Do you know the absolute insanity of having a social media post go viral? On Sept 21st, I matched a short video of a group of kids galloping together with candid smiles and laughs with a timely and catchy sound, then I added the photo results at the end. As of right now, that little video has clocked 9.3 MILLION views. And the numbers just keep climbing! 

I created the 31 second reel in the car on the way to a family event and didn't think much of it for several hours. Then, Instagram notified me it was doing really well and they would share it with a larger number of people. "Hmm. thought that was a given, but ok."

Here are a few of the reasons I think it went viral:

• People had to watch the whole thing to see the result. 
• I used a trending sound (Earth, Wind & Fire's September on September 21st)
• I kept the background audio which was the parents laughing and talking. It felt organic and real.
• The biggest reason? And one you will likely be unable to replicate...One of the kids is a ringer for Harry Potter. Yep. The large majority of the thousands of comments: "Harry?" "Harry Pottah" "Harry without his glasses" "How does he look more like Harry than Harry?" and it goes on. 

How I handled my five seconds of fame:

• I reacted to several of the earliest comments and replied to some. 
• I played along briefly with the Harry Potter comments, but was very careful to remain neutral. 
• I monitored the comments in general to make sure there was no negativity especially toward the kids.
• I freaked out and showed everyone I know and a few perfect strangers.

Now, at the end of October, a full 4-5 weeks later, I am still getting notified of likes, shares and comments on that video. I have shared several other posts since then, but none of them is breaking the 10k mark. In fact, they're not even breaking 5k. The fact that these newer posts aren't gaining traction convinced me that content creating is a shell game and those who are consistently viral have something really special going and more power to them! I'm happy to crawl back into my hole of anonymity and enjoy everyone else's hard work!

Click here to view my viral video!