In today’s social media saturated world, going viral seems like the holy grail. Who wouldn’t want their posts to reach thousands or even millions of people? Viral photos are the ones that explode across social platforms, get shared rapidly by users, and bring overnight fame. But contrary to what some may believe, viral photos don’t just happen by chance. There are strategies and best practices you can follow to increase your chances of creating a viral moment. This article will explore how you can set yourself up for social media success and get more eyeballs on your photographs.
What does it mean for a photo to “go viral”?
A photo goes viral when it spreads rapidly and uncontrollably across social media platforms. Virality occurs when people start sharing your photo organically, meaning without paid promotion. This creates an exponential spread as each new share exposes your work to more users. Going viral means your photo gets imprinted on the public consciousness in a short amount of time.
Some signs your photo has gone viral:
– It receives an abnormally large number of likes/shares/comments quickly
– It gets reposted widely by influencers or celebrity accounts
– It gets featured on media outlets or blogged/written about
– It sparks online trends like memes or challenges
– It taps into cultural moments or heated topics
The exact threshold for what constitutes viral differs based on platform and audience size. But generally, viral means mass social sharing in the tens or hundreds of thousands.
Why do some photos go viral while others don’t?
Going viral is not a pure numbers game. Having 1 million followers does not guarantee your posts will go viral. Plenty of factors determine virality, including:
Engagement triggers: Photos that evoke strong emotions like awe, shock, laughter, anger or nostalgia tend to be highly sharable. Humans have a primal urge to share experiences that stir us. Provocative, controversial images also drive sharing.
Relatability: Content that taps into cultural moments people identify with tends to resonate. Think about viral photos tied to elections, social movements, natural disasters, or collective experiences like lockdowns.
Entertainment value: Amusing, funny or cute photos capture attention and provide social currency to those who share them. People want to be the one to make their friends laugh or smile.
Aesthetics: Visually pleasing, high-quality photos have an advantage when it comes to standing out in feeds and being reposted. Good lighting, composition, color all enhance the viewing experience.
Influencers: Getting influencers with large followings to share your photo can create a ripple effect of virality. Their credibility sways people.
Mystique: Photos that tell an interesting backstory or have an element of intrigue can drive users to share as they try to learn more or piece things together.
Timing: Posting at optimal times when your audience is most active online improves visibility. Virality favors photos that reach the maximum number of users fast.
So crafting a viral photo requires both art and science. Let’s look at some best practices to boost your chances.
Optimize your photo for visibility
Going viral starts with being seen. You need to capture people’s attention within seconds as they scroll. Optimizing visual impact makes a huge difference.
Use high resolution images: Pixelated, blurry photos won’t make a user hit pause. Invest in quality equipment and learn editing basics like adjusting resolution.
Pick vibrant colors: Faded photos blend into feeds. Choose images with bold, rich colors or interesting filters that make things pop.
Highlight key subjects: Use composition techniques like the rule of thirds to highlight focal points clearly. Don’t let your subject get overshadowed.
Add text overlay: Sparking curiosity with short descriptive text encourages stops scrolling for a closer look. But don’t overdo it.
Leverage stickers and filters: Many viral photos geofilter location stickers or use evocative filters available on apps like Instagram or Snapchat.
Crop for vertical fit: Most content is viewed on phones now. Crop horizontal photos to fit mobile feeds vertically.
Strategically choose content
Shooting random selfies likely won’t propel you to virality. But some subjects and styles boast better odds if you nail execution.
Leverage trends: Latching onto trending hashtags and challenges can put your content in front of engaged audiences already looking for relevant posts.
Feature cute animals: It’s a stereotype for a reason – adorable pet photos have universal appeal and high reshare potential, especially unusual breeds.
Capture striking landscapes: Scenic natural vistas trigger awe and inspiration. Think epic mountain ranges, waterfalls, canyons, night skies.
Showcase your skills: Impressive talent grabs eyeballs so showcase hobbies like music, cosplay, makeup artistry, stunts through viral-friendly formats like timelapses.
Appeal to pop culture fandoms: Fans love seeing content tied to celebrities, shows, movies and bands they adore. React to hot news involving public figures.
Pull at heartstrings: Photos highlighting kindness, hope, compassion and the human condition tend to move people deeply enough to share.
Feature local landmarks: Images unique to your city, campus or community boost pride and tend to spread within those networks organically.
Optimize your caption
Your photo might be worth 1000 words but the right caption can make all the difference. Treat it as the hook that convinces people to stop scrolling and hit that share button.
Ask a question: Posing an intriguing question inspires curiosity and commentary. What do you think is happening here? Where do you think this is? How would you caption this?
Share an interesting backstory: Provide context that illuminates something surprising or unexpected about your photo. The story behind a photo draws people in.
Use descriptive emojis: Emojis help indicate tone, mood and meaning at a glance while adding color. 😱👀🌅💯
Tag relevant accounts: Tagging others like brands, people, places and hashtags makes your post discoverable by broader audiences.
Set a challenge: Motivatesharing by offering a challenge or prompt tied to your photo. Ex: Recreate this pose and tag me!
Pose an urgent call to action: Urgency breeds viral sharing. Ex: Omg who remembers this place? Share your photos before it’s demolished next week!
Mention trends/zeitgeist: Anchor your photo in current event references and collective cultural moments happening now.
Strategically time your post
Posting when your audience is most active improves visibility and velocity. Study your vertical, followers and competitors to identify optimal timing. Some general tips:
Post mid-week: Weekdays see more sharing than weekends when people are busy with lives offline.
Post early evenings: Most users check social apps after work or school when recharging from their day. Prime time tends to be 6-9pm.
Post morning for international reach: If targeting audiences abroad, their peak hours could align better with US morning.
Use scheduling tools: Schedule posts to publish at optimal times instead of in the moment for better performance.
Leverage trends data: Many apps show data on when your followers are active. Post when the majority will see it.
Experiment with different days/times: Pay attention to when your top performing posts publish and replicate that timing.
Stay on top of time zones: Understand how your followers’ time zones differ from yours and adjust accordingly.
Grow your audience intentionally
A large, engaged following acts as a launchpad for potential virality. The more eyes you can get on your content, the better the odds it resonates with the right networks. Grow your community strategically:
Engage with your niche: Become an active part of relevant communities on social platforms through commenting, sharing and contributing value.
Collaborate with influencers: Partner with influencers to tap into their engaged followings and land credible endorsements.
Run viral giveaways: Freebies, discounts and prizes incentivize sharing with others as entry requirements.
Join Facebook groups: Participate in topical groups related to your niche with strong member interaction and rules permitting promotion.
Guest post on popular blogs: Publish on blogs read by your target audience to expose your brand and content.
Advertise strategically: Use paid tools to get on the radar of interested audiences, then let the content speak for itself.
Follow competitors’ followers: Identify key competitors and follow their engaged followers, who likely align with your audience.
Analyze follower demographics: Cater content to the gender, age range, locations and interests most represented in your current following.
Leverage influencer power
Gaining influencer support can make all the difference in propelling viral spread. But how do you get their attention and persuade them to share?
Do your research: Follow influencers in your niche and understand what content resonates with their followers before pitching.
Personalize outreach: Mass emails are easy to ignore. Craft custom messages highlighting why your photo is a great fit for a specific influencer.
Offer value: Whether it’s money, free products, or access, provide something that incentivizes them to share your photo.
Appeal to ego: Flattering influencers by highlighting how much their endorsement would mean goes a long way.
Only pursue relevant influencers: A huge follower count means little if their audience isn’t aligned with your target demographic.
Provide sample posts: Make their job easy by showing examples of how they could integrate your photo on their profile.
Follow up politely: Don’t take a lack of response personally. Follow up once or twice before moving on.
Have reasonable expectations: Not every influencer post will go viral. Focus on quality over quantity in who you partner with.
Leverage psychology
Virality hinges on tapping into human psychology and crafting photos designed to trigger high engagement behaviors like sharing. Use these principles:
Evoke vivid emotion: Photos that make people FEEL something intensely generate more reactions. Shock, awe, laughter, outrage – whatever emotion, aim for high impact.
Stir controversy: Controversy fuels discussion, debate and sharing as people take sides or express outrage.
Reward the brain: Clever illusions, hidden objects and puzzles that provide an “aha moment” when understood create rewarding shares as people show off solving it.
Feature babies/kids: Human hardwiring makes us melt at big eyes, chubby cheeks and general cuteness overload in photos of babies or young children.
Leverage FOMO: The fear of missing out is a primal driver. Implying scarcity or exclusivity triggers urgent sharing. Ex: Last chance to visit, closing forever in 24 hours!
Appeal to nostalgia: Leverage people’s yearning for the past with throwback images or cultural references, especially those tied to formative childhood memories.
Feature pets: It’s nearly impossible to scroll past a cute or funny animal photo thanks to our instinctive attraction to big eyes, soft fur and playful personalities.
Align with identity: Photos that reinforce how people see themselves, like their values or lifestyle, get shared as a form of self-expression.
Utilize data
Analytics provide powerful insights into your audience’s behavior. Use them to amplify the factors that resonate most.
Check performance data: Review stats on your best-performing photo types, frames, filters and geotags then replicate what succeeds.
Study engagement metrics: Know when your followers are most active, which posts earn the most interactions, and how long engagement lasts to inform strategies.
Analyze your audience: Demographic data on age, gender, location and interests can guide decisions on influencers to partner with, trends to leverage and content style.
Monitor competitors: Analyze what kind of photos perform best among your competitor’s audience as they likely overlap with your own.
Check real-time trends: Utilize resources like Google Trends to spot rising trends and news that present opportunities to create viral tie-in content while conversation peaks.
See who engages most: Notice which profiles comment and share your content the most then cater to their preferences and needs.
Track which posts convert: If your goal is driving traffic or sales, monitor site analytics from social media referrals to pinpoint what drives conversions.
Conclusion
Mastering virality requires patience, persistence and ample trial and error. But thoughtfully optimizing your photos, captions, timing and audience building strategy pays off in an impactful social presence and expanded reach. As public tastes evolve rapidly online, continuing to analyze data and double down on what resonates can help you stay ahead of the viral curve. Remember that striking viral gold often happens when skill meets luck. So take advantage of every edge possible, but keep firing away. Your breakout viral moment may be just one post away.