#272: Why You Don't Want Your Social Media to Go Viral

You don’t really want your social media to go viral! 

What? If you’re hoping, wishing, even trying to create a video that will go viral, (come on, even just a little bit?) I’m about to convince you otherwise!

With the hope that you can then:

• Focus on increasing the impact of social media you’re spending time on
• Stop wasting time and energy (or just envy) on those gone-viral videos

You’ve no doubt heard that “riches are in the niches.” Meaning, that if you have an “everybody” approach to who you serve and how you market, your message doesn’t hit home for very many. It’s why Flipping 50 Fitness Specialists do so well. It’s a niche. It just happens to be a niche where now women are contacting me, saying they’d sponsor/scholarship a trainer who lives near them with the course just to be sure she gets a trainer who knows how to help her menopause fitness.

Let’s talk about some of the very few ads that appealed to a broad audience.

What Do Folgers and Budweiser Have in Common?

Remember the Folger’s commercials? It’s Christmas morning and one of the adult kids sneaks into the house having finally made it home from the army or some weather-delayed trip? He’s found first by a little sister, then the parents. And hey, it’s the holidays… that may be one of the rare commercials that spans ages and genders.

Superbowl commercials, the ones with the Clydesdales and the cute dog, do a pretty good job, as they should – it’s a wide audience of men and women at every age, everywhere tuning in for different reasons.

You Don’t Have Superbowl Reach

Then there’s you. Your ideal customer is not “everybody.” And there’s a big difference between a brand-loving ad and an ad that gets a specific customer to buy a specific service you offer that solves a specific problem.

If you run a big fitness center, you may want to work on ads that feature an emotional return right now (just post pandemic as I record). And it could appeal to a broader range with a “Cheers,” or a coming home kind of angle.

Remember that one person at a time is seeing your ad. If it’s not specific to the problem she wants to solve, promising the transformation she wants, featuring the clear message she feels speaks just to her? She’s may not even click on your ad image.

Can You Afford Loyalty Only Now?

However, those big broad ads do something you don’t want to do. They are just trying to win your hearts and loyalty. My guess is that you want and need to make sales from your messages. So being the “center of it all” is kind of not helpful. (Sorry, not sorry to someone who needed to hear that).

You really need to tell one person seeing your post the one thing that moves them into action with you. If you convince someone to get active, start their pandemic comeback but you fail to show them why it needs to be with you? You may be selling the competition who does get that message to them clearly.

People aren’t looking for “something.” They are looking for “the thing.”

Imagine This

A big fitness center with dozens of trainers has trainers who work specifically with midlife female clients. That those trainers are also seen working with men, and older adults.

Then there’s a boutique studio owner/trainer and an online trainer who both work exclusively with women in menopause.

The woman in menopause will decide between the online and boutique studio owner based on their preference for in person or online and price may be a factor. But it also may be a matter of who has the stronger brand. I want to work with the best and if I can have the best virtually, I’m going to choose that over mediocre in person. What about you?

I worked with a functional doctor in Austin Tx, while there were probably 12 functional doctors within 20 miles of me right here. Why? I wanted the best. The Austin-based doctor gave me far more value for free than a local doctor ever did. I knew that the service after we began working together would be amazing.

You are competing with the world right now. You’ve got to be better at marketing with value than you ever have in your business life before the pandemic.

Why You Don’t Want Your Social Media to Go Viral

Let’s talk videos. Because YouTube is a search engine, it’s got the most potential for virality. Is that the right word? When a video goes viral though think about it. In my life, I would have seen it, my family members – older brothers and sisters would have seen it, I would have shared it with my son.

Say it’s one of those humorous videos shared about triathletes. It’s funny for triathletes, for their coaches, for family members or ex-girl or boyfriends (who could have made the video).

But that’s a wide variety of people who aren’t going to buy the thing you might be advertising for, right? That’s young and old, men and women, athletes, non-athletes, you get the idea.

It’s not about viral it’s about value. -Sunny Lenarduzzi

Sunny’s quote comes from a podcast I recently listened to and I’ll link to the Entrepreneurs On Fire hosted by John Lee Dumis episode. There were several mic drops in the episode.

Let It Go Viral

So, sure, let your social media go viral but don’t aim for that.

When you offer value to your ideal customer, the one for the program that you’ve created exactly for that person, you’ll have immediate gratification in more leads and more sales.

If you’re still living in the land of objections:

• That won’t work for me because I’m in a small town
• We just don’t have that many customers
• But I offer personal training and I can serve anyone

I encourage you to answer these:

• If what you’re doing isn’t working why are you defending it?
• What do you have to lose by marketing better?
• If you spend a full day or more to create a program, shouldn’t you spend multiples of that to create the marketing plan for it? Do you?

If you have no idea how to write emails that get open, get clicked, and get customers…

If you leave the copywriting for your website pages to someone else…

If you know the gap between number of people landing on your sales pages and the number of people actually buying your services is huge

(or if you don’t actually even have that statistic??)

My Fitness & Health Coach Copywriting Workshop is just for you.

Respond here to be added to the invitation list. It was a bonus for the May purchase of Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist (advanced) and it’s a part of the BYB Mastermind, but you can attend too. Just send your request for more details and we’ll share it with you.

If you’re coming here after it’s over the recording will be available.

You don’t want social media to go viral. You do want your ideal customer to find it valuable.

Another episode You May Like:

3 Reasons Your Social Media Isn't Working

Would you like a fitness copywriting workshop invite? Send us a message.