Going viral has changed my life, but you shouldn’t try to go viral.

Take it from me - I’ve gone viral on:

• Instagram: 2 million views on 5+ videos, which led to ~60k+ followers

• YouTube: 1 million views on a video, which led to ~5k subscribers

• TikTok (previous job): 700k views on 3+ videos, which led to 40k followers

• TikTok: 1 million views on 2 videos, which led to ~800 followers

So why the huge difference in number of followers gained?

And how can you optimize your profile and content to grow your business, instead of losing leads?

Create content worth following for

People followed me because they:

• Loved my energy/personality

• Thought the content was good and wanted more

• Wanted to learn or get something from me

When viral videos don’t convert, it’s because:

• Content was unrelated to the rest of my account

• Content was more engagement-focused (people commenting opinions) than value- or goal-driven

1.2 million views, 345 follows: engagement-focused content

This video was about writing a paper with vs without a proper outline. Lots of people commented they didn’t create an outline when writing a paper, so it got 1.2 million views.

Only 345 people followed because the rest of my content wasn’t related to the video, and my other videos had nothing to do with students.

988k views, 651 follows: goal-driven content

This video shared how much money was in my investment portfolio. I had people comment asking how they could learn to do the same.

It got less views than 1.2 million, but got more followers (651).

My profile wasn’t finance or investing related, so the views to follows conversion rate could’ve been higher.

But I got more followers by appealing to a clear goal (making money) than when I focused on a random non-niche related video, even if it got more views.

591 views, 9,365 follows: value and goal-driven content

This video made my company thousands of dollars.

We locked in this viral messaging by testing hooks.

We were very specific about:

• The goal, or end result people wanted (learn in 6 weeks)

• How to get there (talking about my learning process)

• Call to action (go to our website; people checked out our profile and other related videos)

Focus on getting emails

Views → profile views → link clicks → emails

Otherwise, a lead could be lost to the algorithm forever.

(Because who knows if they’ll see your content again?)

Usually lead magnets are the fastest way to get emails.

Get emails → build trust → make offer → secure the sale

After I get an email, I redirect people to a thank you page.

It’s where I let them know about my offer (but they’ll already be aware of it from my other social media posts).

After that, I build trust with my emails (delivering lead magnet + welcome sequence).

Be clear on who you help

The day I changed my LinkedIn bio was the day someone purchased my course.

He was on the fence before, but the specificity of my messaging convinced him.

This was my new headline and bio. Read it yourself here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chouyic/

Post everywhere (once you’re consistently making posts)

In the beginning, focus on posting on 1 platform.

Get really good at creating content to attract your dream customers.

Then, focus on distribution.

Consistent, quality content everywhere builds more trust and leads to more purchases.

Notice how this email mentioned ADHD - it’s because I was specific about the people I help.

(That’s why I try to make all my courses as accessible as I can.)

Announcement: upgrade before Jan 2025 for more

I started this newsletter because I wanted to share the unfiltered, behind-the-scenes of my business.

Stuff like my processes behind creating digital products that led to $40k in revenue the last few months.

But I don’t really feel comfortable sharing everything publicly.

I noticed the last few months, as this newsletter grows, I haven’t been sharing as much in-the-weeds detail as I’d like.

So while I’ll still share a few useful tips + a summary for free subscribers…

Starting Jan 1, 2025 I’ll be paywalling most of the content in this newsletter.

It’ll be $11/month for everything I know about running a creator business.

And in January, I’m increasing it to $25/month.

If you find the content here useful, consider upgrading to premium - it’ll support the hours I spend writing these articles.

Hope to scale with you next year 🫶 

Til next week,

Jennifer

P.S. if you’re already a premium subscriber, thank you for supporting my dreams 🫶 you rock!