I Got a Million Views on My LinkedIn Post in 72 Hours
Lessons learned and collective theories behind virality
If I knew one line has the potential to go viral in less than 72 hours, I would’ve thought many times before hitting the publish button.
Usually, what I see go viral on LinkedIn are success stories such as getting into a dream college or organisation, or a cry to help by job-seekers. My post didn’t fit in this bucket.
In fact, I thought a few times before putting it out because it was an announcement to the world. I feared the reactions I’d get. I was scared to look like a fool.
For the longest time, I’ve felt that I’m not good enough, pretty enough, successful enough, and the list goes on. But for a year now, I feel wholesome, and that has led me to do crazy things.
It ultimately made me quit my job to be a full-time writer. And that’s exactly what the post said:
Here’s a series of events and lessons that followed.
Impact > Everything Else
Someone suggested me to put up links to my newsletter and Medium profile in the post because the likes and views were shooting up every second.
But something about it intuitively didn’t feel right. The post would triple in size because of the links, and that doesn’t look catchy at all!
The post had twelve words, and that’s what made it impactful.
Consider Selling a Thought Instead of a Product
There was a follow-up post about the viral post:
According to the comments, a speculated reason for the post going viral was because it resonated with people. It hit them in their heart.
Deep inside workforce employees is a child who once wanted to be an artist or something entirely different, but life took a different path. Many people messaged me asking how can they fulfil their dreams and asked me about my journey.
Consider selling a thought for once, connecting with people on a deeper level is more precious than anything money can buy.
It Opens a Door to Opportunities
I wanted to take the first 15 days of July off to relax instead of diving into work. Since this post went viral on the second day of my self-employment, I had lots of messages and requests pouring in.
Even today, I’m clearing 200 requests every other day. With this came a week full of calls from potential clients.
You know they say luck plays a role to be in the right place at the right time, but I believe that luck is like the high school chapter on probability.
More occurrences = higher probability.
In life, consistency leads to more chances where you can strike in the right place at the right time.
You’re Not Important, Snap Out of It
I have had my bout with going viral a few times on Quora, so I know it’s futile. Today it's you, tomorrow it's somebody else. Try to snap out of the moment it takes off.
Celebrate the happiness, dance with your friends cheering for you, hell, even show off on your social media that you’re a star. But don’t let it affect your head or your work, it’s your work that led you here, so get back to it.
And that's the beauty of abundance!
It Will Mess with Your Well-Being, Don’t Let It
I fell sick. Last weekend, I slept for 11 hours and put my laptop away to recover.
I didn’t take any breaks because potential opportunities were pouring in. There are still so many requests and proposals to send to potential clients. Everything happened too soon and too fast that I didn’t know how to handle it, and I ended up overworking with zero breaks.
Ultimately, my entire body and head hurt and I knew I need to take two days off. After all, you and I aren’t so important that the world will stop because we did.
So if this happens to you, I urge you to schedule when you’ll check your notifications. I wish I did it so I could snap out of the spiral of being overwhelmed with messages, requests, likes, and comments.
Lastly
I’m really grateful for what happened.
I don’t know if the potential clients will turn into clients or if I’ll be ‘famous’ again. But the 3-day fame felt great because of the impact it made.
I even had a post written on my viral post by my colleague Ash Jurberg who is a marketing expert and explained this virality. According to him, here is what can lead to virality on LinkedIn:
- Frequency: Only 3% of LinkedIn users share on a weekly basis, so if you post more frequently, you will be ahead of 97% of the pack.
- Engagement: Like and comment on people’s posts and create meaningful conversations.
- Content: Good content matters. Avoid external links because LinkedIn doesn’t want users to be directed to other platforms.
Click here to read his in-depth analysis.
Finally, it was just a simple statement, and that's what made it authentic.
In a time full of algorithms and guides on hacking them, authenticity still wins because we’re all humans whose emotions cannot entirely be hacked.
Subscribe to my (free) weekly newsletter that leaves you healthier and happier— https://niharikasodhi.substack.com/
If you liked this, you might relish:
