Founders Basketball is a community brand I started this past December that's been growing rapidly this summer.

We've landed two long-term partners, are expanding to a new city in September (announcement coming soon 👀), and went viral on Instagram this week for the first time.

How did we go viral? I can attribute it to a few things.

In this newsletter, I break down how I created and distributed a viral Instagram post and what you can learn from it.

Stick around until the end for a few simple "viral content" thought starters to get the blood pumping…

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HERE’S THE VIRAL POST

CONTENT STRATEGY

Create something “valuable” for your (target) audience

Ugh, how revolutionary, right? But what does “valuable” mean?

I recently listened to Alex Hormozi and Shaan Puri on the My First Million Podcast.

Both create a ton of content for their audience. 

In the episode, Shaan explained that his new litmus test for whether or not he should create and post a piece of content is “would I send this to my friends in our group chat?”

I love this.

Think about your audience. What content are they coming across and 1) posting it to their IG Story, 2) DMing it to their friends and 3) texting it to their friends in the group chat?

That’s the content you need to create.

Find a hook, a way to keep attention, and leave the ultimate payoff until the very end.

Here’s a piece of content advice: post more multi-slide in-feed carousels.

Instagram’s algo, at least for the time being, is pushing in-feed content as much as, if not more than, Reels.

The key, though, is figuring out how to create a hook, provide value throughout, and keep interest until the very last slide.

Instagram sees people engaging with your 10-slide carousel graphic all the way through the very last slide? It'll keep serving that content to users. Trust me.

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DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY

Find a microphone to drag your message further out than your own voice can

If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

News flash: the internet is full. How on earth can you break through the noise? 

The over-simplified answer? Distribution.

If there’s one tidbit to take from this post, it’s this:

Find niche Instagram accounts and try to get them to collaborate with them.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how TickPick is doing this to absolute perfection.

Identify 5-10 accounts and DM them

Here’s a key step that’s easy to overlook. Create the content FIRST. 

Don’t DM an account saying “Hey, I want to make a post about X and want to collaborate with your account on it. Are you in?”

No.

Create the content and then send it to them when you reach out.

Tell collab partners when post is going live

Give them a heads up, so partners can plan accordingly and be on the lookout for the post.

THREE CONTENT EXAMPLES:

• Skincare brand:

  • Content Idea: What’s the skincare routine for all of NYC’s Mayoral Candidates?

  • Distribution: Search "NYC Mayoral Election” on Instagram; find and DM 5-10 accounts that post and cover local NYC politics

• Jean brand:

  • Content Idea: Influencer day in the life, wearing your new pair of jeans

  • Distribution: Collaborate with an influencer with 20-50K followers who loves your brand, offer to create the video edit once they put a bunch of raw content in a google/dropbox folder

• Functional Mushroom brand:

  • Content Idea: Employees trying to spell “ashwagandha”

  • Distribution: Search "ashwagandha” on Instagram; find and DM 5-10 accounts that post about functional wellness products.

I hope this is helpful!

Shoot me an email ([email protected]) if you want more details on any of the content and distribution points above.

See you next time ✌️