The Dote: What it's like to go viral on LinkedIn

The life of a social media rockstar

A couple weeks ago I went from a social media nobody to LinkedIn viral in one post. 300k impressions, 473 comments. And guess what? None of it really mattered, except for something I learned while reflecting on the experience.

I am the definition of social media nobody. My Instagram account is private, has 56 total posts, most recent of which was in November 2020. My X account? Worse. I didn’t have a handle until 2015, and since then have only posted a few times for less than 100 total impressions.

LinkedIn? Same story. Until recently, the most I ever did was post a picture of my family’s annual Christmas card a couple years ago because someone at work said I should.

I don’t even have TikTok.

Despite all this, I managed to craft a one-hit-wonder LinkedIn post that blew up (by my standards, at least) overnight.

So now, on the heels of my meteoric rise to fame, I am excited to announce my new $15,000 course teaching you how to go viral on LinkedIn!

…lol.

Here’s the real story around the post, what it did for me, and what I learned.

For years I’ve worn my aloofness on social media almost like a badge of personal pride. Not only do I not post, I hardly register any visible activity. I don’t like, I don’t comment. I hardly even message.

Despite being on some form of social media every day, I somehow convinced myself that I was superior to others. I judge what others post. I roll my eyes at over-the-top attention grabs. I scowl at political agenda pushers. And don’t even get me started on the back-to-back-to-back vacation posters with captions like “just what we needed to recharge” or “ate way too much gelato.”

But something has changed recently.

It could have something to do with starting my own business and being my own boss. It could be a conscious effort to stop being afraid of how others perceive me. Maybe it’s a desire to connect with more people. Whatever it is, I don’t feel the same resistance I once did towards posting about my life.

I decided to get over myself and post something on social media, just to see what would happen. I committed to posting regularly on LinkedIn as the first start to getting awareness for my business. It’s basically free marketing. There are tons of tips on how to go viral, but the only way to fight through my resistance and make my first posts was to just…write like me.

My first posts about leaving my job and starting a business got support from people I knew, but not much traction beyond that.

Then suddenly our nanny quit via a hilarious text exchange with my wife, Hannah. I took a screenshot of the messages and instantly knew it had all the ingredients to go viral.

I quickly wrote a chronological synopsis of the text thread and added some context. I had GPT give me 10 potential hook ideas. Nine of them were so cringey I wanted to throw up. One of them I knew was gold (even if it was still a little cringe). I had the whole post done in 15 minutes. Boom, send it.

I started getting comments almost immediately. I tried to respond to them—that’s how to drive engagement, right? But after 30 minutes I couldn’t keep up. I had other stuff to do! When I refreshed the stats that afternoon I had over 200k impressions and a couple hundred comments.

Here’s what surprised me. None of the views, likes, or comments meant anything. But the DMs did.

I got a dozen messages from people sharing a funny story with me, wanting to reconnect, or asking how I’m doing. I talked with friends I haven’t seen in years. I connected in 1-1 messages with people I’ve never met in person but looked up to on LinkedIn.

It also drove $1,200 in sales to Benchmark before we’d even opened for scheduling. That’s when it clicked.

Every time I post on social media there will be a handful of “me’s” out there who roll their eyes or disagree with my comments. That’s ok. Most people will probably just scroll past without a thought. But every now and then I’ll get personal messages from people who want to connect, and those are the ones who make posting worth it.

So no, I won’t be launching a course on how to go viral on LinkedIn. But I will keep posting on social media for the same reason I write The Dote—to connect with friends with the hope that some will respond. Bringing in new business is a pretty good reason, too. If I can keep getting those things, it’ll all be worth it.