marketing-going-viral

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name: marketing-going-viral description: Use when designing, researching, scripting, reviewing, or diagnosing social media content for virality using Brendan Kane's Viral Content Model from The Guide to Going Viral, plus Alex Hormozi's hook guidance from $100M Playbook: Hooks. Helps choose platform-native formats, run Gold/Silver/Bronze analysis, identify performance drivers, generate and rank content ideas, improve hooks, retention, storytelling, and conversion. Best for social content strategy, not general brand positioning. Prefer the marketing hub when the marketing path is unclear; use this skill only for its specific framework.

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Marketing / Going Viral

Skill for engineering social content that grabs attention, holds attention, and supports business goals.

Source attribution

Primary source: Brendan Kane, The Guide to Going Viral: The Art and Science of Succeeding on Social Media (2024, Hook Point LLC).

This skill distills Kane's Viral Content Model, Viral Formats, and Communication Algorithm into reusable agent guidance. Do not quote the book or reproduce its examples at length.

Hook mechanics source: Alex Hormozi, $100M Playbook: Hooks: How to Double Your Marketing in Under 5 Seconds (2025 copyright, Acquisition.com Publishing).

Use Kane for platform-native format research, Gold/Silver/Bronze analysis, performance drivers, and retention diagnosis. Use Hormozi for call-outs, verbal/nonverbal hooks, hook testing, and first-five-seconds attention.

When to invoke this skill

• Creating a social video strategy for TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, Facebook, or YouTube.
• Researching viral content formats in a niche.
• Generating, ranking, or improving social content ideas.
• Writing or reviewing hooks, scripts, thumbnails, titles, intros, or retention structure.
• Diagnosing why a video or post underperformed.
• Turning niche expertise into content with broader appeal.
• Building an organic content process that can later support paid media or conversion.

If the task is "make this clear to buyers," use marketing-storybrand. If the task is "make this worth sharing," use marketing-contagious. If the task is "make this work on social platforms and retain attention," use this skill.

Core model

Social platforms reward content that keeps people engaged. Treat virality as a research and iteration problem, not luck.

Optimize for three pillars:

1. Grab attention. The first seconds, title, thumbnail, visual frame, or hook must stop the scroll.
2. Hold attention. The content must create tension, value, curiosity, emotional movement, or a reason to keep watching.
3. Monetize attention. The content should support business goals without letting branding or sales language kill retention.

Mindset rules

• Quality beats posting frequency until a repeatable format works.
• Win one platform first. Cross-post only after the primary format works.
• Do not copy tactics blindly. Identify the effect on the viewer first.
• Study both winners and losers. Viral examples alone create false confidence.
• Treat every content claim as a hypothesis until performance supports it.
• Avoid rigid brand-first creative. Social content must feel native to the platform.

Viral Content Model workflow

1. Pick one platform. Choose the platform that fits the creator, format, and content style.
2. Find repeatable formats. Search across and beyond the industry for formats with repeated high performance, not one-hit wonders.
3. Build a Gold/Silver/Bronze set.
   • Gold: breakout performers within the same format.
   • Silver: normal baseline performers for that creator or format.
   • Bronze: below-baseline performers within the same format.
4. Identify performance drivers. Compare Gold against Bronze to find what actually drives retention, views, watch time, and engagement.
5. Form hypotheses. Name the likely driver and the effect it creates for the viewer.
6. Generate ideas. Create at least 20 ideas before picking one.
7. Rank ideas. Prioritize ideas with clear references, a strong hook, visual specificity, broad appeal, and a likely viewer payoff.
8. Produce one iteration. Do not batch a month of untested content.
9. Compare before posting. Put the draft side by side with a Gold reference and fix gaps.
10. Review performance. Use view rate, retention graph, likes-to-view ratio, comments, shares, and saves to refine the next iteration.

Gold/Silver/Bronze analysis

When researching a format, capture:

• Platform.
• Creator/page.
• Link.
• Views and engagement.
• Follower/subscriber count.
• Performance tier.
• Opening three seconds.
• Title, thumbnail, caption, or meme card.
• Structure and pacing.
• Tension, contrast, reveal, or payoff.
• Visual and audio choices.
• Effect on the viewer.
• Hypothesized performance drivers.

Compare only within the same format. A million views may be Gold in one format and baseline in another.

Performance drivers to look for

• First-three-second hook.
• Generalist framing with broad human appeal.
• Tension and unanswered questions.
• Perspective shift or misconception reversal.
• Viewer connection through one-to-one language.
• Clear communication hierarchy.
• Cleverness: smart plus unexpected.
• Useful facts or immediately applicable advice.
• Emotional warmth, human stakes, or genuine reactions.
• Fun, play, absurdity, or sensory satisfaction.
• Strong payoff or satisfying completion.

Hook mechanics

Source: Hormozi, $100M Playbook: Hooks.

A hook sells attention before the content sells anything else.

Check every hook for two parts:

1. Call-out. The first words, image, sound, movement, label, or situation tells the right viewer "this is for me."
2. Condition for value. The viewer understands why consuming the content is worth the time, curiosity, status gain, entertainment, or practical payoff.

Use verbal and nonverbal hooks together when the platform allows:

• Verbal hooks: first line, headline, title, caption, email subject, on-screen text, or spoken opener.
• Nonverbal hooks: visual contrast, sound, prop, expression, movement, setting, pattern break, or thumbnail.

Good hooks are specific enough to attract the right audience and broad enough to avoid trapping the idea in insider language.

Hook testing

Source: Hormozi, $100M Playbook: Hooks.

Use a simple 70/20/10 split:

• 70 percent: reuse or adapt hooks already proven in your own content.
• 20 percent: model winner-adjacent hooks from other creators, platforms, or niches.
• 10 percent: test genuinely new ideas.

For every content idea, create multiple hooks before choosing the format. If the hook is weak, the content probably will not earn enough attention to be judged fairly.

Format patterns to consider

Do not treat these as the only valid formats. Use them as starting points for research.

• Visual metaphor. Use active objects or visuals to explain an abstract concept.
• Two characters, one lightbulb. Contrast novice and expert thinking to reveal a misconception and create an aha moment.
• Untold story. Open with a familiar subject, then reveal lesser-known layers, obstacles, stakes, and a satisfying insight.
• Challenge/documentary. Chronicle a difficult but accessible challenge with research, obstacles, dynamic energy, and a payoff.

Communication Algorithm checks

For broad resonance, blend:

• Feelings. Warmth, care, human stakes, personal connection.
• Facts. Concrete data, proof, useful explanation, clear logic.
• Fun. Energy, reactions, play, surprise, movement, or delight.

Avoid overusing:

• Values-based language. "Should," "must," moralizing, preaching, or claims that require the viewer to share your values.
• Autocratic language. Hard commands and sales pressure that make viewers feel ordered around.

Prefer invitations, questions, warmth, proof, and playful phrasing over force.

Idea ranking

Rate each idea from 1 to 5:

• 1: Specific, easy to visualize, backed by a strong Gold reference, contains a clear hook, broad appeal, and likely performance drivers.
• 3: Some promise, but the hook, format, or payoff needs work.
• 5: Generic, vague, jargon-heavy, lacks a reference, or has no clear viewer payoff.

Only produce the strongest ideas. If no idea deserves a 1 or strong 2, keep ideating.

Red flags

• Posting frequently to compensate for weak content.
• Choosing platforms before understanding format fit.
• Copying a tactic without knowing its effect on the viewer.
• Benchmarking against celebrities or giant brands whose reach comes from fame, paid media, or off-platform demand.
• Using industry jargon in the hook.
• Starting with "Hi, my name is..." or a slow explanation.
• Treating the hook as decoration instead of the first sale.
• Writing only verbal hooks when the platform rewards visual or audio pattern breaks.
• Making brand guidelines more important than retention.
• Producing a full content calendar before learning from the first post.
• Adding a CTA before earning attention or trust.

Output format

When creating a viral content plan, return:

## Platform focus

## Format hypothesis

## Gold/Silver/Bronze research plan
- Search terms:
- Reference creators:
- Candidate formats:
- Metrics to capture:

## Performance-driver hypotheses

## Content ideas
| Rank | Idea | Reference | Hook | Expected effect on viewer |

## Best idea to produce first

## Script or structure
- First 3 seconds:
- Tension:
- Value/payoff:
- CTA or business connection:

## Post-performance review plan
- View rate:
- Retention dips:
- Likes/views:
- Comments:
- Shares/saves:
- Next iteration:

When reviewing existing content, lead with the biggest retention or format problem, then recommend the next test.