I checked 8 "viral" video formats before starting a new account. None passed the second test

Last month I wanted to start a short video account where every video is rendered from code. No face, no camera. Before making anything I wrote down a pass rule: in the last 90 days, one platform needs 10+ videos over 1M views, from 5+ different accounts, and at least 2 of those accounts under 100k followers.

Physics ball simulations passed easily: 88 videos over 1M on TikTok, from 43 accounts. Math animations passed too.

Then I added a second test, and it changed everything: what does a random small account in that format get on a normal day?

- Ball sims: a few hundred to about 11k views per video. Followers came out to roughly 640 per million views, so even the hits barely grew the account.
- Data race charts: 34 of the 47 videos over 1M came from reupload or impersonator accounts.
- Turning math curves into sound: 10 small accounts started around the same time, none had a single video reach 10k.

I ran the same two tests on 8 formats in total. None of them passed the second one.

I still posted a test batch anyway: 7 loop videos, each landed between 320 and 504 views. The one number that tracked views best was how many people were still watching at second 10.

What I took from it: counting hit videos measures how much traffic a format has in total. Whether you can get any of it depends on who got in early and who already has distribution. When making the video gets cheaper, more people pile in, and the views go to whoever already has reach.

If you've copied a format for your own account, what did you check besides the hit videos?

Share

Comments

Aven1FX•1 day ago•2

This second test is the one most people skip. Hit videos tell you a format has traffic, they don't tell you if a cold account can borrow any of it. Other checks I'd add: (1) open 10 small accounts in that format and look at their median video, not their best one, (2) check how many of the big hits are reuploads, and (3) see if finishing the video leads to follows or just one-and-done views. Your 10-second retention point is a solid north star. If people aren't still there at 10s, the format being "viral" won't matter for a new page.

AutoModerator•1 day ago•1

If this post doesn't follow the rules, please report it to the mods.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

PeepSoWP•1 day ago•1

I’d make the comparison window explicit in that second test. A small account’s two-day-old upload and a hit’s 90-day total aren’t comparable; record views and follows at the same age after posting. Include small accounts that stopped posting too, since looking only at the ones still active can hide failed attempts.

Your seven videos give you a useful starting point, but they don’t establish that early distribution caused the difference. Did you capture each comparison account’s follower count when the video was posted, or only its current count?

creatorctrl•1 day ago•1

Did any of the smaller accounts have one clip that kept outperforming the rest of their own posts?

More like this

r/socialmedia

Social media is definitely over glamorized… As someone who quit there 9-5 & started working full time as a content creator who makes roughly 4-6k a month

Definitely changed my life & gives me so much more free time but also ruined my life. Its been 2 years & im slowly starting to hate it , especially as somebody who runs everything by themselves with no help. It’s a lot more than people think and actually having control over everything and choosing your own schedule is much harder than some people think you have to push yourself more to make the content to engage to produce to push yourself to a new extreme and much more, I will say I’ve learned a lot, but I’ve also lost a lot , my brain chemistry will never be the same again after this job, which I’m OK with that, but there’s a lot more to it than what people say, especially in the industry that I work in

about 1 month ago
120· 71%43
r/socialmedia

What social media trend are you noticing right now?

Social media feels very different in 2026. A few things I’ve noticed: \* AI content is everywhere, so real human content stands out more. \* Small niche creators often have stronger communities than huge pages. \* People now use Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and YouTube like search engines. \* Short-form video is still huge, but useful content performs better than random clips. \* Building a community is becoming more valuable than just gaining followers. I think the biggest trend is simple: \*\*Content is getting easier to create, but trust is getting harder to earn.\*\*

about 1 month ago
99· 100%32
r/socialmedia

I started requiring a 3 month minimum and the panic clients disappeared

For a long time I let every client start month to month. It felt safer to offer. No commitment, cancel anytime, low pressure. What I actually got was panic. Week two, a client would message asking why sales had not moved yet. Week three, they wanted the whole plan changed. By the end of month one, the ones who were going to leave left anyway, usually right before the content had any chance to build on itself. I was spending the first month of every engagement calming people down instead of doing the work. Earlier this fall I changed one line in how I start. Three month minimum, then month to month after that. I explain it plainly: the first month is setup and testing, the second is where patterns show up, the third is the first month I can honestly judge. Nothing fancy, no lock in speech. One prospect walked away over it and I was braced for more. None of the clients who signed have mentioned it since. Approvals got calmer. I plan a full quarter now instead of hoping each month renews. And the week two panic messages basically stopped, because nobody is deciding whether to quit while the first posts are still going out. What I did not expect is that the minimum did not filter by budget. It filtered by patience. The clients who plan in quarters stay, and they are easier to do good work for. Do you require a minimum term, or do you still start month to month? If you use a minimum, how long is it and how do you explain it?

6 days ago
83· 70%14
r/socialmedia

Two Instagram DM settings most people never turn on

I spend a lot of time helping small business and creators optimize their Instagram inboxes. It’s almost always the same few questions coming in over and over, and each one takes a few minutes to answer in between everything else. Instagram has two features made for exactly this, and most accounts I look at haven’t set up either one. **1. FAQs (also called ice breakers)** These are up to four questions that show up when someone opens a chat with you for the first time, like “How much is a cut?” or “Do you ship to Europe?”. The person taps one instead of typing and gets the answer you wrote ahead of time. You can set them up in the app, under the business or creator tools in your settings. To pick the four, scroll back through last month’s DMs and count. After ten minutes the top four are usually obvious. They only show in the phone app and only in a new chat, so people who’ve already messaged you won’t see them. **2. a persistent menu** This is a small menu that stays available for the whole conversation. Someone can jump to “Book”, “Prices” or “Order status” at any point without having to ask. You can’t set this one up in the app. It only works through Instagram’s messaging API, so you need a DM tool that connects to it. **Where a tool actually changes things** The FAQs you set in the app send one fixed reply and stop there. Set up through a tool with API access, a tap can start a whole flow: the answer, a follow-up question, then the right link. On the accounts I'm helping, people who tap an ice breaker set up this way click the link they get about 57% of the time. If you only need a fixed answer, the in-app version is fine. **Two small habits that help either way** * Put the link in your second message, not your first. A first message that’s only a link reads like spam. * Keep your first reply short enough to read in a lock screen preview. Hope you find this useful! :) and curious to know what’s the one question you get in DMs more than any other?

about 6 hours ago
12
r/socialmedia

Social media manager

Are you or do you know someone who is looking for a social media manager? I think I have a person. They assist with branding, different social platforms, and connects with all business types. Let me know if you’re interested!

about 7 hours ago
11
r/socialmedia

[ Removed by Reddit ]

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the [content policy](/help/contentpolicy). ]

about 9 hours ago
11