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Hey - moussari here,
Today I wanna talk about the one of the most important factors of a viral video - THE SHARE
The CEO of Instagram explicitly mentioned it here, where he referred to them as ‘sends’.
On that, I’ve been seeing a lot of videos where people say the best way to get more shares,
is to make ‘share-worthy content’, and that’s not exactly helpful advice lol.
But DON’T FEAR - moussari is here 🫡
I spent the last couple of hours analysing WHAT makes someone send a video to their friend/colleague, and to put it simply:
People share videos when, and ONLY WHEN, it gives them social credit.
Social credit = Looking good to your friends/colleagues
People share when sharing makes THEM look:
Smart ("Look at this insight I found")
Funny ("I have great taste in humor")
In-the-know ("I discover cool stuff first")
Helpful ("I'm the friend who shares useful things")
Relatable ("This is SO us")
Before hitting send, people subconsciously ask: "Will sharing this make me look good, or will my friends think less of me?"
Real Examples:
They share a business tip → They look entrepreneurial/ambitious
They share a funny meme → They look like they have good humor
They share relationship advice → They look wise/experienced
They share a "mind-blown" fact → They look smart/curious
The Simple Test: Your content gets shared when the person thinks: "My friends need to see this" + "Sharing this makes me look [smart/funny/helpful/cool]”
It's not just about the content being good - it's about the content making the SHARER look good to their social circle.
TAKEAWAY
Think of sharing as someone holding up your video and saying: “LOOK WHAT I FOUND.”
If you're giving generic advice everyone already knows, it's not going to push people to share it. Make sure your next video passes these tests:
Identity test: Does this make them look smart/funny/helpful/relatable to their circle?
Ownership test: Can they be the first to share this insight?
Conversation test: Does this give them a unique angle they can debate or discuss with friends?
P.S. I'm doing account reviews right now. If you want me to deep dive and hyper-analyze your videos, click here
- moussari
1 Gal, D. (2015). Identity-signaling behavior. In M. I. Norton, D. D. Rucker, & C. Lamberton (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of consumer psychology (pp. 257–281). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107706552.010