Why YOUR Videos Went Viral (#4)
Another in-depth look at my subscribers' online hits.
Today, I’m continuing a segment where I break down and analyze recent videos from all of YOU! In this edition, we’ll look at recent videos from wordsmith Zach Sherwin, sketch comedy trio Business Casual, vampire Steffen Hånes, NFL aficionado Jason Shulruff, and the internet’s newest rom-com duo– Jonah Feingold and Tess Tregellas. We’ll identify what factors contributed to their online reception, and explore ways to further increase viewership.
Missed the first three editions? Read them, here:
If you’d like to submit something for next time, feel free to reply in this thread with a link, or drop it in the comments below. The first section will be free, while the remainder will be available for paid subscribers only.
Steffen Hånes – “The Master”
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Quick Stats (at time of writing):
3,272 followers
(3,000 of which likely followed after watching this video)
265.7K Views, 53.5K Likes, 221 Comments, 4,783 Shares, 2,815 Saves
Like Rate: 20.1% | Comment Rate: 0.08% | Share Rate: 1.8% | Save Rate: 1.1%
Video Length: 1 min 5 seconds
Text Hook: none
Hashtags: #spooky #vampire #shutup #themaster #horror #blood #vlog #invitemein
These are some of the best metrics I’ve ever seen.
A Like Rate of 20.1% means that over 1 in every 5 users who were exposed to this video pressed “Like” on it, essentially telling their FYP, I’d like to see more of this.
And it’s easy to see why.
Hånes is a London-based clown whose vampire character “The Master” has performed to massive audiences all over the United Kingdom this past year as tour support for Britain’s Got Talent winner Viggo Venn, and is a fan favorite at Stamptown shows across Los Angeles, New York, London, and Edinburgh. So it’s no surprise a global audience would find him funny on TikTok.
He followed this one up with a post the following day, this time inside a Tesco:
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Quick Stats (at time of writing):
483.5K Views, 66.9K Likes, 271 Comments, 6,472 Shares, 2,971 Saves
Like Rate: 13.8% | Comment Rate: 0.05% | Share Rate: 1.3% | Save Rate: 0.6%
Video Length: 56 seconds
Text Hook: none
Hashtags: #garlic #vampire #spooky #tesco #allergy #uhoh #whatwedointheshadows #nandor #shopping #groceries #invitemein
Posted just yesterday, the reach has already nearly doubled the previous effort. It was a smart touch to post this video as a “Reply” to a top comment on the previous video, which likened it to a show with a similar audience, FX’s What We Do In The Shadows:
Attentive viewers may notice the dip in Like Rate from 20.1% to 13.8%. Immediately what jumps out as the cause for this is the massive shift in hashtag usage.
In fact, the only shared hashtag between the two videos is #vampire.
Personally, I would not advocate for using broad-strokes hashtags like #allergy, #shopping, and #groceries, because it’s unlikely that anyone who is fed videos in these categories would be more likely to enjoy this video than the average TikTok user.
Even though the “perceived total reach” was lower on the prior video, it unquestionably hit the exact right audience.
In other words, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
But let’s be clear that any TikTok Like Rate over 8% is strong, so to still achieve a 13.8% is a testament to how much mass appeal Hånes’ style of comedy has.
This is the true competitive advantage that seasoned live performers will always have over digital-first creators. It’s never an accident when their material performs well online, because they have crushed and bombed and triumphed and flopped in front of live audiences of all sizes, in radically different markets, hundreds of times.
Advice for Steffen:
Repost your old clips and high-quality footage of you being funny on stage, but “cut to the chase”. For instance, this third video is fantastic, and 14% of TikTokers still liked it, but it capped out at about 7,000 views. You could increase the reach to a similar level of the other two videos if you re-edit and repost it while you still have the hot hand. Consider it, “The Master, Remastered.”
Zach Sherwin – “The Crossword Show”
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