Lessons from accidentally going viral

Sometimes you think about a post on LinkedIn for hours… and not much happens. Then you write something too quickly and airily – and 𝒃𝒂𝒎, almost 90,000 impressions later it has kind of gone viral, and I was even approached by a journalist from RTL Nieuws. That happened to me with a post about, yes, a cash register check 🤨

What did I learn from that?

1. Authenticity and recognizable stories work. Did everyone agree with me? Certainly not, but something was set in motion by an event from everyday life.

2. A provocative point of view attracts attention. In a presentation you can use this to immediately start with to grab attention. In the case of my LinkedIn post, the sentence “Few as annoying as...” may not have been the best choice, but fortunately, in a presentation after such an opening you do have the space to qualify a possibly TOO strong statement.

3. But: be careful with your tone. Before you know it, you start a discussion that you didn't mean. I later edited my post with an update to lighten it up a bit, but by then the 'damage' had already been done. Think twice next time, Van Dusschoten!

Does this have more to do with public speaking?

More than you might expect at first. Attention, one more tip:

Determine your goal in advance.

💥 Do you want impact? Be authentic and recognizable.

💬 Do you want engagement? Dare to stand out.

🕹️ Do you want to stay in control? Weigh your words.

Curious about how to strike the right tone and captivate your audience? Send me a message – I'd love to help you speak more confidently and convincingly. And to the people on LinkedIn: thanks for another wise lesson. See, you can even learn something from a post that you didn't really think about beforehand.

(Photo credit: Jöran Maaswinkel for Jizen Responsible Marketing)