Social Media: Is going viral a useful KPI?

By Florence Bell

SUMMARY

As arts organisations navigate an ever-evolving social media landscape, the conversation around "going viral" needs to shift. With Facebook engagement declining, Instagram Reels rising, and platforms like Threads emerging, arts marketers must focus on sustainable strategies rather than viral moments. Florence Bell, Social Media and Digital Content Manager at the Young Vic, breaks down what’s helpful (and what’s not) when it comes to setting social media goals.

Summary of a presentation by Florence Bell at an Arts Marketing Association Connector Network Meeting (London). October 2024.

As arts organisations navigate an ever-evolving social media landscape, the conversation around "going viral" needs to shift. With Facebook engagement declining, Instagram Reels rising, and platforms like Threads emerging, arts marketers must focus on sustainable strategies rather than trying to chase viral moments that might never materialise.

The viral paradox - is going viral useful?

"The irony of viral content," notes Florence Bell, "is that actively trying to achieve it often leads to failure. Success often comes from unexpected places, and what matters most is having a clear strategy aligned with your organisation's goals."

Sometimes if you’re an arts organisation viral content CAN help your organisation directly:

by resulting in ticket sales or visitors
by contributing to wider strategic marketing/comms goals like brand awareness

It can also help you in your job by:

showing your colleagues/boss how impactful your work can be

Going viral is not the same as achieving your organisation's goals. Sometimes people’s social media aim is to ‘go viral’, but that won’t necessarily help your organisation achieve what it needs to achieve in order to meet its goals. It isn’t even necessarily going to help you in your job. Sometimes it will, for instance if you're a theatre and a post about a show goes viral that can help ticket sales - but it’s definitely not a guarantee.

Two overlapping circles. On the left: your organisation's goals. On the right: a viral post. In the overlap between the two: killer social media content that works towards achieving your organisation's wider goals)

Young Vic examples of viral posts

A screenshot of a Young Vic Theatre tweet from Nov 24, 2022. The tweet shows an animated character with brown hair wearing dark clothing, looking up with a smug expression against a background of metallic fan-like blades. The tweet asks 'what theatre opinion would get you in this situation?' The image includes Twitter analytics showing 1M impressions, 10,246 engagements, 124 likes, 559 retweets, and 171 replies. The tweet also shows 1,360 profile visits and 1 new follower.

This post went viral but did very little for the organisation in terms of achieving ticket sales or meeting other goals. Reflecting back on this, one thing I would say is don’t forget about the resource and capacity that going viral takes up, especially if you’re not used to it.

Going from getting 50 comments a day tops to getting hundreds or thousands a day will probably stress you out a bit and it will definitely take up huge amounts of time.

Another example: this Facebook post from the Young Vic with a video clip from our show 'Nachtland' had a real impact on ticket sales. The key difference here is that the production clip from 'Nachtland' directly connected to Young Vic's core offering by showing a video from one of our shows. We also gained loads of Facebook followers from it.

A Facebook post from Young Vic Theatre showing a video clip from 'Nachtland'. The video screenshot shows a person in a blue jumpsuit and black jacket sitting in a chair against a beige/brown background. The video has a subtitle visible reading 'A work of art is only'. The post shows 83K reactions, 1.1K comments, and 4M plays. A comment from Jacob Sparks discusses the phrase 'I love you'. The post credits various artists including Jenna Augen, John Heffernan, and others for design, lighting, and sound. Published by Florence Bell on April 7.

Something interesting on the analytics chart is the time the video takes to blow up. There was a sharp increase at around the 17-day mark when the reach climbed to nearly 4M viewers. This slow build up in the first few days of the video's online life followed by a steep increase once it really picks up steam is something that I've seen on both TikTok and Facebook recently.

Facebook analytics dashboard for a Young Vic post showing detailed viewer metrics. Key statistics include: 4,067,282 plays, 861,625 15-second video views, and average viewing time of 0:14 minutes. The audience retention graph shows most viewers dropped off at 0:19. Total reach is 3,776,104 with 1,886,714 3-second views and 826,549 minutes viewed. Interactions include 90,033 reactions (with a breakdown showing 67,271 likes, 39,519 loves, and smaller numbers of other reactions), 1,286 comments, and 23,389 shares. A reach graph shows growth over time from 15m to 17d, with a sharp increase at the end reaching nearly 4M viewers. The post received 114,708 reactions and comments combined.

These examples from Shakespeare's Globe show strategic use of viral momentum to highlight accessible pricing. They generated both press coverage and, I expect, also increases in visitors. Success factor: Content authentically represented the venue and its mission.

A series of four Instagram posts from Shakespeare's Globe's account (@the_globe) showing their viral dog content. The posts feature guard dogs Heidi and Bella in ruffs at the Globe Theatre, with various captions including one highlighting £5 tickets. The posts show high engagement numbers: 56,765 likes, 55,058 likes, and 29,055 likes respectively. The posts are dated between February 11-19 and include positive audience comments and reactions.

Two news articles about Shakespeare's Globe's viral guard dogs. The first is from The Standard with the headline 'To bark or not to bark: Shakespeare's Globe recruits adorable guard dog' and includes a video thumbnail of a dog wearing a ruff. The second is from ITV News titled 'Meet the dogs of Shakespeare's Globe who have gone viral' dated Wed 21 Feb 3:57pm, featuring images of Bella and Heidi at the Globe. Both articles highlight how the dogs' social media presence has attracted significant attention.

Setting Realistic KPIs

Instead of chasing virality, focus on:

Platform-specific goals (e.g., different strategies for Instagram vs. YouTube)
Measurable metrics tied to organisational objectives
Realistic timelines (typically 6-month horizons)
Clear connection to ticket sales or visitor numbers

The goal isn't to go viral – it's to create meaningful connections that drive real-world results. Whether that's ticket sales, venue visits, or brand awareness, success comes from strategic planning rather than viral luck.