Tag: digital-marketing

MY REEL WENT VIRAL

MY REEL WENT VIRAL

MY REEL WENT VIRAL: The Content Creator Mindset

A couple weeks ago one of my Instagram reels went viral on BrightCardboardLife. I shared it with my 300 Instagram followers and a week later I had approximately 260,000 views and around 22 thousand likes. Today it sits around 350,000 views and continues to grow. For a nano Instagram account, that reel is definitely on the viral track.

Since I went viral back in 2011 on a super small YouTube account, I asked Gemini what are the chances of going viral again in June 2026? I was surprised to find out that going viral (especially for small accounts) is quite rare. The chances of going viral twice on two different platforms is 1 chance in 160 million.

GOING VIRAL A SECOND TIME made me want to dig deeper into the digital creator spaces and the mechanics and metrics of these platforms. I wanted to learn as much as I could. Here are a few thoughts that I distilled—albeit roughly—after some of my research.

1.Even though the social media and content creator space appears to be saturated, always remember this: it is always going to be easier to scroll and do nothing than to create digital content. This has been my mantra for years.

2. Coming up with your own ideas, executing them until you reach a “physical thing” or an output is going to be more of a hurdle than picking up your phone and scrolling through social media, listening to your favorite YouTube podcast or simply reposting someone else’s meme, reel or political rant. This means people who consistently create than consume will always have the upper hand.

3. There are two major psychological factors at play for a digital content creator: The FIRST psychological hurdle is this: There is the stigma or “negative perception” about digital content creation—especially by people whom you interact with in everyday life. These are the people who lurk or find out about your content.

 These people think digital content creation “isn’t really work” and so they undervalue it and disrespect anyone struggling to create content who hasn’t “Made it yet”. For the bigger accounts they chalk those up to “Well, they have a big account and they know what they are doing” etc. Or, they say “Well they’re professionals and they’re making money, so that’s different.”

The SECOND psychological hurdle is this: Most people are WAY too embarrassed, fragile and vulnerable to be a social media content creator. First, you have those friends and family who are actively discouraging you and gossiping behind your back as you make your efforts. Even more, you have strangers who, in the comment section, will publicly humiliate your own digital creations—your reels, photos, text or blog posts or any ORIGINAL digital media YOU produce.

4. But here are some very interesting facts you should consider:

Facebook is largely considered an “empty room” by many people. We see it as dead. Nobody goes there anymore, right? All our close friends BARELY POST ANYMOE and when they do, they repost someone else’s text post (copy pasta) reel, article or goofy picture

 The surprising truth is that while it appears that Facebook is largely a ghost town, the statistics reveal that it is STILL A HEAVILY USED PLATFORM. The same number of people are still passively scrolling but FEWER PEOPLE ARE USING THIS PLATFORM TO POST.

Do you know what this means? It means that you can CAPITALIZE on the SECRET LURKER PHENOMENON that is going on behind the scenes. As I type these words, I want you to:

  1. Spend less than 1% of your time checking your views or follower numbers. These numbers fluctuate.
  • Spend 99% of your time creating, curating and adjusting your content. Keep trying variations to see what works best for you.  Try reels, photos, solid backgrounds with text, intriguing quotes, photos with BOLD WORDS to freeze the scroll.
  • Be fearless to post. You know why? I can guarantee that almost everyone is scrolling by so fast by mine (and your) posts almost instantly. The statistics reveal that most content is swiped by in 1.5 to 3 seconds—and 3 seconds is long these days. The hardest part is getting someone to idle on your piece of digital content for more than 4 seconds.
  • Always come up with original ideas; post your own impressions of the world around you—whether it be your children, your home/yard, a block of text about an idea you were thinking about…how you’re adapting to a new diet. THE LIST IS ENDLESS. Just make sure it is coming from YOU and you are offering your own “Take on it”. The common theme is YOUR OWN ORIGINAL THOUGHTS/PICTURES/VIDEOS/CONTENT.
  • STOP REPOSTING OTHER PEOPLE’S CONTENT ON YOUR PUBLIC ACCOUNT. If you want to grow on any social media platform these days, your content must be traced back to your own mind. Meta (the parent company who owns Facebook and Instagram) actively suppresses reposting other people’s text blurbs (copypasta), articles, reels, political articles or funny memes. Meta marks you as a REPOSTER. In other words, you get flagged by the system as not generating your own original content and only a very small group of people (if any) will ever see your posts. Your chances for growth are stagnated.
  •   Making content is hit or miss. Some will resonate with people and do well in views and shares. Other pieces of content will fizzle out quickly. Just remember that this is true for any digital creator, even the most successful ones.
  • Be consistent with your digital content production. Remember you are creating a digital asset that will serve as future digital real estate. Digital assets can be leveraged for advertising, or creating a funnel towards other things that you might be selling. Pushing traffic towards an underlying business, book or piece of artwork is sometimes the ultimate strategy. BUT YOU MUST BUILD A DIGITAL ASSET FIRST TO GET ANY TRAFFIC AT ALL. Do you get how this works?
  • Do not worry as much about follower numbers as you are about organic views and traffic. You want your content to reach engaged viewers. If the data reveal few views—even your own followers are unlikely to be interested in your content and the algorithm will give you a bad score for your account or at least for the next posts.
  • The 2026 Algorithm focuses on raw, unpolished content. This content is vulnerable. It can seem embarrassing or humiliating. The EMBARRASMENT TAX happens to anyone who is actively building digital content in the face of judgmental onlookers.

PEOPLE TELL YOU NOT TO POST CONTROVERSIAL OR PROVACATIVE IDEAS ON FACEBOOK

PEOPLE TELL YOU NOT TO POST CONTROVERSIAL OR PROVACATIVE IDEAS ON FACEBOOK

This is something that I want you to remember: the next time someone tells you not to post a controversial or provocative Facebook post or the next time they chide you “Facebook is not the place”, you can remind them of this:

  • Nobody (or, almost no one) reads a dense non-fiction book to completion. They skip around or don’t finish it.
  • Fewer people are reading lengthy articles on the internet of any kind.
  • Fewer people are reading at all.
  • When people are “reading” they’re usually scrolling and capturing quick, short bits of information in a hurry.

The next thing you can mention is the EVIDENCE STRONGLY SUGGESTS that people spend LOTS of time hovering over and READING comments from various Facebook posters/accounts, especially if the posts are intriguing, controversial or even just slightly provocative.

I’m not talking about near nudity or explicit posts that generate the SAME kind of expected commentary. I’m referring to written posts that nudge people to read and then respond with their own intellectual take or perhaps push back with a logical and fact based retort. People are often considering all the other comments before posting their own. They don’t want to sound like they’re just repeating the same thing but have taken the time to think about the various comments and have arrived at a slightly nuanced angle. In other words, they END UP SPENDING MORE TIME on that post with lots of comments.

People are naturally curious. People also don’t always have the time to plow through a dense book that may be regarded as controversial. But somehow Facebook analytics and all the research we have until now suggests that people DO spend quite a bit of time in comment sections. If they’re not actively responding, their passively reading. And posts that make a person think for a moment will always generate more engagement, more time spent on that post.

This nonsense BS that FACEBOOK IS NOT THE PLACE TO POST SOME IDEA is NOT backed by evidence or what people are ACTUALLY engaged by or act upon. By far, Facebook is the place because people are more likely to be actively scrolling through Facebook than to be flipping through the pages of book–even if the book is controversial or engaging.

We need to rethink the common phrase “Facebook is not the place”. If you’re a digital creator, Facebook is most certainly the place. Of course you can lose followers but your reach directly expands for potential new followers or friends. Also, the algorithm constantly takes notes. It sees beyond quick likes where people scroll past rapidly vs. people hovering and reading and actually being fully immersed in a post or a string up comments below the post–even if they don’t click “like”.

I recently discovered that length of time spent is a STRONGER INDICATOR of reach and engagement than likes. Someone won’t like your post but they’ll hover over it and spend their precious time on it anonymously. Always remember that. The algorithm knows.

So if you have any interest in success measures like MAKING MONEY $$$$$$ or building a FOLLOWING in the digital sphere, you’ll need to rethink these overused expressions that really don’t have any bearing on reality.

HAVE JUST ONE HIGH PERFORMING BLOG POST!!!

HAVE JUST ONE HIGH PERFORMING BLOG POST!!!

Did you know that just ONE HIGH PERFORMING BLOG POST ON YOUR BLOG can significantly impact your blog’s success in terms of Google search? Even if you have 50, 150 or even 500 LAME BLOG POSTS and only ONE of them is doing well, your blog will be ranked higher than other blogs. This means people are more likely to discover your blog in the long run.

Let’s reiterate: Never underestimate the power of just ONE high performing blog post. This happened to me a few years ago. I continually reap the benefits of that one single post. Everyday I’m getting views and blog traffic from simply having one high performance entry. People stumble on my blog via that one post…often, they check out other posts. That one post has served as a hook– and it’s become very effective for my blog, overall. After some research, I learned that this is a strategy that most of the prominent bloggers have used to attract a steady stream of viewers. These individuals have taken steps to further their “brand” with books, YouTube videos, podcasts or various items related to their theme that they can ultimately MONETIZE.

When you have a blog, you want at least one GOTCHA POST where people spend some time. It doesn’t matter if you have a ton of content that doesn’t resonate with very many people or if they’re thinking MEH. BORING. We all have that experience WITH EVERY BLOG OUT THERE.

 All you need is one high performing post. Additionally, you will need several other blog posts on your blog to establish your presence as a blogger—at least in terms of Google’s analytics and algorithm; this will help you stand out compared to other blogs. Those posts don’t have to yield a ton of engagement time or views. Just make your blog appear active, current and make certain it has some content.

Try to post at least twice a month. Make sure you’re writing posts in your own words! People can easily copy and paste your writing into an AI to determine if you’re legit or if you’re simply regurgitating copy and paste blocks of text from another AI generator. This tool is called AI Detector, and more and more people and companies are using these detectors to screen out computer generated writing from REAL human generated writing.

Something else I recently learned? Did you know that if you’re simply copying and pasting swaths of text from an AI generator, you’ll be NATURALLY PUSHED DOWN IN GOOGLE’s SEARCH ALGORITHM? YEP! The entire purpose of blogging is for humans to struggle with their thoughts, emotions and inner experiences–and TO WRITE THEM DOWN. Blogging is by definition the BLOGGERS THINKING. It’s your own thinking…what you’re currently learning and how you’re dealing with it. Writing is a wrestling act with your own thoughts and emotions and coming up with solutions in the form of WORDS. AI generators will not have the same human touch, that similar finesse with human experiences and situations in the human would. AI written content is quickly identified by complex computer algorithms and it’s pushed down in search. But if you’re a blogger you naturally adore the writing process, so this won’t be an issue for you! You’ll use AI to help you fully understand phenomena or learn the definitions of words and ways to improve your grammar. You won’t dump a bolus of text on a page constructed from another entity.

As you start to blog and write regularly, you’ll notice that you’re improving both your writing and thinking skills. You’re also developing a habit of writing! You’ll feel that surge of dopamine as you can both use your words to influence others and to simultaneously provide information about various topics. These topics INTEREST YOU. So, you’ll be motivated to learn and then watch and see if anyone else happens to enjoy your interests as well. You get to learn and write, learn and write! It feels like you’re building a memorable tower of knowledge that even you will go back to from time to time.

Anyone, even a SINGLE PERSON SPENDING TIME ON YOUR BLOG FACTORS INTO THE METRIC OF ENGAGEMENT.  If they happen to find your blog and then leave quickly, this prices into the calculation called BOUNCE RATE. A blogs bounce rate is how fast someone finds your blog and then leaves after visiting one page. When your blog has a HIGH BOUNCE RATE it means visitors are not finding what they’re interested in. They’re less engaged so they leave after one shot. Google’s algorithm will lower your blog’s presence in search. Fewer people will find your blog. You have fewer chances of getting big. You have fewer chances of reaping any money.

In my opinion, The BREAD AND BUTTER of BLOGS are VIEWS. Not subscribers, not followers. These come and go. It’s easy to get into an emotional tither when people leave or unsubscribe. You express a political or religious view and people leave. You say something dumb. You get boring. You feel awful when you lose followers and your motivation dips. You stop writing and creating.

But views? Daily views are a signal that your blog is still providing relevant content to those asking questions on various search engines/platforms. Keep track of your daily views and let that inspire you! That’s been my main go-to in term of motivation for blogging. At least I’m getting views, even if not from loyal followers or subscribers. At least the algorithm is favoring my blog and engagement is UP!

You can let people go their way if they decide, but getting random views REGULARLY simply by speaking your mind will give you the impetus to keep going…to keep writing. Why would you want to be a slave to AUDIENCE CAPTURE? This is the phenomenon when a content creator starts to feel anxiety because they have to fulfill the expectations and interests of their audience. They become trapped. As a blogger you know you need A TON OF CONTENT TO GET NOTICED. How can you continually generate content that ALWAYS reflects the interests of your followers?

You can’t have it both ways. Either you generate a ton of content on various topics where you’re shrill and vocal–some that makes you lose active followers OR, you focus solely on what you think your readers WANT TO HEAR. Don’t do that! Be yourself. If you’ve created one momentous blog post, you’ll still be discoverable. There are so many fish in the sea and there’s way more to gain than lose if you keep presenting YOUR OWN VIEWS.

Cheers to blogging and creating that ONE POST that gets you noticed! You’ll get YEARS of success from that one single blog post.