The Wrong Lesson People Learn From Viral Social Posts

A short essay and 3 links to things you need to check out. We are so back.

It’s funny how it’s always the social media posts you worked least on that pop off. The snarky thought you had in the shower. The hot take you fired off before your Zoom call. The post you barely edited, sent, and forgot about.

And every time it happens, the same conclusion follows: “See? The posts you don’t overthink are the ones that work.”

Right? Wrong. Because when you chalk up success to randomness or effortlessness, you miss the actual reasons the post resonated. Reasons that are repeatable if you’re willing to look a layer deeper.

Viral posts are contextual, not random. More than likely, you were reacting to a take that was already circulating, a breaking news story, or a sentiment your audience had been stewing on for a while. You were responding to something already in motion. There’s a reason “newsjacking” became a thing in the first place: people engage more when content relates to what they’re already thinking about right now, not what you planned three weeks ago. Right place, right time.

I’m not exactly sure why I chose this screenshot, but it’s the most recent viral post I’ve seen that I actually love, and I have a follow-up screenshot for you lower in this essay.

Then there’s the other common mistaken conclusion: “But I wrote that thing in 5 minutes! Firing off the cuff is what works.”

But when the work gets done that quickly, it usually means one of two things:

1. The idea had been living in your head for months, or

2. The opinion was already deeply aligned with your values

Speed doesn’t come from thinking quickly (or not at all). It comes from pre-thinking.

If you’ve turned a belief over enough times — through experience, frustration, or repeated pattern-recognition — writing it down feels effortless. The thinking happened a long time ago. It was only the output, or the result, that happened in those 5 minutes. It’s sort of like the myth of overnight success. It only seems like overnight success because one day you don’t know who someone is, the next day you think you see them everywhere. Look. Pedro Pascal was an unknown working actor for nearly 20 years before his breakthrough role in “Game of Thrones”… and even then, that was like 5 years before he became the internet’s favorite zaddy. It only looks like overnight success to us because we weren’t there for all the reps.

Similarly, in our much more humble little world of marketing, audiences respond to clarity and conviction. Not how long you workshopped a hook.

So no, the lesson isn’t “Don’t overthink it, just say it.” The lesson is to develop opinions worth expressing. Be the Pedro Pascal of marketing: do the work long before anyone’s watching.

Now on the flip side, I’m not saying that polished posts don’t work. Those well-crafted takes absolutely perform well — when you’re offering a sharp insight. Audiences respond more strongly to content with a clear point of view (even if they don’t fully agree!) than to content designed to offend no one. Because when you try not to offend anyone, you also won’t appeal to anyone.

The real pattern people miss

Here’s what those “effortless” viral posts often have in common:

• They’re timely

• They tap an existing conversation (even if they don’t explicitly reference it)

• They express a belief the creator already holds strongly

• They sound human, not optimized

And they happened after reps in pattern recognition, industry exposure, repeated frustration, and taste development. So when the moment arrived, the response was fast. It happened so fast you didn’t process how it came to be.

“Which is what ChatGPT would have wanted” sent me. 💀

The lesson you can teach yourself

If your off-the-cuff post performed well, don’t ask yourself what other random hot takes you have. Start paying attention to yourself — note which ideas irritate you, and keep track with the things you disagree with before you even write about them.

You can also ask yourself:

• What conversation was already happening?

• What belief did I express clearly?

• Why did this feel obvious to me, but not to others?

• What patterns am I uniquely positioned to call out?

Because if you misdiagnose the win as “random,” you’ll chase chaos. If you diagnose it as context + conviction, you can do it again. That’s a skill you can actually build.

🍱 Other things I’m chewing on

I’m experimenting with the format of this newsletter. For a time, I was doing a short essay + links to things I care about, and I think I’ll bring that back.

Here are things I’ve been reading — and re-reading — that I’ll probably write more about in the next couple weeks. Check ‘em out because you’ll probably care too.

🤖 NEW Research: AIs are highly inconsistent when recommending brands or products; marketers should take care when tracking AI visibility: This latest research from Rand Fishkin of SparkToro and Patrick O’Donnell of Gumshoe is a must-read. I’m worried that all of us marketers and team leaders are taking the AI hype at face value and going all in with our budgets mostly-blindly. This research is a step in the right direction because it gives us a least-worst KPI to track, and it gives us lots to noodle on for how we assess marketing performance moving forward. I’ve had to read this 3 times because I am not that smart. Maybe you’ll digest it faster. :)

🌯 The increasing costs to make California burritos: If there’s one thing I care about, it’s food. And if there’s one burrito care about (actually, there is… this is literally the only burrito I care about) it’s the California burrito. Carne asada, fries, pico, cheese. chef’s kiss. The cost to produce this burrito increased 20% from June 2021 to June 2025. Obviously, we have to pay more for it now. But please, respect your local taqueria and don’t be mad at them for the price hikes.

🧋 I don’t have a third thing: It would look better if I did, and I just tried to find something and I realized that’s silly. Ok, so I have two things. It’s fine. But if you wanna send me something to read, by all means, go ahead!