Are you trying too hard to “go viral”?

Transcript

Hi there, it’s Peter Winick. I’m the founder and CEO at Thought Leadership Leverage, and here’s the idea that I’d like to share with you today, and that’s this: far too often, I hear from clients and people I’m talking to—authors, thought leaders, academics, and such—that all they want to do is go viral. They want to try to create content that goes viral because, if you go viral, all sorts of amazing and wonderful and special things will happen.

What I say to that is, don’t try to go viral. Try to be very real. The things that go viral that matter are things that start with your authenticity, start with your sharing your experiences, and start with your sharing the impact that you know your work has on others. Don’t be kitschy, and don’t try to use tricks to jump ahead of the algorithms or, you know, wear purple if somebody tells you to wear purple to go viral.

Be real to go viral. The more real and the more authentic your work is—the way that you present it and the way that you represent it—the higher the probability that eventually something may or may not go viral. Which really isn’t the point. The point is to have a real connection with the people that matter most to you.