How to Go Viral on TikTok and Instagram: Strategy that works in Qatar.

 

Introduction

Social media has moved far beyond being just another channel marketers use to communicate with potential customers. Social media now serves as an engine of growth for businesses. Social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are prime examples of this growth. In Qatar where there’s an abundance of active users on online platforms, brands can gain greater visibility and have more meaningful interactions, as they create viral videos. However, to create viral videos, marketers will need more than just luck. They will need to have a comprehensive strategy based upon trends, customer behavior, and the algorithms of the platform being used. Businesses can tap into the resources of a marketing agency (like Follow Me Solutions) to assist them in creating effective videos, optimizing their posting strategies, and leveraging analytics to increase their reach. This blog highlights the best strategies that can help your brand create viral videos on TikTok and Instagram in the Qatari market.

1. Understand the Platform Dynamics

Every platform has its own unique characteristics that dictate how well the content will do on them.

• TikTok’s algorithm favors videos that are trending, entertaining and short form in length. The algorithm utilizes engagement signals of the content such as views, shares and comments to make decisions
• Instagram tends to be more of a platform that favors visual stories. The best performance content on Instagram is typically through Reels, Stories and Carousel posts. The higher the level of challenges in terms of engagement, saves and shares, the greater the potential to be shown to more viewers.

The content on each platform should be created to meet the requirements of each original network, rather than shared together as a single piece of creative content from one platform to the next. In Qatar, local trending hashtags, localized cultural content and popular songs track can all create massive increases in the potential for virality. Agencies can monitor the various native trends, user engagement and competitor content on a specific platform to shoot a campaign that takes advantage of that engagement and reach.

2. Content That Captures Attention

The first step in creating content that may go viral is to capture the viewers’ attention. The first few seconds of a TikTok video or Instagram post will determine if the user continues watching or scroll past it is important to utilize strong hooks in the opening 2–3 seconds of these videos and posts as that is what will help to create a successful piece of content. There are additional methods to make captivating content, which will also help with going viral.

• Make your videos visually captivating to gain viewer interest and keep them watching the video (text overlay, bright colors, movement, etc.)
• Tell a story or create relatable scenarios that will allow for an emotional connection to develop with the viewer.
• Make the viewer feel involved by engaging with them through interactive polls, challenges, & calls to action (CTAs).

In Qatar, brands can create viral content by using local culture, lifestyle & humor that will resonate with the audience while remaining authentic brands can successfully create and measure what types of content format were successful through combining creative expertise and analytics (measured/quantified) to determine what types were most effective for their brand.

3. Leverage Trends and Challenges

Trends & challenges are the quickest way to create viral content.

• Join popular TikTok Challenges and Hashtags relevant to your brand and create content that pertains to those trends/challenges.
• Create Instagram Reels (videos) using trending music/audio tracks.
• Monitor the trends in your region, for example: what is trending in Doha or the greater GCC market.

Agencies will monitor these trends in real-time so that brands can produce timely & shareable content. By creating content that utilizes both trends & challenges in conjunction with their brand message will provide their business additional visibility while maintaining authentic messaging for their brand. In addition, working with local influencers/micro-influencers will increase their visibility & credibility.

4. Optimize Your Posting Plan

• The frequency, time of day, and how often you post can help or hinder your viral potential.
• Pick dates/times according to your audience. Each social media platform will have unique peak hours for your demographic.
• Your posting frequency should be consistent for maximum engagement.
• Analyze your metrics and use what worked to create new content.

Determine what’s the best mix of global and local trends relevant to businesses in Qatar. Content calendars are essential in maximizing a business’s reach, so that every post can go viral.

5. Improve Data measuring, evaluating, and changing strategy will determine how viral your business becomes.

• Track unaudited metrics for likes, shares, comments, save for later, and length of time viewed.
• Evaluate your audience’s demographics and behavior to improve targeting.
• Test various captioning methods, formats, and hashtags.

The Internet is a very fast-paced environment in Qatar; therefore, agencies should always be testing, analyzing, adjusting.

Conclusion

To gain a viral presence on TikTok and Instagram in Qatar, brands must implement strategic approaches based on creativity and analytical insights. By knowing how to best use different social networking sites and creating interesting visual marketing, you can improve your brand’s reach and engagement using several different strategies such as, understanding how social media works, creating visually appealing marketing material, using trending topics around your marketing goals and optimizing your company’s frequency of posts for maximum exposure. At FollowMe Solutions, we would like to assist your business with generating a viral campaign for the GCC and Qatar region through our skills in content development and analytics. We will provide the resources needed to fulfil each of the guidelines mentioned above, so that you can achieve your company objectives in either the GCC or Qatar regions.