How to Go Viral on Instagram

Instagram, a leading visually driven platform, offers massive opportunities to boost your profile’s visibility and engagement. Going viral on Instagram is a powerful way to attract new followers and expand your reach, as viral content gets widely shared and noticed by a broader audience.

This exposure can lead to increased interactions, such as likes, comments, and shares, ultimately elevating your online influence. However, with millions of daily users, standing out requires a strategic approach. Explore the following proven strategies to create viral content that captivates audiences and helps you go viral on Instagram overnight!

What is Considered Viral on Instagram?

On Instagram, “going viral” means achieving exceptionally high engagement on a post far beyond typical expectations. This includes an overwhelming number of likes, shares, comments, and reach. Generally, a post goes viral when it gets more than 100,000+ likes and 1000+ comments. So, a viral post often reaches thousands or even millions of users quickly.

How is Going Viral on Instagram Beneficial?

Here are the benefits of going viral on Instagram:

1. Expands Audience Reach

Going viral on Instagram helps you reach a larger audience. Your posts get shared widely, attracting more viewers beyond your current followers. This expanded reach introduces your content to people who might not have seen it otherwise. As a result your posts will gain more attention and bring in new eyes.

2. Increases Follower Growth

People want to follow accounts with popular content. Therefore, when you go viral, you naturally attract more followers. By gaining more followers, you expand your community and build a loyal audience. This growth boosts your influence and encourages more people to follow you.

3. Boosts Brand Awareness

Virality on Instagram helps boost your brand’s awareness as people become familiar with your brand. This is because many users come across your page organically as your post gets shared across multiple profiles. This leads to higher recognition and even makes your brand memorable.

4. Attracts Collaboration Offers

Brands and influencers look for reputable creators and find viral videos to associate with. As your popularity grows companies see you as a valuable partner to connect with and grow their brand. These offers help you connect with others in your industry for potential business deals, sponsorships, or co-branded projects.

How to Get Viral on Instagram

Here are the tips to go viral on Instagram:

1. Know Your Target Audience

Viewers will only watch and interact with your posts if they find them engaging or relatable. That’s why relevant content is more likely to be shared, which is crucial for virality. For this, you have to know your audience and create viral content tailored to their interests. Research your audience’s preferences, habits, and behaviors on Instagram.

Utilize Instagram Insights to learn about their age, gender, location, and the types of posts they engage with most. You can also explore the content styles that appeal to your target demographic. Once you understand your audience, craft your posts to meet their needs.

2. Boost Your Post Engagement

Instagram posts go viral due to increased engagement on the posts. When users interact with your content, your profile becomes a hub of activity. This generates social proof, increases visibility, and draws more people towards your content. You start getting featured on the Explore page and quickly get famous.

More likes, comments, replies, and shares lead to a high engagement rate, but manually getting these is a hard task and takes a lot of time. One of the easiest and best ways to boost engagement quickly is to buy high-quality automatic Instagram likes. This can provide the boost you need, jumpstart your post’s visibility, and help it gain instant traction to go viral!

3. Create Unique, Shareable Content

When users share your posts, it helps amplify your reach and spreads your message to their followers. Unique content also highlights your brand voice and personality, making your account stand out. This means you need to have a creative voice and shareable content if you want to be viral-worthy.

Grab your user’s attention with a hook and keep them engaged with distinctive content. You can use captivating visuals, emotional triggers, or humor to make posts more appealing and make users stop scrolling. Your captions should also tell stories that strike the right chord so people will be more inclined to share them.

4. Use High-Quality Visuals

Instagram is all about visual content, including both images and videos. That’s why clear and professional-looking images or videos can make your posts get noticed. High-quality content also enhances your brand’s aesthetic and makes it more likely for users to engage with your posts.

So, if your post is appealing then it stands a better chance of going viral. Get good equipment like a camera, tripod, and ring light to shoot high-quality content. Lighting plays a key role in making your content look crisp, while a tripod helps stabilize your shots by eliminating shaky footage.

Aim for natural lighting, smooth transitions, and clear audio for further improvement. Also, use top-notch editing tools and techniques for the best output. Additionally, use overlays to add extra flair to your visuals.

5. Do Proper Instagram SEO

If you want to go viral on Instagram, then your posts should be discoverable, and that’s where SEO comes in. Instagram SEO helps your posts appear in more searches and gain more visibility across the platform’s Explore page. When done right, it increases the chances of your content ranking high and getting seen by lots of users. You have to be strategic to optimize your posts for the best results.

First of all, use proper hashtags that are popular yet relevant, and don’t overload them. Also, tag relevant users and locations to reach audiences with the proper interests and in the right demographics. Then, evaluate which keywords perform best and incorporate them naturally into your captions as well as alt text.

6. Leverage Instagram Trends

You have to stay on top of Instagram trends if you want to become a trendsetter and go viral. When you align your posts with emerging trends, you tap into an audience already engaged with what’s latest. It helps your content feel fresh, relevant, and more likely to be shared.

Start by finding out about the viral challenges, trending sounds, or current events and follow them closely. Then participate in these local trends by recreating them in your unique style and adding a personal twist. Also, use trending audio in your posts to ride the wave of popular content and design your posts to align with the rave of the moment.

7. Post Consistently at the Best Times

Timely posts help you connect with your followers when they are most likely to interact with your content. Plus, posting regularly during peak times makes you get more interaction which can help you get viral. To post at the right time, start by analyzing your Instagram Insights to identify when your followers are most active.

Consider the time of day and the days of the week that generate the most engagement for your audience. Aim to publish content consistently at these peak times to maximize visibility. Also, use Instagram’s scheduling tools to plan and organize your posts in advance. Additionally, consistent engagement with your audience is essential for building momentum. Explore our automatic Instagram likes guide to ensure your posts gain steady interaction, even during peak times, to help amplify visibility.

8. Make Use of Instagram Features

Instagram offers a variety of features that can grow your visibility and increase your chances of going viral. Each feature has its own strengths and provides opportunities to engage with your audience in different ways. When used effectively, they can expand your reach and increase the potential of going viral.

Firstly, diversify your content across Instagram’s different features. For example, post more reels as the platform favors short-form video content. The reason why you find more viral reels on the platform as opposed to other forms of content.

Also, use the stories feature to share daily moments or engage viewers through polls, quizzes and direct interactions. You can also livestream on Instagram to create real-time connections with your audience.

9. Team Up with Influencers & Brands

When you partner with someone who has a strong following, you get access to their loyal community, which can help grow your visibility quickly. So, a well-executed collaboration exposes you to new audiences who are already interested in a similar niche.

Focus on creating a meaningful collab post on Instagram for both your audience and your partner’s followers. Collaborations don’t always have to be transactional, so you can co-create content that highlights both brands or personalities in an authentic way. For brands, you can work on sponsored content, giveaways, or shared reels.

10. Engage Actively with Your Audience

Your followers will interact with your posts when they feel heard and valued. This connection builds a community around your Instagram account and generates reciprocity, further increasing interaction. Moreover, Instagram’s algorithm rewards posts with high engagement and makes them appear on followers’ feeds and explore pages.

You should always respond to comments, direct messages (DMs), and even tags. Also, acknowledge User-Generated Content (UGC) to strengthen the relationship, as people love seeing their content featured on other profiles. You can also directly communicate with the audience and ask them to share your posts with their own network.

11. Cross-Promote on Other Platforms

You can tap into new audiences who may not have discovered you on Instagram through cross-promotion. As your content spreads across Facebook, X (Twitter), Pinterest, LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat, and even Reddit, it draws in potential followers who are interested in your brand.

This, in turn, increases the likelihood of your posts going viral. You can also promote your account through multiple channels, like your websites, by embedding posts on your blogs, and relevant pages. Also, attach them with your email newsletters to get much more exposure.

You should tailor your message to fit the platform you’re using. For instance, a visually driven post might do well on Pinterest or Instagram, while a text-focused post might resonate more on X (Twitter).

12. Host Viral Instagram Contests

You can create buzz and excitement on Instagram with contests and giveaways. These activities encourage followers to participate and can make you go viral. The viral nature of contests lies in the sharing and participation, both of which expand your reach exponentially.

To run a successful contest, make sure to clearly outline the rules and the benefits of participating. Ask followers to engage with your posts by liking, commenting, tagging friends, or sharing on their own profiles. It’s also important to set a time frame to create urgency. Finally, ensure you offer an appealing reward or gift for their participation!

13. Monitor & Analyze Your Performance

Tracking your Instagram performance is vital for refining your strategy and increasing your chances of going viral. By using Instagram’s built-in analytics tools, you can gather insights about your audience’s behavior and much more. This information helps you identify what is working and what is not.

Understanding the posts not getting likes or engagement allows you to adjust your content strategy. So, make it a habit to check metrics and keep an eye on your competitors to identify trends and strategies. Then, fine-tune your content to create posts that have a higher chance of going viral.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How Many Hashtags to Use on Instagram to Get Viral?

Using 3 to 8 hashtags on Instagram is recommended for better reach. Over 15 hashtags may seem spammy, while fewer hashtags may limit visibility. Choose relevant hashtags for better engagement and chances of going viral.

2. Which Content is Most Popular on Instagram?

Videos, reels, stories, and user-generated content (UGC) are some of the most popular on Instagram. These often include tutorials, BTS clips, DIYs, and influencer collaborations, driving higher engagement and viral potential.

3. What Happens When You Go Viral on Instagram?

Your content gets massive exposure and leads to a surge in followers, engagement, and brand visibility when you go viral on Instagram. This often attracts new collaborations, opportunities, and rapid growth for your profile.

4. Who is the Famous Person on Instagram?

Cristiano Ronaldo is the most famous person on Instagram, with 660 million followers. He frequently posts about his career, personal life, and endorsements, which attracts significant global attention.

5. How Long Does It Take for a Video to Go Viral on Instagram?

It varies, but videos can go viral within hours or days, depending on engagement, trends, and timing. Create shareable posts and find viral hashtags to speed up the process of gaining attention.

6. Is It Possible to Go Viral Without a Large Following?

Yes, it is possible to go viral on Instagram without having a high follower count. Viral content often depends on engagement, relatability, and timing. Even accounts with fewer followers can gain viral traction if the content resonates with a wide audience.