I went viral for all the wrong reasons...

Over the Christmas break, I took to the streets of London to film street interviews with the general public.

Carnaby Street on a Saturday is now quite the spectacle, we bumped into 4 different groups filming content for their pages or brands in the space of an hour.

As a result, as well as being the interviewer, I was interviewed a few times.

One video got over 350,000 views...

Reading the comments is quite something, my favourite being: "I'm so glad I'm not friends with this guy".

The video was edited cleverly, making it look like I was telling an outrageous story from personal experience.

And people couldn't resist commenting.

This is why so many creators have built entire careers by being the villain.

Algorithms thrive on emotional content— the kind that makes you stop, watch, and react.

Good or bad, it doesn't matter.

Posting content over the last month has taught me a lot.

Ultimately, the first three seconds makes or breaks you, they’re not just important, they’re everything.

You have a very short window to stop the scroll and capture someone's attention, you need to find ways to hook the viewer in over and over again.

Emotional content wins. If your video doesn't make people feel something, it won't spark engagement.

I've spent hours on a video for the average watch time to be 4 seconds on TikTok... ouch.

I've come to learn going viral is a science, one I'm still working to crack.

It’s a combination of psychology, creativity, timing, and relentless testing.

It's hard, but it's worth it.

User-generated content (UGC) should be the backbone of any brand's advertising strategy in the early days.

It doesn't matter if you have 1 million followers or 0, a £10k ad budget or £0; the odds of going viral are completely democratised towards the content that is the most engaging.

If it's a good video TikTok and Reels will push it to the masses.

It's hard to tell how long this will last. I'm seeing more and more Al-generated content, and it's easier than ever to generate hundreds of clips a day, diluting the platforms.

But, even then, the most engaging, enticing content will always come out on top.

We're still pushing to get the first viral video on Firepit, we've just hit 1000 TikTok followers and now have 6 accounts on different platforms running in unison each with different kinds of content and CTAs, some to build the brand, some to drive people straight to the app.

We've systemised the creation, and are now posting up to 12 posts daily, all of which for now have a human touch within, which is an important separator for us.

And I'm confident with the processes we're building, we'll get the first viral hit soon.

When I was creating YouTube videos all those years ago, I learned it's those who stick at it long enough, test, iterate and create content that the audience wants to see who will win.

You must be in the game to win it. And we'll keep at it until we get it right.