7 Tips to Help Your Startup Go Viral

I sat down with Michael Maponga and Britt Maponga, co-founders of AfrolandTV, to discuss how they researched, planned and executed a viral Twitter campaign for their company.

Michael and Britt Maponga, Co-Founders of AfrolandTV

During the incubator, Michael and Britt wanted to get the word out about their new company: AfrolandTV, an OTT streaming service with movies and TV shows focused on the stories of Africa and its global diaspora. They set to work, developed a marketing plan, and executed. Next thing they knew, their tweet had gone viral, receiving 8,000 retweets and over 11,000 likes.

So how did they do it? Was it luck or can their strategy be replicated? Here are 7 takeaways I learned about going viral on Twitter from Michael and Britt.

1. Know your audience. It’s critical to understand who you hope to engage with a tweet. What do they like? What do they do? How interested will they be in what you have to say? Spend time on the platform, not only observing, but interacting with the community before trying to go viral. Don’t forget — people are smart and can smell BS a mile away. If you want people to support you, you need to earn their trust and confidence by becoming a legitimate member of the online community first.
2. Post from your personal account. Stories of individuals resonate much more than stories of companies. In Michael and Britt’s case, though they have AfrolandTV social channels, they strategically decided to have Michael post the tweet instead. As a result, it was able to better convey their story and with much more authenticity.
3. Share good news. When someone retweets something, they are by definition posting it on their own profile and feed. As a result, it’s important that the content of the tweet is something someone would be proud to share on their own page. A generic message about a new streaming company likely wouldn’t move the needle, but a post about gaining a huge strategic investor for a husband and wife team trying to disrupt Big Tech… now that’s something different. Everyone likes rooting for “the underdog,” and there’s no reason a nascent startup shouldn’t tap into that.
4. Include Images (and pick the right ones). Not only do images enhance the emotional impact of a tweet, something critical to engagement, but they are seemingly also preferred by Twitter’s mysterious algorithms. Moreover, the image selection was not purely coincidental. Not only did Michael and Britt research the photo layouts of tweets that had previously gone viral within their community from other companies, but they also tested out different photo arrangements with close friends before settling on the ones they chose.They ended up choosing photos that conveyed their scrappiness, their credibility and their relationship. They also tested out a rough draft of the post on various subreddits before bringing their final project to Twitter.
5. Include a Call-To-Action. One of the most important pieces of Michael’s tweet was his closer: “A simple retweet can help!”. By giving Michael’s followers a specific, simple instruction, Michael made it dramatically easier for people to help him out. This is connected to a general piece of knowledge I learned throughout Techstars: make it as simple as possible for people to help you. Generally, that means being as specific as possible for what it is you want. Also, stick to one call-to-action. Keep it simple.
6. Make sure your website is ready. Going viral for the sake of it is ultimately useless unless you can convert that engagement into net new users. A viral tweet is a company’s chance to make a first impression with a new user. More often than not, they will click through to the website link in your bio, so make sure it’s ready to go and that it conveys a polished message.
7. Coordinate the initial engagement. This is perhaps one of the most important takeaways. In order to go viral, you need to give yourself a fighting chance to escape all of the other noise on the platform. To do so, you need to call on your close friends and family to all retweet and like the post as soon as it’s published. People like to share something that’s already hot, that’s already a winner. In Michael and Britt’s case, they signed up approximately 50 family members and close friends to help amplify the tweet from its launch. Picking people who command their own large followings is another tip to improve reach.

In the end, thanks to this tweet, AfrolandTV grew its subscribers by 500% over the span of only a few weeks. Boom.

If you’re interested in film and TV shows featuring African stories, go check out AfrolandTV.com. It’s free to subscribe and available across devices!