The Day My Article Went Viral

In addition to my role at MtoM, I occasionally do some freelance writing. Over the past year, I’ve added a few publications to my resume and it’s been very cool writing for new audiences across different categories. One of the publications I write for is HelloGiggles; it’s a fun, girl power-y, pop culture-y site that produces a bunch of engaging content each day. I was thrilled when they asked me to contribute. I wrote a few pop culture articles right off the bat (mostly I just declared my love for Jimmy Fallon, Louis CK, and ‘Saturday Night Live’.) I wrote about the highs and lows of having twins. When these articles would get 5,000 or even 10,000 likes, it was invigorating.

And then I pitched a story about what BFF means in your 30s. They liked the idea and soon I submitted my article. I remember looking at the piece once it was published and thinking it was a fun and honest post — but maybe a little too touchy-feely.

Later that day, I saw that the article had 30,000 likes. I was so excited! 30,000 likes! Eeeek! An hour later it was up to 60,000 likes. The next morning it was up to 150,000 likes. And I watched the numbers climb and climb and climb. I’ve never had a post ‘go viral’ and I have to admit, it was pretty exciting to watch in real time. The next day I started receiving lots of emails and Facebook messages from friends telling me that THEIR friends were posting this to their timelines. I heard from a ton of people I haven’t heard from in awhile. “Tracey! My friend forwarded me an article and lo and behold, it was YOU that wrote it!”

By the third day it was up to 500,000. On the fourth, it puttered out around 620,000. I checked the number before writing this (it’s been two months since I posted) and it’s stalled completed around 700,000.

The whole experience was exciting and energizing — something I wrote resonated with people and that’s a cool feeling. It was a unique experience that I wanted to share with you, mostly because I can’t imagine it will ever happen again. But it also confirmed something we talk about frequently at MtoM. Authentic content resonates. We work with top tier bloggers that write honest blog posts about the things that matter to them. And when they write about a brand or product for us, they use that same authentic voice. It’s just another reason why content marketing is the way to go.