I Went Viral on LinkedIn With 4.79 Million Views

300 likes a minute, 1000 followers a day, but the numbers promise nothing.

I started writing on LinkedIn when the pandemic hit in March 2020. I wasn’t regular, but I’d hit the publish button once in a while. Plus, I was the junior-most in my team at work, so I was too scared of what people will think of my opinions.

I had 250ish followers. And on July 02, I had my first viral LinkedIn post — 1 million views in under 72 hours.

The second time I went viral, I didn’t want to hit publish.

My LinkedIn audience are fairly locals from my country where our mindset and culture is rather conservative. My audience on platforms like Twitter and Medium is more global and gives me more freedom to express myself.

I was too scared of being called a clickbait, of putting up my picture on a professional platform or telling my story.

My mentor encouraged me to hit publish. Here’s an excerpt from our conversation:

Me: I can’t.

Mentor: You don’t write for yourself, you write for people. You have to serve them.

Me: But this makes me so uncomfortable

Mentor: Sometimes you need to make decisions that make you feel uncomfortable

As I hit publish, in less than 5 minutes I knew this was going to be viral.

Because getting over 300 likes per minute means virality. One week and 8000+ new followers later, here’s what I want you to know about virality.

Here’s What Happened Next

Let’s put it this way — nothing happens overnight.

My post blew up within in a few seconds of hitting publish, but a few factors to keep in mind are:

• I’m writing online for 7 years
• I’m a self-employed writer for a year
• I’m posting on LinkedIn since 15+ months
• I’m regularly posting on LinkedIn since 4 months

So it wasn’t overnight. If the above factors weren’t there, I don’t think the virality would have either.

Not to boast but to gain more credibility on virality, so you, dear reader, don’t think I’m fluffing with a onetime experience — I have had several viral answers on Quora when I wrote there as a teen. I wrote for fun but quickly gained over 59,000 followers and over 7 million views in less than 200 answers.

Will you believe me now about what I tell you next?

A new thing I’ve been doing for a few months

I’ve started engaging a lot more. I take out 15min a day for Twitter and LinkedIn each and have seen a surge in followers. Here’s what happened when I started being active on Twitter. This is my 4-week change:

One component creators miss doing well on a platform is engagement. It leads to:

• conversations
• better ideas
• opportunities
• learning
• adding value so others can follow you

Engaging is an underrated weapon you can use. It’s time-consuming but totally worth it.

It probably WON’T give you a big break

The last time I went viral on LinkedIn, I thought my career is set. People wanted to talk to me, block time, and liked my content. No calls led to conversions, I’ve had a 100% call-to-conversion rate from my Medium articles instead (ok, the sample size is only 2 here).

Views don’t promise $h!t

My friend and writing colleague with 70,000 views on her LinkedIn post landed a $2,000/ month client. My post landed me — guess how many? None. My colleague also didn’t get sudden virality. She’s a prolific writer across platforms..

Don’t make the mistake I made last time

I activated the ‘follow’ button after my last post went viral. I lost many potential followers and gathered 2580 requests that took me over four months to clear out. I now have 6000+ requests but also gained 8000 followers!

It dies….fast

The previous post took 3 days to die, and this one took about 8. It’s short-lived fame, so whatever you wish to capitalise — do it ASAP (adding CTA in comments, etc).

You may get trolled

My post was inspirational. It spoke about how it took me over 40 days to walk on my feet after a painful knee surgery. I still had one hate comment after every few comments. I only read a few hundred and saw about 3, but it still felt bad.

Must do: post more

My next few posts all got over 20,000 views, whereas they averaged 5000 views earlier. Maybe the algorithm promotes it, we don’t know. But keep posting after ‘virality’, the results will be good. This happened with me both times.

Components of My Viral Post

My write up was about my surgery with a before-after picture that's used on the cover of this article. Here’s what it said:

Day 1 vs Day 45.

The picture on the left is from the lowest point of my life, after my ACL reconstruction surgery in both my knees. I know that phrase sounds hyperbolic, but being immobile even for a day is difficult. Being immobile for weeks was incredibly hard!

This is my first post with a picture on LinkedIn because I’d rather add value than add vanity, but this one’s different.

I still remember the first day I could stand, it felt like I’ve achieved something monumental. And when I started walking 2 weeks ago, it felt out of the world! I felt free and independent.

Something as simple as walking, standing, being able to bathe or just go and brush our teeth is so normal that we don’t even realise it. If you’re reading this, take this moment to be grateful to have a functional body.

In the last 45 days, I’ve: - realised who my true friends are - have tolerated much more pain than my tolerance - finished a few seasons of Netflix series :P - built a product - launched a pilot run of a potential business

This was just my way of turning my adversity to my advantage and trying to distract myself from the pain.

But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a lot of crying, whining, and negative thinking because I felt my life has come to a halt in a moving world.

So whatever your obstacle is today, you’ve got this.

It’s super painful and some days are harder than others, but it’ll all be worth it when you stand up with pride and look how far you’ve come.

Analysing the components, it has:

• Real talk: The picture proves it, and my struggle is well explained.
• Formatting: No matter where you write, always format well keeping in mind that people may read from their phone. Keep it well-spaced, and use bullets where you can.
• Inspiration with relatability: Added to what kept me going through tough times, relatable to any obstacles people may be facing.
• End with action: After my story, I wanted to tell people to take this time out to feel grateful. That made them feel something (that’s what the comment section says too).

“Good writing is remembering detail. Most people want to forget. Don’t forget things that were painful or embarrassing or silly. Turn them into a story that tells the truth.” — Paula Danziger

Lastly, there’s no recipe. Writing often, publishing often, and engaging with others is the only not-so-secret formula for any writing platform.

Final Words

I received a collaboration opportunity that was paying me $80 to copy-paste text and post on LinkedIn. That's great money for 2 minutes of work, don’t you think?

But with my following doubling from 7500 to over 15,000+, I have more responsibility. I couldn’t just sell or talk about things for quick money. Stay true to who you are and your values because your audience isn’t stupid.

Also, after you’re done feeling great, focus on the next post. Try not to get too attached to any numbers — stats, followers, views — that's my personal secret formula I follow for writing online. My mental health is grateful for it.

All the best!

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