How To Reverse-Engineer Your Competitor’s Viral Posts (Without Copying Them)

Are you struggling to keep up with your competitors on social media? Do you feel as though they go viral without even trying while you publish post after post with little engagement?

Your competitors have clearly tapped into what your target audience wants. You need to figure out how to do the same.

In this post, you will learn how to reverse-engineer your competitor’s viral posts so you can incorporate what’s working for them into your own social media strategy, all while still being original with your own content.

1. Identify viral content in your niche

Start by finding viral content to analyze. There are a few different ways you can do this, some of which depend on the platforms you use:

• Go to a competitor’s profile on TikTok, and change the post view to Popular
• Go to a competitor’s YouTube channel, and change the post view under Videos to Popular
• Use search terms related to your niche in each platform’s search bar
• Go to a competitor’s Instagram account and see which videos they have pinned
• View a competitor’s latest posts, and pinpoint any that have more views and engagements than others
• Use keywords related to your niche on Google. You’ll find more competitors there. See if you can find their social media profiles, then search those accounts for viral posts

It’s important that you choose direct competitors or creators who work in similar industries but receive the same number of engagements as you.

There are plenty of viral social media posts out there for you to analyze, but some posts go viral because they’re funny or surprising in unexpected ways. Others are made by personalities that are appealing to general audiences.

Posts that go viral for these reasons are much harder to replicate.

2. Analyze top 3 posts

Once you find a suitable competitor and have discovered their most popular posts, pick out three of them, preferably the three most viral posts on their profiles.

Record the following metrics for each:

• Views
• Likes
• Comments
• Shares
• Favorites/saves
• Engagement rate*

*To calculate engagement rate, divide a post’s total number of engagements (likes, comments, shares and favorites) by the number of views it received, then multiply that number by 100 to get a percentage.

If you want to determine how much of a competitor’s following engages with their content, use this formula instead: divide a post’s total number of engagements (views, likes, comments, shares and favorites) by the number of followers the competitor has, then multiply that number by 100.

Use a spreadsheet or document to make things easier. I used a spreadsheet for Buffer’s most popular posts on TikTok:

Add an identifier column to each row. In this case, I’ve added a Post URL column so I can easily identify which post each set of metrics is for.

We’ll call this set of posts 1A, meaning Competitor 1 and Post Set A.

3. Analyze your competitor’s latest posts

You can’t know what truly works about your competitor’s viral posts if you don’t know how their current content performs.

Therefore, you should also record metrics for some of their latest posts, preferably some that are at least a week old. Posts that are less than a week old haven’t reached their highest engagement count, yet.

View as many of your competitors’ posts as you feel need to, but it’s perfectly fine to only record three metrics again.

We’ll call this set of posts 1B, meaning Competitor 1 and Post Set B.

4. Conduct a full analysis

Now, you need to compare sets 1A and 1B.

In the case of Buffer, there’s quite a difference between the number of engagements they received from their viral posts versus the number of engagements they receive from regular posts.

While their viral posts received engagement rates as high as 7.65%, their regular posts only received around 3%.

What gives?

When I analyzed Post 1A1, meaning the first post of Competitor Set 1A, I discovered that Buffer’s most viral post contained the following elements:

• Viral post template
• Viral sound
• Relatable, niche-specific joke

Post 1A3 used a similar method, only this post omitted a viral post template in favor of having a team member film themselves at the office.

Post 1A2, Buffer’s second most viral post, was more personal.

The company used TikTok to advertise a job position. They had the director of the department they’re hiring in film a video in which he listed the benefits the job included then went on to film himself walking around a nice neighborhood with a child in his arms while he explained why candidates should consider applying for the position.

It was a nice change of tone that demonstrated humility as it seemed as though the company was pitching themselves to candidates more than they were asking candidates to pitch themselves to them.

Take a deep dive into your competitor’s failed posts

It’s hard to say exactly why Buffer’s latest content performs so poorly on TikTok, but of the posts I focused on, I noticed a few things.

The first is poor audio quality in at least two of the videos.

The second is the way the videos are presented. While they seem quite personable, they have corporate undertones to them that make them seem like ads.

There’s a reason why Duolingo’s social media manager brought the brand’s owl mascot to life and used him to accelerate the brand’s growth on social media through comedic content.

She knew that people scroll through apps like TikTok to laugh and find things they relate to. They aren’t interested in watching brands demonstrate their product’s latest features.

You can see evidence of this theory the more you scroll through Buffer’s content.

Over the last year, when their content discussed Buffer’s features or social media marketing tips in general, their views ranged from a few hundred to a few thousand.

But when they posted a more casual video showing some of their staff trying candy corn for the first time, their views shot up to 45,000.

This is also evidence of Buffer’s inability to find their target audience on TikTok. Comedic content will help you attract a general audience, but you’re more likely to bring in new customers if you can find your target audience on social media.

This is an example of some of the deep dives you can make and notes you can take while you analyze your competitor’s content.

Other than that, the final thing I noticed while I scrolled through Buffer’s TikTok posts is a lack of consistency.

They use a few different presenters and seem to experiment with content styles a lot. They also don’t have a consistent posting schedule. Some of their posts have more than a month in between them. Others have just one day.

What else can you take notes on?

Analyze your competitor’s posts for the following elements:

• How is their content filmed? Do they use a phone, or do they seem to record with a professional camera?
• How is their audio quality?
• What content types do they use? (Images, videos, carousel posts, tweets, etc.)
• What content styles do they use? (Viral trends, tutorials, vlogs, comedic skits, ec.)
• Which hashtags do they use?
• What approach do they use for their captions?
• Do they cross promote to other platforms?

These notes will help you understand what’s working for your competitor.

5. Benchmark your own content

Analyze your own content by gathering the same metrics for three of your most popular posts as well as three of your regular posts.

This will allow you to compare your metrics against your competitor’s metrics. Use a social media competitor analysis tool for more accurate metrics. Tools include Sprinklr, Rival IQ, Hootsuite and Sprout Social.

The purpose of this section is to understand how far behind you are in comparison to your competitor.

View counts and likes aren’t the only metrics that matter to your social media marketing strategy.

For starters, your engagement rates tell you how much of your audience is engaged with your content.

Record these metrics by view count and follower count.

View count tells you what percentage of your viewers engage with your content. Follower count tells you what percentage of your followers engage with your content.

While you may not have as many views as your competitor, if your engagement rates are similar or perhaps even higher, you know you’re on the right track.

The second thing you should look at is the number of views your most popular posts received in comparison to the number of views your regular posts receive.

How close are they? While having these numbers within range of each other is further proof that you haven’t had a video go viral, yet, it can also prove how consistent your content is.

6. How to incorporate your competitor’s viral strategies into your own

You should know what works and doesn’t work for your competitor by now. It’s time to incorporate those viral social media strategies into your own.

Clearly, comedic posts that capitalize on viral templates, sounds and trends worked for Buffer. Does this mean Social Media Curve should publish the same comedic posts as them and use the same viral templates and sounds?

Certainly not. Copying your competitors is not the point of this method. The point of this method is to understand why comedic posts work for Buffer so we can incorporate more of that into our own strategy.

Mimic the individual strategies your competitors use, but be original when you do. Don’t simply copy their ideas.

Make a list of everything that worked for your competitor in their viral posts and why they worked. This includes the extra things I had you take notes on, such as which hashtags your competitors use.

Then, find a way to incorporate each of these strategies into your own strategy.

7. Learn from your competitor’s mistakes

Like I said, your analysis will also reveal what hasn’t been working for your competitors. It’s also revealed what hasn’t been working for you.

If we use Buffer as an example again, we can try to make sure the following issues don’t creep into our own social media content:

• Audio issues – Use the built-in microphone on your smartphone, or get a reputable wireless mic. If you notice audio issues in post, re-record the clip or edit it out entirely.
• No posting consistency – Consistency is key on social media. Choose a posting schedule, and stick to it. There are optimal posting schedules for each individual platform. For example, it’s best to post on TikTok at least six times a week.
• Inconsistent content – Consistency also refers to the content styles you use. You shouldn’t post a podcast clip that only features a guest (and not you as well) one week, post a guide for your niche a few weeks later, then share a challenge you want your followers to take on a few weeks after that. Come up with solid content strategies to use, and stick with them.
• Inconsistent hosts – It’s normal for social media profiles to have multiple people host content, but you should feel as though those people know each other and are part of the same team. Buffer’s remote work environment creates an aura of disconnection when they have different team members host content without ever having those team members host content together.

Go through the list of issues you created, and see if there are ways you can use issues you have with your competitor’s content to improve your own.

8. Improve your social media strategy overall

The unfortunate truth about social media is that anyone can go viral. You could post a video to Facebook on a brand new account and have it go viral within hours all while your account with dozens of videos grows at a snail’s pace.

While you work on incorporating more of your competitor’s viral strategies into your content, improve your overall social media marketing strategy as well.

Make sure you have a consistent posting schedule. Use a social media scheduling tool like SocialBee to stay on track.

SocialBee can also help you keep track of content styles. It allows you to create content categories you can use to organize your content.

You could have one category for guides, one for tutorials, one for follower interviews, one for Q&As, etc.

Use hashtags strategically, and try to use relevant keywords in your captions when you can. This will help you find your audience on whatever platforms you publish to.

Finally, jump on trends whenever you can, especially when they relate to your niche in particular.

Final thoughts

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Or at least, not entirely.

When planning out your social strategy, use your competitor’s top performing content as your benchmark.

Reverse-engineer that content but always find ways to add your own unique spin.

There’s a lot of noise on the web and you’ll cut through it faster when you let your own unique personality shine through your content.