Episode 142 transcript:

Okay. I've had a video that has gone viral, and I've got some processing, some lessons to share with you. So if you remember a couple of episodes back, I mentioned that one of my Facebook videos was going viral and it had really picked up the pace with being seen around the world and Facebook putting it up to the top of the algorithm for some reason.

And I've been watching it for a few weeks processing and just noticing what's going on with this video. And I have some lessons to share with you.

So first things first, what is a viral video? The definition really has evolved. And if you've been hanging out in the digital marketing space for some time, as platforms change as platforms evolve and new platforms come up, that all kind of shifts and reorganizes itself.

And it also depends on who you ask. I've noticed that different sources of expert, digital marketing information have different definitions of what constitutes viral.

Generally it means that a video or a post that you put on social media or some other type of online platform has had a ton of engagement.

So whether that's views or likes, so views of the video, people liking it or otherwise interacting. So like, you know, you can hover over the like button on Facebook and share or not share, but engage with different interactions.

You can love a pose. You can laugh at a post, do the haha kind of thing, um, or comments or shares.

So where people would share it on their page, share to a group, share to messenger, that kind of thing. So it's one of video just really picks up traction.

And the more traction that picks up my understanding of the way the algorithm works, my very, very basic understanding. Cause I don't have a whole lot of interest in studying the algorithm.

But my understanding is that once it starts to pick up organically, they just start to prioritize this video and the algorithm.

And as a business owner, especially if you're early on or you're early in the online business space or you're new to platforms like Tik TOK or you're new to making reels or you're new to trying to make videos for social media, what you might expect this to mean is, oh yes, I had an online video go viral.

I'm going to make loads of money and I'm going to attract clients. And I'm going to have a huge group of followers, new followers, and big community.

And I'm going to get my name out there and I'm going to be famous and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Right. And it depends on the video that went viral. Right? All of that. And I don't necessarily believe that. Well, we'll get to that in a second.

So it depends on let's leave it at that. It depends on the video that went viral. So for example, uh, in late 2018, after I had the home birth accidental home birth after cesarean, when I made the post, I wrote the blog Post, put a video in the blog post, like a short clip of my labor.

And I shared it to social media. That post went viral. It wasn't a video, it was pictures with written caption.

I posted it to Instagram and Facebook and it went viral and that type of content did support my business mission.

Now it didn't necessarily make me a ton of money and immediately attract dream clients or anything like that. But it did support my business mission, right?

So the new people that engaged with me online after that were my people, right? Cause they, they read my story.

They connected with me and the content was relative to the work that I'm doing in the world and the woman I'm becoming and the mission that I'm bringing forth into the world.

And so that video, when I said, it depends on the video that went viral, that video was supportive of all of this stuff, right.

But sometimes having a video go viral, what it really means is nothing at all, truth be told. So for example, the Mo my most recent viral video that I just, that I opened this episode talking about, I posted this video to Instagram reels on my birthday of 2021.

So it's been over a year at this point. And it was just like a fun little, you know, birthday video.

There was no substance to it. There was no real information. No real message, no real inspiration. It wasn't necessarily tied to my mission in the world.

It was just a fun birthday video. And I also shared it to Facebook all of a sudden in the last month or so it really picked up traction as the algorithm does.

It started really saying, okay, people want to see this video. We're going to keep showing it to more, more, more, more people.

As of right now, late July, the video currently has 2.7 million views, 2.7 million people have watched me kind of dance a little bit and say happy birthday to myself, basically, which is, yeah, there's 101 comments and 113 shares.

And something like over five or 6,000 engages like lights, slugs, you know, that kind of thing. So it actually happens sometimes when you have videos go viral is that you might get a bunch of DMS from creepy dudes from all over the planet.

You might have a whole bunch of random new followers that have nothing to do with your business mission and people that will likely, never become clients, nor would you ever want to work with them because they're leaving really weird and rude comments on the video because they are keyboard warriors.

And if you're not familiar with that phrase, that's what I call people who hide behind a keyboard and say a lot of nasty things because they're hiding behind a keyboard and they might have a profile picture of a goat or something like that.

And they're not maybe not even actual people or maybe they have multiple accounts or regardless, they say a lot of outlandish things on the internet that in real life you would never say.

So they are what I call keyboard warriors and all of this stuff that happened with this video make sense that it happened to a video that's actually kind of random and has no real, no real Jeff juice.

There's nothing to it really. And so I want to read to you some of the comments on the video, because I think it's helpful to give you an idea of what we're talking about here.

Okay. So I'm scrolling, I've pulled the video up on my phone. I mean, on my desktop and I'm just scrolling through and there's a lot of happy birthdays, which are really nice and seem really genuine.

There's a couple of, I love you's, which is strange because they don't know me. And they're like random goat pictures.

I'm just making up the goat. Um, but this one person said makeup does really do miracles. Makeup does really do miracles.

Hope. The next guy who wake up in the morning with her does not get a heart attack. And then there's three smiley emojis and a heart's eyes emoji.

So my first comment on that is grammar school. Um, but also that's kind of creepy, right? And then there's a couple of confused faces.

Um, somebody said my cup was nice. I guess I had a coffee cup in my hand. And part of the video, they said, cup is nice.

And then somebody else who is from Korea, I'm going slowly because I'm hovering over their pictures. Seeing where these random people are from says F U C K Y O U.

You are hot without makeup, sexy with the glass. What tell of that look at, and then there's this name? And it says an Egyptian female blogger.

Okay. Um, four person keyboard warrior from Korea. Got it. And then there's a picture that somebody posted in the comments, that's a selfie of him and another guy that strange.

Uh, and then there's this, I don't know who this person as a keyboard warrior. And I translated their comment that says if yes, then give ass.

I don't know what that is. Uh, and then another, what appears to be, I don't know if this, I don't know who this is, says XXX.

Uh, let's see. And then people that like to post links to what they're promoting, which is really creepy. I don't know if does that still work?

I don't know who would click on your stuff. People posting links to their own YouTube accounts, um, to their own Facebook posts, their own Facebook pages, which is just kind of weird.

Uh, let me see. There was a couple other, and then this one person says yummy, yummy, gross, John Mayer, who works at Abbey all services and studied at Wright state university, university.

And then somebody else named John Wiles says what's up home rebels. Uh, oh. And then I got invited to a love athon anytime, anywhere.

So that certainly I will be taking up that invitation. Right. Then there's a picture in the comments of a very young child and that's just really freaking out there.

And then somebody calls me a silly, okay, this is somebody who, I don't know who they are. A silly F U C K I N G.

And then what appears to be two moons with faces of silly FN something, um, another link to somebody's stuff that they want you to check out.

Somebody asking for help to reach 10,000 likes and followers, several other YouTubes. Oh, here's another one. This is a good one.

Somebody that said you are so ugly and then three smiley face emotions. Someone else who says what's wrong with your voice?

Sounds like nails on a chalkboard. I don't think they, this woman it's a woman. I don't think she understands Jennifer Harris who wants to Kirksville high school and lives in Webster groves, Missouri.

I don't know if you understand how voiceovers and the audio clips work on Instagram reels and Facebook reels. Now it's not actually my voice.

So there's that. And then somebody else who I can't pronounce their name went to balance your community school says no one cares.

Um, so I'm sharing all of this in kind of a funny way, but all of this, just to say, and I'm at a point in my life and in my business, I'm pushing 40 years old and I've been in business now for I'm in my fifth year.

I give zero, you know, what's, I really don't mind any of this. It doesn't bother me the way that it would have a few years ago.

I'm sharing this because my message, the message, the, the lessons I'm taking from this for the collective is this. It's not going to be very helpful to try to make videos go viral, just because, because this is the kind of crap that can come from just because I'm having fun with it.

So I really don't care. But if you have a business that's aligned with your mission and actually has substance go viral, we're having a different conversation.

So I think that there, especially early on in the online business space, there's this like, oh, you went viral and people get so excited about it.

And the truth is that sometimes it's just, it's just not all what it's cracked up to be. And you get a lot of creeper DMS with, I won't even open them.

I don't even open them anymore because I don't care. I don't need to know what's in there. I don't know this person.

And they are clearly not based on their profile photo. They are not somebody that I would engage with or work with.

So that's what I want to share with you is my lessons from having a couple of different viral videos, one that was right up there and aligned with my mission, helped me move my mission forward.

Help me connect with my people, you know, help me kind of do the thing. Another, that Was basically useless and showed me what trying to go viral with basically useless videos can result in nothing because it's generally useless.

Okay. I hope you enjoyed this kind of silly, um, hopefully somewhat informative and enjoyable episode. I love you have a great week.