Hey! I’m reviewing my past social media posts using the Social Media Viral Video Formula.
Here are some updates from last week’s post about using the formula:
- I’ll review five posts at a time. I mentioned ten last week, but I want to have enough time to properly apply the formula and make the necessary changes to the post. I have a little over 60 that I will be reviewing, so this could take all month to do. Quality is highly valued in this process, not quantity. I use this as a learning experience and want to dig deep into each post.
- The only reasonable way to track performance is to compare the average monthly views from previous months to the average monthly views in the future.
- I thought about going back and recording the number of views of all of my past 60 or so posts as of today and then keeping track of views for each post in one month, two months, etc. However, this is a lot of work, and it takes time. I don’t have the time to do this, so the logical solution is to track average views monthly. I can compare the average views on my posts month to month and get a good idea of whether my adjustments are helping increase the average number of views of my posts.
Here are some observations from reviewing the first five posts:
- 4 out of 5 of my original hooks are questions. Using a question for a hook or headline is something I learned many years ago and have used since then. For example, one hook is “What is affiliate marketing? Here is what you need to know…”. In the post, I talk about what affiliate marketing is. The question aims to have people who want to learn what affiliate marketing is stop scrolling and read the post.
- Using questions for hooks is okay, but sometimes, it can be ordinary. I’m looking to have Viral hooks. However, after reviewing the list of hooks I learned in training, I kept this post’s hook as a question. I changed the question and added a Buildup phrase, which I didn’t have in the original post. Here is what I changed it to:
- Want to learn about affiliate marketing? Here is what you need to know… some of the common examples of affiliate businesses I share may shock you!
- If you are familiar with the formula, the second part of the social media post is The Buildup. It is a phrase used to heighten attention and interest in the post. I added the phrase, “… some of the common examples of affiliate businesses I share may shock you!”. This is meant to help hook someone’s interest further because of the desire to learn some shocking examples of affiliate businesses that people never think about. Many people think of affiliate marketing as this weird side gig type of thing, when in reality, it’s everyone, but people never realize it. It’s a shock when they find out how common it is and that they shop at affiliate businesses all the time.
- Using questions for hooks is okay, but sometimes, it can be ordinary. I’m looking to have Viral hooks. However, after reviewing the list of hooks I learned in training, I kept this post’s hook as a question. I changed the question and added a Buildup phrase, which I didn’t have in the original post. Here is what I changed it to:
- Another post that I did not get many views on started like this:
- “How Pareto’s 80%/20% Principle applies to business and making money online:“
- I guess not many people were attracted to this headline! Here is what I changed it to:
- Here is something you might not know about business and making money (but can help you impress everyone at your next dinner party)…
- To me, this is more interesting. I saw a hook on my list that I had never used before: “How to impress everyone at your next dinner party.” I thought it would be fun to add this to the end of the hook, so I put it in a parathesis. It’s a double hook, and the second part is a form of Buildup (step 2 of the formula). When I read it, it seems to heighten the interest of the first phrase because I’m suggesting that what someone might learn about can be used to impress others!
In general, Steps 3 and 4 were in good shape in the posts. Step 3 is The Delivery, where I deliver quality content. Step 4 is The Action, where I provide a call to action. I did a good job with this last time, so I only made minor changes to these steps.
The steps that needed the most improvement were Step 1 (The Hook) and Step 2 (The Buildup).
Next time, I’ll work on five more posts and let you know of any progress or changes I make!