't know what to do here and this is wild Like, is this what it's like? So I just quit everything for the day. I went. I'm going to let it roll. I'm going to let the requests come in, people sign up to the email list, I'm going to let the likes, et cetera, done. Like you, you enjoy yourself. It was great, it was an experience. It was great to have that experience early on because nothing bad happened.

Speaker 1: 11:49

Okay, I didn't deal with everyone's requests real quick. Maybe I lost some traction with that and ultimately I really didn't know what to do with this influx. And it taught me a lesson that I didn't really know what to do with all these people. I didn't suffer from it either. None of that was a problem and nothing real negative had come from it, which I know is what sometimes scares us with something going viral that we worry that I don't know the Daily Mail are going to pick up on it and slag you off for it. I don't know Like they do. They do take videos and if it's an alarming enough headline, they're trying to get people to read it right. So you think, oh God, like what if that happens? And don't they say that no press is bad press. But going viral has that sense of overwhelming. But you don't want to get carried away with it either, because virality just means a lot of people have seen your video Doesn't mean that it's the right people that have seen your video. It doesn't mean that those people are in any way, shape or form really long term interesting what you're doing. Obviously, if people have given you those micro commitments and move through. That's great.

Speaker 1: 12:56

But the time I was at I didn't have the process to deal with them and to qualify, disqualify, to start creating connections with them properly. All I had was a lot of content and potential offer. I think I was pushing the single girls come events at that point, or starting the idea of them, and it kind of distracted me because this influx of people in the group, people from all over the UK and the world, and you know, you talk about, oh, let's do meetups, and suddenly people are going well, I'm from here, I want one up here, I'm from here, I want one up here. It's great opportunity for market research. That was probably my best experience of it. So it distracted me because people said, oh, I want something here, I want something there. And when I polled the group to find out, then after all these people were here okay, right. So London's obviously the biggest one. That's fine. We do in London such Essex events. That's okay, let's try another one. So the next biggest was Manchester and I so happened to be going up there or that it worked to go up there. So I was going to put an event there and the first time I tried to do an event there it didn't work.

Speaker 1: 13:59

It's really interesting that people say they want stuff and they say they want to be there, but they're a whole multitude of reasons why they don't then do those things, like it could just be money, it could be the date, or it could just be that they say it, but like there's not enough for a compelling reason to do it. So virality can really mess with you. It has its benefits, you get exposure, but I'm sure that that really really established me with the TikTok algorithm as to who I was for. I think that did help that, even though by that point I wasn't a 10K followers. I know that because I reached that in the January 22. So I had a fair few thousand, but I wasn't at 10K, which is when you start to get like some level of monetization. After that, though, with whatever value it eventually reached which I can't remember what it is to this day it made going viral less scary.

Speaker 1: 14:55

It is fun to go viral, as much as we don't want to chase the likes, but it is fun to see something You're like oh it's doing really well. Okay, that's fun, that's cute. I didn't know that was going to happen. And the strangest videos not strange. But the videos that you thought were going to do really well don't, or is it really well? And then the videos that you just churn out like, oh, posting another clip from the podcast does really well, and I know that that gets said a lot, but, honestly, like there are ones that just take you by surprise. You're like I didn't think that was going to get much interest and I almost can't remember which ones did and didn't get that much interest anymore, because I am so detached from the views and the virality, apart from a really analytical point of view of going okay, why did that one do so much better?

Speaker 1: 15:46

There was one other time actually that I went slightly viral. That I realized is actually earlier than the proper viral, which was I'd done. It was a trend. Am I going to sing the music? I mean I can. I can't remember what it was there bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. If you remember that trend, and it was these guys and girls, I think, that were doing the kind of dance left to right and you green screened yourself in front of it. You'll see the dance move if you watch your youtube.

Speaker 1: 16:15

And I had done that and whatever title I'd put over the top had had done quite well for views, like 10k views, which on instagram, when I hadn't really had many views on any videos till by then, was like oh okay, but then the follows that were coming from it they were not people. So I don't know what happened with the algorithm there. Maybe I wasn't as established and it was being pushed out and it kind of got some attention, but it still wasn't the right people. So this idea of virality and the worry about that advert that I'm sure some of you have seen that literally says we got this guy I'm really embarrassed on his first video. Did that really matter to him and did he have a business? Or has that led to a lot of stuff for him? And and was it sustainable? I don't just want to be a passing fad with whatever I do. Virality is great, if I can like use it to my advantage, which in the second instance I either one I mentioned first, it did work. It definitely leveraged and establishing stuff.

Speaker 1: 17:14

On tiktok, I didn't know what to do with the leads at that time. The feeling of overwhelm was something to learn about, because I learned that no one's gonna be that worried if they can't get in your group quick enough, like the traction will be there. But it taught me a lesson on these kind of hacks, these kind of things to just try and get seen as quickly as possible. And it's why I stand by this idea that trying to get in the top 10 charts with your podcast the first time you launch it terrible, terrible approach. Because I really, really want to do it in a way that it's because it was good, not because it was a hack. And the same way that if I do get a million views on something, which I've never done, but if I do, then I want it to be because I did it, not because I gained the system. And even then I don't chase that. I chase getting in front of the right people, which is why I value networking in person, finding people to network with, because networking is about who knows who. But also if you can get in a room directly of people that are your client by talking on stages etc. Then that's going to help you twofold in that sense as well.

Speaker 1: 18:23

So when we talk about going viral, the scary part comes from usually the exposure that's going to come from it. We freak out that someone's going to see us and it's usually our friends and we're thinking I don't want my friend to see it, I don't want my friend to know what I've been saying, to know what I'm thinking. What are they going to think of me if it goes viral? And I had these feelings because I was a teacher and again my head is in my hands, pulling my face down, because at the time, if I access that, I literally couldn't care less nowadays, but at the time it was very new for me to be doing it for one. But I knew I had a public job, a public standing, as it were. Schools are very into this. Obviously. That's why you see reports of teachers that have done stuff wrong, being in the news or being you know. It's highlighted in the community what's going on.

Speaker 1: 19:28

So I was always very aware, and I always am very aware, because I still am a teacher that what you say online will be and can be accessed by anybody, and that includes the children themselves and the parents of said children. And there's a line. There's a line that is acceptable and it does come down to societal acceptance as well as to whether certain things should be said online, whether someone like me, as a teacher, should be talking about things talking about my divorce online like and again, it only feeds the taboo side of things. But especially when you're doing like silly dances and then you're thinking, oh god, like I'm going to have to walk in front of a class of 14 year olds who I'm trying to teach maths and you just know if you they've seen that they're going to make a comment. So from a safeguarding perspective, I was advised through my school to block any child that made it obvious that they were interacting with my posts. That's fine, that's what I had to do.

Speaker 1: 20:25

But in terms of my friends seeing like I had separate pages, I don't think I ever really cross posted. The other day I posted something that was definitely meant for the Clever content creator page and I posted it to my page. Now, that's not the first time that's happened, that's happened many times. But usually I go, oh sugar god, no, delete, delete and you wait for it to load and you wait for that little load bar to go through and then you hit three dots, delete it. Fine, no one even saw, maybe one person. Oh no, this time was a full-on thing. That was definitely a business based and it was up for about six hours Until I was like where is that and why can't I see who's seen it? And they're like where are the views? Or I was like, oh, like this is the wrong account. People had definitely seen it and I probably could see the views, but there was something that made it obvious that I I'd posted it to the wrong place. So it doesn't even matter that it goes viral.

Speaker 1: 21:19

Just sometimes you're like, oh, wrong audience, like that's, oh god, you're gonna think something weird about me, like I don't know Not that I really care that much, because when I was going for my personal development journey, my socials on my own personal page really changed. Like there was this fun, happy, go lucky, let's go out, let's have fun all the time person versus. Here's this really sensitive piece of personal development quote coming on my page, like there was a shift anyway. So totally over that element. But it doesn't matter if you go viral or not.

Speaker 1: 21:52

Sometimes we just have different personas for different people and Whilst the clever content creator and what I present as in business is myself, the same as miss Dyson is a persona that is presented, and it is still myself. And Chantel Dyson, whoever that happens to be with, whichever friend is, is presented as herself. They're all slightly different and they talk in slightly different ways about slightly different things. My opinions are pretty Strong and still there, but they're not gonna be. There is a time and place to give out certain opinions around certain people, or not. So we have to be comfortable with ourselves and the fact that anyone can see it and as much as I'm a bit like, oh, like, it's a bit awkward for you to know that I think that about that. But actually, if you do want to have a conversation about it, I would have a conversation. I think anything I say on here I would not be afraid to debate.

Speaker 1: 22:49

I'm also happy to change my mind if you'd like to try and get me to change my mind on things like some people might turn around Fingo but like Chantel, launch you with a competition and getting in that top 10 chart like really gets attention on your podcast. I'm like I know, but it doesn't feel authentic to me and I actually understand your approach entirely. But there's something in here that like says no, thank you, maybe one day I'll come around to it and maybe clients that I work with will want to do it that way and that's fine. I'm not gonna stop them if they've heard that and I will tell them that option. But from my point of view my authenticity and what matters to me I don't like it. It feels hacky and it doesn't feel authentic and organic, and so I understand what you're saying, but no for me. So that's kind of where it's at in terms of those opinions, and you don't always want to caveat yourself.

Speaker 1: 23:40

You would have heard last week that I was referring back to the single worlds guide, to life episodes and like what word do I use? Boyfriend or partner? Am I going to be heteronormative or I'm going to be inclusive? They're not using the pronouns them or he, based on the same principle. So there, and there were times where it was appropriate to use one over the other and then it was thinking about like okay, the single girls club, so how far do you involve trans women in that? And then how far does that go if and when you then have to share rooms and to what degree do we then debate the keeping women safe versus being inclusive to all women? Like there were lots of things to always think about and to always debate and to always be there, but ultimately no matter if it doesn't have to be as serious as that. But in your marketing, you have to make a decision as to what you're talking about and why. Because we have to speak to someone specific and sometimes gender is irrelevant. But in the single girls club and the idea that I was a woman that had experienced what I'd experienced and Many women wanted to share what they, too, had experienced in single women the women part of that experience really mattered, whereas I don't need to have too many opinions on if it's for women or men.

Speaker 1: 24:53

When I talk on this podcast, I Will talk as I talk. I will attract the people that are Attracted to that and I don't think I make any Any strong link to male or female by default. I'm female and I think Females appeal to females more often than they do males, like in terms of business coaches or even life coaches or anything like that. Where do men turn to and I think I think they're predominantly they turn to male mentors, whereas I think females turn to female or male mentors, dependent on their personality, whereas I've spoken about this with people in my world before us, like books and music, as A generalization, because there's always going to be people that don't fit that, but I have a theory or such.

Speaker 1: 25:43

I did some research into Men are more likely more likely because not all men. Men are more likely to listen to male artists, whereas Women are more likely to listen to female and male artists. And so when I was thinking about this was because of the awards and they're being no, was there no female mentioned for a category, or no male Can't remember the exacts now for a certain category a while ago, and and I was kind of like, well, hang on, it was females missing, I think, because I was saying, well, actually, what if we listen to more music by men? Anyway, that is an algorithm thing. Is that a behavioral thing? Therefore, is it that wrong that we have more males in a category than females?

Speaker 1: 26:21

Like, I've got on a for tangent, but the idea is, is that you are allowed to debate, you're allowed to go online, and whether going viral Gets you some negative press, you just deal with it. You deal with any negativity that comes up and you share your opinion online In a way that is respectful. You don't have to. You don't have to and I'm gonna say his name you don't have to be Andrew Tate, like you don't have to be so polarizing that you won't listen to the other side of the argument and that you just dispose of it. Basically Because actually having a level of intellect, having a good way to be able to understand the other side, is a really good trait to portray if you're going to be working with people, because otherwise people are going to think, well, what if I say this? And then they're going to think this of me I don't want to work with a coach like that, or I don't want to work with someone that feels going to judge me. I thought they're going to be a life coach or a therapist, to be a bit neutral, but push me a bit. Actually, you having your opinion is one thing, but if you can show balance, then people go oh okay, well, she's a bit different to me, but actually she's also welcome to hear the other side and doesn't mind that.

Speaker 1: 27:35

And then when you go viral, you start to realise that the things that matter to you and the opinions you have, the views, they're just solidified, they're just confirmed to you and by people interacting whether that's for or against what you've said you one get to realise that there are other people out there that agree with you and your argument, for your own argument strengthens. You then get to realise that there are some possibly other things you haven't considered that are against that. You realise what misconceptions there are about it too, because people say stuff and you're like, oh well, hang on a second. Or when they disagree with you, they give their point and you're like, oh, you know what, I never knew that Like, I never thought about that, and it makes you a better person.

Speaker 1: 28:17

So going viral, letting people know what you think it can be a lovely experience, it can be an exciting experience, but it isn't something to guarantee the growth of your business because it's too feast and famine in its approach, unless you can consistently go viral. And when you're going viral, you need to realise that the audience you're bringing in is probably then not going to be such a strong proportion of your ideal client. Going viral can be achieved by putting the cutest puppy in your video ever, and I could talk about business stuff in that video, but the puppy is going to be the thing getting the likes and the follows and maybe even people signing up to my email list. And then they're like oh, I just really wanted to support you because you had a cute puppy. Oh, what a waste of leads coming in of making calls, of sending out emails. That didn't really help my business.

Speaker 1: 29:18

So going viral is scary the first time it happens and that's okay. It's not something to fear, it's something to embrace. And once you do it, once, even just a little bit whether it's 10k, I think the video sorry, I think the book club video I'm sure that got to about 250k views. So I said I didn't hit the million, but I mean it was quite substantial, I believe. And once you've hit that, like I don't know, like 10k, 50k, 100k don't make any difference. It's just people interacting, people coming into your world and engaging with you. That's what it's really like to go viral.

Speaker 1: 30:00

I don't chase it, I just put out content that I think is good. If it so happens that it goes viral, wonderful. I will deal with any influx of inquiries, of followers, of people coming through downloads on the podcast. That was another thing it really affected. Actually, when I went viral, that was probably one of the best ones that happened as a result of it, because it brought people into the world on a sustainable basis, more than it did just join the group, post where you are and find a friend, but don't be afraid to put yourself out there, because it can make all the difference. But the focus shouldn't be on going viral. It should be focusing on putting out the best content you can put out there that, yes, does get attention but also connects with your audience too. Until next time, everybody keep changing the way the world thinks, one podcast at a time.