How Small Accounts Are Going Viral at Write A Catalyst
This one has fewer than 500 followers
Their read count surpasses 10,000 with one article. Our publication is made of many shining stars.
This article has the least amount of words that I have seen for a viral article at this scale.
Including the headlines, it only had 600 words.
For me, that’s like 20 minutes or so, when it flows. But I haven’t been able to get 10K read for a couple of months now.
They did it with one article. Imagine you can do the same. Yes, I dream of that too sometimes, but it never happens.
However, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn something to improve your readership.
I have found different specs on this one from many of the viral articles.
The opening was quite short, and the longest sentence was just 2 lines.
Let me show you what it looks like.
Image is worth a thousand words is true in this one.
We know that every topic has readers, and some have more demands than others.
I have to tell you that the most viral articles at this scale are in a high-demand niche.
Here’s the spec:
Title: Something about an experiment: asking a question that many people want to know.
Subtitle: give the reader a shock or some kind of expectation. (make them feel in control but remain curious)
Image: The main image display is not the same as the first time in the article. (Displayed is an image more related to the topic)
Image count: 5 images in a very short, lengthy article can kill it, but it works well on this one.
Word count without the headlines: 562 words
Reading length: 3 minutes. Can you imagine that an article with 5 images and 562 words that adds up to 3 minutes only? (I thought I was the length control freak who stuffed as many words as I could into a 3-minute article)
Opening: 10 lines with 93 words. (some short, some long sentences)
Formatting style: sandwich, but with short dialogue and uneven breaks in each section after the image.
These are some real specs that I would be looking at again.
Why does this work so well for them, even with a low following?
This writer actually uses similar formatting and structure to write about other topics as well.
The read ratio is very stunning in June and slowed down a bit in July, which is why you get 71% vs 86% in June.
Few other points that I want to make about this viral article.
Besides the short dialogues, this article actually has a lot of numbers, a bit like a survey.
The subheadline, along with the image, explains exactly what they were about to say next.
The article has 5 images, but if you think about it carefully, it actually has 6. Or looked at it 6 times.
The display or main image is shown on feeds, where the reader can decide if they want to read it or not. It was a smart move for them to use the 4th image as the display/main image.
Not putting the first image as the display image sometimes throws the reader off, but in this case, the display image was the main theme, and the first image was more of how
The closing thought was 69 words plus two short questions for CTA.
Probably the shortest ending I've ever seen, too.
The first day, it only had 2 reads and topped with 2.5K reads.
The engagement with the article is about 200 people who clapped, with 100 comments.
When your article is about to go viral, as you can see from the chart up, it goes up slowly and then all at once.
It’s not easy, but also not impossible.
I’m also learning while writing this.
Thanks for Reading
This story was originally published on [Medium] and is cross-posted here for a wider audience.
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Very interesting to know! Thanks.