LinkedIn is filled with narcissists, and I’ve the information to show it.
It began after I wished to go viral on LinkedIn. Somewhat than merely guessing what may work, I took a data-driven strategy, scraping posts and analyzing what drives engagement. What I found was shocking (and miserable): Essentially the most profitable posts are overwhelmingly self-centered, with individuals speaking about themselves in supposedly “inspirational” methods.
As a substitute of becoming a member of the self-congratulatory parade, I made a decision to name it out. I constructed the Viral Put up Generator, a software that mechanically creates eye-roll-worthy posts, making the formulation painfully obvious to everybody. In a pleasant twist of irony, this software mocking viral content material went viral itself.
On this submit, I am going to share how that occurred and what I discovered about product-market match, distribution, and fashionable virality alongside the best way.
The Start of the Viral Put up Generator
About two-and-a-half years in the past, I made a decision I wished to go viral on LinkedIn. That was my purpose: to jot down a submit that might take off. Naturally, I began questioning what really makes a LinkedIn submit go viral within the first place.
So, I did what any curious marketer would do. I scraped over 200,000 posts and filtered them primarily based on engagement metrics to determine distinct patterns among the many most profitable ones. I particularly checked if key phrases had been inflicting them to go viral. After analyzing all that knowledge, it was fairly apparent what was occurring.
These viral posts all adopted the identical formulation. The LinkedIn person shared some private story with numerous dramatic highs and lows, giving imprecise recommendation about “hanging in there” or “believing in your self.”
This perception led me to create the Viral Post Generator, a parody software that generates cringeworthy LinkedIn posts primarily based on minimal enter. The idea was easy:
- Inform the generator what you probably did at the moment.
- Add any “inspirational” recommendation.
- Select a cringe stage (low to excessive).
- Get a superbly crafted viral submit that mimics the precise patterns of profitable LinkedIn content material.
The technical approach was straightforward, especially by today’s standards. This was before ChatGPT rolled out to the public. Using the most viral posts of all time as inspiration, I created about 50-100 templates to serve as the foundation.
For the interactive element, an AWS library provided natural language processing to analyze user inputs, match them with the right template, and even adjust the text slightly to fit the sentence structure. The entire project came together on the no-code platform Adalo, proving that deep technical skills aren’t necessary to create something that truly resonates with people.
How a Parody Tool Actually Went Viral
Having built a tool that parodied viral content, my next challenge was getting people to use it. The initial launch fell completely flat. After sharing the Viral Post Generator across X, LinkedIn, and Reddit, all I heard was crickets. Nobody seemed interested.
This initial failure taught me a crucial lesson: Having a good product isn’t enough. Distribution strategy makes all the difference.
Pivoting tactics, I began tagging social media profiles that regularly criticized LinkedIn’s culture of self-promotion. By positioning the tool as being “inspired by them” (despite never having interacted with these accounts before), these larger accounts began sharing my product, giving me instant access to their established audiences.
On Reddit, my posts initially confronted deletion for promotional violations. By reframing the dialog to contain the group, telling them I created the software for them, and welcoming them to share their finest creations, these restrictions remodeled into alternatives for engagement.
Individuals who really feel like they helped spark an thought are more likely to assist it. By giving individuals credit score, I gave them a cause to share what I’d constructed. It was one of the vital efficient methods I discovered to succeed in audiences I might’ve by no means accessed as a newcomer.
When Acquisition Comes Knocking
Because the Viral Put up Generator began to take off, I acquired a message from the founding father of Taplio, a platform that helps customers develop their LinkedIn presence. He noticed the software’s potential as a model consciousness play and wished to accumulate it.
At first, I wasn’t positive. There was one thing extremely satisfying about constructing one thing that had my identify on it. However as visitors began to sluggish and the fact of sustaining momentum kicked in, the provide began to look extra interesting. I used to be drained. Retaining the software alive meant consistently selling it — posting, replying, and discovering new methods to maintain individuals .
Behind the scenes, the technical strain was much more intense. Sleepless nights grew to become the norm as I consistently frightened in regards to the web site crashing whereas hundreds of holiday makers had been actively utilizing it. As a solo creator with no assist staff, the stress of being “web well-known” had shortly misplaced its attraction.
After weighing these elements, I quoted what I thought-about a excessive acquisition worth. The Taplio founder instantly declined, not even providing a counteroffer. As a substitute, we agreed to a 24-hour take a look at: I would come with an advert for Taplio in my generator to measure its model consciousness worth earlier than figuring out a good worth.
The Final-Minute Viral Push
Because the 24-hour window began, I observed our numbers dropping. I wanted one final shot at making this work. I assumed, “The place have not I attempted posting but?” I remembered there is a subreddit referred to as r/InternetIsBeautiful the place individuals share cool new instruments they discover on-line.
I posted there, and it blew up instantly. Somebody noticed my submit on Reddit and shared it on X. That submit went loopy viral. Inside a number of hours, it hit 22 million individuals and almost 180,000 likes. It was fully surprising.
The chain response intensified as Reddit’s official accounts started sharing the software. Instagram pages with hundreds of thousands of followers picked it up, and hundreds of customers began posting about it throughout social platforms. In a single day, the generator reached 1.4 million customers who created and shared their parody posts.
Then got here the technical nightmare. Too many simultaneous guests crashed not simply my software however your entire internet hosting platform. An Adalo workers member later confirmed their system went down particularly due to the visitors surge to my generator. After a number of tense hours, every little thing got here again on-line, and the flood of customers continued unabated.
By the point our 24-hour take a look at concluded, the Taplio founder did not even try to barter. He merely agreed to my authentic asking worth — a transparent indication I might have requested for extra. However at that time, I used to be prepared to shut the chapter. What had begun as a weekend aspect challenge had remodeled into an acquisition success story in simply seven breathless days.
The Unbundling of Phrase-of-Mouth
Past the acquisition, this expertise revealed one thing profound about how content material spreads in at the moment’s digital panorama. Our typical understanding of virality, one particular person telling two individuals who every inform two extra, has change into outdated.
what I name “word-of-Slack” and “word-of-WhatsApp.” True virality now happens in non-public messaging platforms and closed communities, not on public social media feeds.
Fashionable word-of-mouth has fragmented into what I name “word-of-Slack” and “word-of-WhatsApp.” True virality now happens in non-public messaging platforms and closed communities, not on public social media feeds. This perception basically modified my strategy to designing shareable experiences.
After I constructed the generator, I didn‘t trouble with these social sharing buttons that no person clicks anyway. As a substitute, I simply wrote, “Take a screenshot and share it.” Easy as that. I made it so customers couldn’t copy the textual content instantly. They needed to take screenshots.
This was probably the greatest selections I made. When individuals took screenshots, they grabbed my yellow background and watermark, too. They might share them anyplace they wished, of their group chats, Slack channels, or DMs. My branding went alongside for the trip. This straightforward strategy labored method higher than fancy sharing widgets ever might have.
Put up-launch analytics confirmed that personal channels drove nearly all of new customers. By designing for these intimate sharing contexts somewhat than public platforms, the software achieved exponentially better attain than typical social media methods might have delivered.
The Amazon Strategy to Product Improvement
Amazon has an excellent framework for growing new merchandise and options. Their groups begin with the press launch in thoughts, actually typing up what they think about the TechCrunch or Enterprise Insider headline may be earlier than writing a single line of code.
This “working backward” strategy forces creators to concentrate on what makes a product newsworthy. As a substitute of making an attempt to determine what options to develop and the way to construct them, Amazon groups begin from the top: The headline that can announce the product. Solely after they’ve clearly envisioned this announcement do they work backward to develop it.
For the Viral Put up Generator, I utilized this actual strategy. Earlier than improvement, I envisioned how tech publications may cowl a software that parodied LinkedIn’s self-promotion tradition. This psychological train clarified what to construct and why individuals would care sufficient to share it.
The protection that finally got here from Business Insider, The Guardian, and BuzzFeed adopted patterns remarkably just like what I had imagined — not by coincidence, however as a result of I intentionally created one thing designed to impress a selected dialog.
By beginning with the headline you hope to earn, you create a North Star that guides each improvement choice towards a product worthy of that protection.
Tapping Into Shared Expertise
Regardless of all of the technical points behind my generator’s success, the actual magic got here from tapping into one thing deeply human. I related with a every day frustration that LinkedIn professionals skilled however hardly ever mentioned brazenly.
What I created wasn‘t only a parody software. It was permission to snigger at one thing all of us discovered ridiculous, but continued to take part in. I’ll always remember watching individuals’s reactions after they used it: “Sure! Somebody lastly stated it!” That second of recognition created a connection way more potent than any technical function might have.
This emotional aspect explains why my challenge unfold so shortly. Individuals who really feel understood don‘t simply use your product. They champion it. I discovered one thing enormous from all this: Nice advertising isn’t about fixing issues or including options. It is about making individuals really feel seen.
In a world the place everybody‘s combating for consideration, typically the most effective technique isn’t being the loudest or most cutting-edge. It‘s being the one who places phrases to what everybody’s been considering all alongside.
