I Went Viral on Threads (Twice)
Here's What I Learned
On September 5, a Friday night, I finishing working late in the evening and decided to post something on Threads. I have been posting there periodically, trying to learn how the hashtags work, seeing whether posts with images perform well, and playing with all the usual things someone who is by no means an expert on a social platform does.
I’d never made a “threaded post” (a long post that continues over many connected posts) so I thought I’d try it. Knowing I was probably wasting my efforts by posting so late, I posted with confidence—not at all worried. I figured if I “did it wrong,” that very few people would even see it. I watched some Critical Role and went to bed.
I woke up the next morning to a shocking number of notifications. Likes, replies, and reposts. Even more shocking was the number of views the post itself had.
I have to admit, I had no idea at first how to see how many views the post had. I was just shocked that anyone was engaging with it. I replied to every comment and watched in amazement as the hours rolled by. I ended up Googling “how many views means a post has gone viral” because at 5,000 and 6,000 views, I had high hopes that this was my moment.
Within the first twenty-four hours of posting, that Thread had over 20,000 views. So I did what anyone would do: I posted again. The same format, similar topics, but with a far less engaging hook. And it happened again. The second thread never quite hit the peak of that first in terms of engagement, but it was viewed 20,000 times in the first twenty-four hours it was live.
As of the date that I’m writing this post, here are my Threads insights:
Once I’d gone viral, I was saddled with questions and concerns:
How could I continue to grow and use this exposure for the good of my business?
What did the numbers really mean?
And how did this happen in the first place?
How could I continue to grow and use this exposure for the good of my business?
The first question I looked into was whether there was any way to boost that post to reach even more authors. Instagram and Facebook both offer options to pay to boost a post that performs well. This isn’t a method I recommend for many (or any) posts. But it can be a great way to assess whether certain aspects of the content of that post (text, images/video, call to action) resonate with the platform’s community.
I quickly learned that it did not appear there was any way to pay to boost that post. So I decided that the next best thing I could do was keep posting and keep engaging. I followed some accounts that made sense to follow, reposted the type of content that I thought would make sense to my followers, and replied to Threads from other people that would allow me to engage with content related to the same themes/topics as my successful Threads.
As far as how I could use this exposure for my business, well, I didn’t think there was anything *yet* that I could easily do or apply. I did see spikes in visits to my website, signups for my newsletter, and was even contacted through my website by two people who inquired about my services and schedule. But when you consider the volume of visibility (let’s just go with the first viral post alone) 20,600 views and counting, these numbers far from translated to meaningful growth or impact to my business.
What did the numbers really mean?
My biggest question was why, if the posts were so engaging and so frequently seen, was my follower count not growing as much as I’d expect? (For reference, I gained more than 400 followers after starting with a modest 300-something followers before I posted. (For reference, my Romance Writing Academy Instagram account has 1152 followers.) Let’s assume those 20,000+ views are comprised of people who viewed the post multiple times. Even if only 20% of those views were from unique viewers, or 4,000 people, wouldn’t it make sense that more than about 10% of those people would take an action and click follow on my account?
Clearly not.
How did this happen in the first place?
Before I draw any conclusions about this experience as a whole, I will say I think I did hit the golden formula with that Thread. Here’s what it said:
There are three things I can tell from the first 3-5 pages of a book that reveal whether an agent or publisher will pass or consider the work. A 🧵. Here’s the first one.
2/ The opening line isn’t a strong hook based on the character’s emotions or a story stake. You have about one sentence to hook your reader. The best way to do that is with emotion tied to a character that we will come to care about or with a stake of some kind.
3/ Consider these opening lines:
Conscription Day is always the deadliest. Fourth Wing Rebecca Yarros
Black boys like me don’t have magic powers. Blood at the Root, LaDarrion Williams
A Carolina first-year sprints through the darkness and launches himself off the cliff into the moonlit night. Legendborn, Tracy Deonn
4/ What do these opening lines have in common? A deep stake for the story or an emotional anchor that sinks you fast and deep into character.
5/ I wrote about these three in a recent post but comment if you want me to share more! 📝 WriterThreads
What I’d written as an attempt at a call to action is not what people responded to. I had only 3-4 replies asking for more tips. What I got instead was writers pasting the opening lines of their books and asking for input or sharing how they had revised their first lines based on my post.
That was an intensely time-consuming effort. I spent the better part of Saturday and Sunday glued to my notifications so I could reply quickly until finally the tidal wave trickled to a still puddle.
So what did I LEARN from all of this?
Since there is no way at this time to use creator tools/ads to find more followers interested in my content, I took away a few key lessons:
Building an effective social media presence really does require giving time and engaging with people. I am sure large brands can afford to phone this in, but I had to vary the types of posts I made after the first two because composing high-quality, valuable content takes TIME.
Building an effective social media presence needs to have a purpose. If I’d wanted to turn followers into clients, I would have taken a very specific strategy long-term which would differ from my current goals, which is simply to grow followers and social presence. Going viral could have helped with my purpose, but since I had no real plan or purpose, I couldn’t leverage that viral moment other than using it to better understand the platform and my own content strategy.
Building an effective social media requires consistency. I know, I know. This one is obvious. But if you needed proof, consider these numbers. My first viral Thread reached more than 20,000 views in the first 24 hours. After that, views ground to a halt, accumulating about 500 more views over the next ten days, and about 100 more views in the week after that.
What I took away from this is that any brand—author, editor, etc., needs to stay present. What have you done for me lately has never been more obvious than in the lessons of my viral Thread. Why isn’t a Thread that was clearly relevant and meaningful on Sept 6 still being seen to people following the hashtag? Only the Thread gods know. But old posts aren’t enough to stay relevant even if the content is evergreen or still valuable.
I was thrilled for the engagement that happened over my viral posts. I loved helping people who were willing to share their work online with me. I gave people support, encouragement, and I know had an impact on their understanding of craft. More than anything else, though, I gained confidence in how social media works and an appreciation of what social media can do when it works. Understanding in theory and watching those notifications pile up are two very different things!
Have you gone viral? Have a social media takeaway or strategy you’d like to share? Comment here and teach me! I’m a passionate student, and this was one incredibly fun lesson.