Is going viral a thing of the past?

Why your business might be doing better on social media than you think.

Imagine your videos usually get around 500 views. You share a recent project, answer a customer’s question or show a little of what happens behind the scenes. The response is fairly consistent.

Then one day, a video gets 10,000 views.

It hasn’t made the national news. Nobody is stopping you in the supermarket. But it has received twenty times your usual view count.

Has it gone viral?

You might describe it as “going viral for us”. It hasn’t become an internet sensation, but it is a standout result for your business.

And that is a more useful starting point than asking why you haven’t reached a million people.

A crowded internet isn’t a closed door

There is certainly a lot of content competing for attention. In April 2025, YouTube reported that more than 20 million videos were being uploaded to its platform every day. And that is just one platform.

But a crowded internet does not mean the door has closed on reaching new people. Instagram’s trial reels, for example, were designed specifically to let creators test content with people who do not already follow them.

It is also worth remembering that we are not all looking at the same internet. Instagram personalises recommendations around the content and accounts each person interacts with. So something can be all over your feed and barely appear in someone else’s.

Rather than treating “everyone has seen it” as the goal, we think it is more useful to ask whether your content is finding an audience that matters to your business.

For a local business, a smaller, more relevant breakthrough is worth paying attention to.

Your 10,000 views are not someone else’s 10,000 views

Imagine two accounts.

One belongs to an established creator whose videos usually get 100,000 views. The other belongs to a small business whose videos usually get 500.

Both publish a video that receives 10,000 views.

For the creator, that might be disappointing. For the small business, it is twenty times its usual view count.

The same number tells two very different stories.

These are example figures, not industry averages or a target every business should aim for. And reaching 10,000 views does not automatically make a post “viral”.

We would call it a breakout post: something that has performed exceptionally well compared with your normal results. Saying “that went viral for us” is a conversational way of recognising that achievement, rather than a technical definition.

Someone else’s everyday result can still be a significant achievement for your business.

The point is not to lower your ambitions. It is to stop using somebody else’s audience as your only measure of progress.

The more useful question is: who saw it?

Now imagine a local plasterer shares a before-and-after video.

One version gets a huge number of views from people around the world, but generates no enquiries. Another reaches a much smaller audience and leads to three local homeowners asking for a quote.

Which would you rather have?

There is nothing wrong with enjoying a big view count. But when the aim is to grow a local business, we would put more weight on relevant interest than on the largest number.

It also helps to understand what you are counting. Instagram Reel views include replays, so 10,000 views does not necessarily mean 10,000 different people watched. Twenty times the views is not necessarily twenty times the people.

Look beyond the headline number. Did anyone visit your profile, look at your services or send a message? Did an enquiry turn into paid work?

Not every post needs to produce an immediate sale. Give some posts a different job: explain a service, answer a common question or show the care that goes into your work. Then judge them against that purpose.

What should you aim for instead?

Our advice is to build around useful content and meaningful progress, rather than making a viral hit the plan.

Start with your own normal. Look back at your last ten similar posts. What sort of response do they usually get? Compare the same formats on the same platform, over the same period after posting. For example, compare each video’s first seven days rather than putting a week-old post against one that has been gathering views for six months.

Keep paid or boosted posts separate from unpaid ones, too, so you are making a fair comparison.

Give people something worth their attention. Show a finished job and explain the problem you solved. Answer something customers regularly ask. Demonstrate what is included in your service. These are sensible starting points because they give potential customers something specific to learn about your business.

There is a platform reason to favour your own work, too: Meta says it is prioritising original content in Facebook Feed and Reels while reducing the reach of unoriginal content. That is not a promise of views, but it is another reason to show what you actually do rather than simply reposting what everyone else is sharing.

Learn from the posts that stand out. When something performs unusually well, ask what was different. Was the subject more useful? Was the opening clearer? Did you show a result rather than just describe a service?

Use that as a clue for your next post, not a guarantee that you have found a formula. And check whether the extra attention brought you closer to the right customers, rather than assuming a bigger number means a better result.

Choose a posting routine you can realistically maintain. The aim is to support your business, not create another full-time job.

Don’t forget what happens after the view

Suppose a post does take off. Someone likes what they see and clicks through to find out more.

What happens next?

Can they quickly understand what you offer and where you work? Can they see examples, find answers to basic questions and contact you easily?

Before chasing more attention, make sure you are ready to do something useful with it.

That is how we approach things at Uncommon Web: social media, your website and the way you handle enquiries should support each other. We would rather help you build a clear route from “that looks interesting” to “let’s get in touch” than focus only on making a view count bigger.

Perhaps it’s the expectation we should leave behind

Going from 500 views to 10,000 is worth recognising. So is a quieter post that brings in a good enquiry.

Neither needs to become an internet sensation to have done its job.

For a local business, we think the better ambition is to become known, trusted and easy to contact among the people you can actually help.

Perhaps “going viral” isn’t the thing we need to leave behind.

Perhaps it’s the idea that anything less doesn’t count.