Stop chasing virality
Chapter 1: When attention became the strategy
For a long time, virality has been mistaken for progress. A post performs well, metrics spike, dashboards light up, and it feels like the strategy is working. Reach increases, engagement follows, and sometimes the audience grows overnight.
But most viral content creates attention without memory.
People respond to what they already recognise: a trend, a format, a platform behaviour. The performance looks strong, yet very little of that attention attaches itself to the brand behind the content. When the momentum fades, the value disappears with it.
Virality creates activity.
It rarely creates advantage.
Visibility can help, but visibility alone does not build brands. Without recognition, attention has nothing to compound into.
People follow brands they recognise, understand, and know what to expect from.
Chapter 2: Borrowed attention doesn’t compound
Trend-driven content works because it taps into something external. A sound that is already popular. A format the platform is rewarding. A behaviour people are trained to engage with.
In those moments, the attention does not belong to the brand.
It is borrowed.
And borrowed attention expires.
Audiences remember the trend, not who posted it. Engagement is quick, shallow, and difficult to repeat. Followers gained this way often do not convert or stay active, because they were never interested in the brand itself.
Over time, this creates a bigger problem. When a brand constantly adapts to whatever is popular in the moment, it becomes harder to define what that brand actually stands for. Content starts to look interchangeable. Memory becomes fragmented.
The real risk is not low reach.
The real risk is becoming forgettable.
Brands that grow sustainably do not grow because they are seen once. They grow because they are recognised repeatedly. Recognition is built through repetition, not novelty.
