Kassaundra 0:00
Viral. It's the main buzzword for social media. Everyone seems to want it, but today, on the podcast, we're going to chat about why you might be thankful when your content doesn't go viral.
Kassaundra 0:14
So teacher authors, go ahead and reheat that cup of coffee because I'm your host, Kassaundra Foster, and we're about to get Schooled in Socials.
Kassaundra 0:24
Welcome back to Schooled in Socials. I bet when you tuned in today, you weren't expecting me to be thankful for not going viral. I mean, everyone wants to post a reel and log in the next day and see it got a million views, right? Well, it's a little more complicated than that, a little more double edged sword than that.
Kassaundra 0:48
I made a reel a while back on this topic, and I'll link it in the show notes so you can giggle at it later. But I purposely used one of my favorite lines from the office in that reel. In the episode, Michael is trying to withhold valuable leads from the sales department to teach them a lesson, and he's trying to explain this in a meeting, and people are just peacing out -they don't care. So he stops Dwight in the door, and he says, I would like your undivided attention, please. And Dwight immediately shoots back, you couldn't handle my undivided attention, and in that moment, all I could hear was the algorithm speaking. We're out here creating content, trying to get the algorithm to skyrocket it to the top. But if we got the algorithms undivided attention, per se, we could be in for way more than we bargained for. What I mean by that is sometimes we kind of end up on the dark side of social media, the place where the trolls live, and we can land ourselves in a big moderation pickle trying to handle all the comments coming in. So waking up to 1 million views feels super cool, but looking at all of those reactions might not be and whether you're actively trying to go viral or not, we all have the potential to end up in this sticky situation. So just know that if you do, in fact, get the algorithms undivided attention, you can always turn off commenting on your post. You don't have to let the trolls have a platform. Beyond that, though, sometimes when people go viral, they wake up to a huge spike in followers. That sounds good, right? What's the problem? Well, all of those new followers might not be their ideal audience. Have you ever posted something and notice that all of a sudden, it isn't teachers interacting with your content? Maybe it's cat lovers, because you shared a montage of your cat in the reel. If that goes viral and a bunch of cat lovers follow you, that could be a problem, because now that's a signal to the algorithm that cat lovers will probably like your content, so it will push your content out to them, and they're not going to care about fifth grade math worksheets, so your engagement plummets. Now this is very important for you to hear. I'm not telling you that you shouldn't strive for great content that does well and gets a lot of engagement. I just want you to realize that viral isn't necessarily the goal here.
Kassaundra 3:29
So you're probably thinking yourself, okay, Kassaundra, if viral isn't the goal here with my content, what is then? It's a great question. I would love for us to shift our mindset from going viral to focusing on getting our content in front of the right people. We want to increase our non follower reach and make sure those non followers who see us are our ideal client by making sure we know our audience really, really well. So how do we increase this kind of non follower reach? If you already have a copy of post and profit, we chat all about this in Module 11. There's a step by step plan for what type of content to create to increase non follower reach, and I show you where to look so you can measure if that strategic content is reaching your goal. In general, though, we increase our non follower reach by using media types that get the most overall reach, reels and carousels, and by using content types that tend to get the most reach, entertaining and connecting content. And we pair those things with an understanding of our audience, so that we're using keywords that pertain to them, and we're addressing a topic that resonates with them, that gives us the perfect little storm to bring more people into our community without having to go viral.
Kassaundra 4:56
So when it comes down to it, stop trying to go viral. Instead, make a strategic plan, and let's increase your non follower reach to grow your community.
Kassaundra 5:09
And if learning how to get more strategic on social media, or the thought of having to create your own strategic plan in the season just feels like too much, I can help you and take one thing off your plate as we head into the new year with my quarterly data analysis service. I'll do the heavy lifting when it comes to your Instagram data and give you the guidance you need to make sure your content is planned in a way that's aligned to your goals and takes into account what your audience is already asking for. You can learn more and get on the wait list right in the show notes.
Kassaundra 5:46
Alright, cold coffee, friends. Thanks so much for listening. If you're loving getting Schooled in Socials, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Also, I would love it if you left a review, so that other teacher authors like you can start getting schooled in socials too. All right, I'll see you in the next episode.