Is going viral just luck? In this video the host takes a TikTok account for a pet raccoon, starting from one follower, and gives himself 14 days to make it go viral. A friend tries the same thing with his dog at the same time, so the question is who gets there first.

The setup

The raccoon’s owner sent over folders of raw phone footage. The plan was to research hundreds of viral trends, edit the clips, and keep posting every day until one of them took off. The friend did the opposite: he started filming and posting videos of his dog straight away, as many as he could.

What happened

  • After an all-night editing session, about 15 raccoon videos went up in the first days. Most got a few hundred views; the best early one got about 1,000.
  • Editing turned out to be the hardest part. A freelance editor hired online pulled out because there was too much footage, so the host had to keep editing himself.
  • Around day seven, one simple video reached about 39,000 views, then stopped growing overnight.
  • The breakthrough was a short clip of the raccoon sneaking up behind its owner to give him kisses, with one line of text on screen. Viewers filled the comments with jokes about how chubby the raccoon was, and the video passed 1.1 million views.
  • After two weeks the raccoon account had about 1.5 million views in total. The dog account had over 150,000, with its best video at about 119,000.

Takeaways

  • A story beats polish. The video that went viral was not the best footage. It told a tiny story and gave people something to react to.
  • Keep posting. Many videos went out before one took off, and a video that looks like a hit can stall overnight.
  • Give viewers something to talk about. The winning video got people commenting, not just watching.
  • Keep it simple. The videos that took off were simple: one clear moment and one line of text.

One video taking off takes many tries. That is why artists, labels and brands use Sound.me to get many creators making videos with their sound at once, and why creators use the Sound.me app to get paid for each approved video.

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