A 4-Step Strategy to Find Viral Video Formats and Grow Your Personal Brand

Mino Lee

Summary:

This video presents a 4-step strategy for content creators to achieve virality and grow their personal brand, based on the speaker's experience gaining 24 million views and 94,000 followers from 10 videos.

The strategy involves:

• Studying successful creators outside your niche to gain fresh perspectives on hooks and content styles.
• Mastering viral scripting by crafting specific hooks that address relatable pain points, and ruthlessly cutting out all unnecessary details to maintain viewer retention.
• Implementing viral editing techniques, specifically using familiar auto-captions (2-3 words at a time, classic font) and eliminating all "dead space" or pauses over 0.3 seconds.
• Committing to consistent posting and continuous improvement over 1-3 years, recognizing that virality is a skill built over time, not an overnight luck event.

  

Introduction to Viral Content [0:00]

The speaker shares his personal success story, where a series of 10 Instagram videos using the same hook accumulated 24 million views and garnered 94,000 followers on Instagram, plus over 30 million views on TikTok. He emphasizes that about 80% of followers come from 20% of content, highlighting the importance of finding a "viral format." This video will reveal a four-step process to achieve similar success, focusing on principles to repeatedly go viral.

Step 1: Finding Your Viral Format by Studying Outside Your Niche [0:57]

The first crucial step is to study successful creators who operate outside your specific niche.

• Avoid internal copying: Copying within your niche often leads to stagnation and a lack of innovation, as you merely replicate existing trends.
  • Many creators copy popular figures in their niche, unaware that those figures likely drew inspiration from outside their own domain.
• Cross-niche inspiration: The speaker, operating in the business and college niche, explicitly studied Ryan Trahan, an entertainment, travel, and food creator.
  • He meticulously analyzed Trahan's videos, noting details like shot selection, B-roll placement, text captions, and zoom techniques.
  • This analytical process helped him develop his own viral hook, "Is it possible to...".

    

    

• The "iPhone in a new market" analogy:
  • Trying to dominate a saturated market (e.g., smartphones in the US with Apple) by copying existing players is difficult.
  • Instead, take a proven successful product/format (like an iPhone) and introduce it to an entirely new, untapped market where it's revolutionary (e.g., a "Zone" phone in a rural country).

    

  • Apply this to content: find what's dominating other niches and adapt those hooks and concepts to your own, less saturated niche to achieve dominance.

Step 2: Mastering Viral Script Fundamentals [4:04]

Finding a viral format is just one part; effective scripting is equally vital to maximize its potential.

• The Hook: Specificity + Relatable Pain [5:00]
  • Specificity: Hooks must be highly specific, incorporating names, places, timeframes, and especially numbers.
    • Examples: "Ace an exam in 1 hour" or "start a business and make $1,000 in 1 day."
    • Specific numbers increase viral potential tenfold, helping viewers visualize the story more clearly and leading to better retention.

      

    • Even top YouTubers like Mr. Beast use specific numbers in their titles for psychological impact.
  • Relatable Pain: Hooks should tap into broad, common experiences or desires.
    • "Ace an exam" is highly relatable to many students.
    • "Starting a business" is more universally relatable than "scaling a business," widening the audience appeal significantly.

      

    • This broad relatability increases the total addressable market for your video.
• The Body: Speed + Ruthless Editing [7:31]
  • Cut unnecessary details: The main goal for the body of your script is to be concise and fast-paced.
    • In his "studying" video (62 seconds total), the actual studying footage only lasted 20 seconds.

      

    • Continuously ask: "Does this sentence relate directly to the hook?"
    • Eliminate irrelevant information: Any detail that doesn't directly advance the core story or answer the hook's question should be removed (e.g., descriptions of lunch meetings).
    • Remove redundant statements: Avoid repeating information already conveyed (e.g., stating "I studied 1 hour" multiple times).

      

    • Even small cuts (e.g., 0.5 seconds of "fluff" words) add up significantly in short-form content.

      

  • Impact on Retention: Every unnecessary word or pause can cause a dip in the viewer retention graph.
    • A high retention rate (e.g., 50% watching past 5 seconds, or even 30 seconds into a video) signals to the platform that the content is engaging, leading to increased distribution and views.
    • The speaker notes a 49% skip rate in the first 5 seconds for his viral videos, highlighting the challenge of early retention.

      

    • Shorter, snappier videos naturally achieve higher percentage retention for their duration.

Step 3: Essential Viral Editing Techniques [16:22]

While scripting lays the foundation, editing is crucial for the other 50% of a video's virality.

• 1. Auto-Captions: TikTok Sans / Classic Font [16:40]
  • Format: Display captions two to three words at a time. This keeps pace with the spoken word and aids readability.

    

  • Font Choice: Use "TikTok Sans" or the "Classic" font found in CapCut/TikTok.

    

    • Viewers in a scrolling mindset seek comfort and familiarity. Deviating from standard, familiar fonts can cause friction and lead them to scroll past.
    • Unless you are an "editing Da Vinci," stick to the established visual norms of the platform to maximize engagement.
• 2. Ruthlessly Cut Out Dead Space [18:18]
  • Definition: Dead space refers to any pause or break in speaking.
  • Threshold: Cut out any dead space longer than 0.3 seconds.

    

    

  • Impact: Eliminating these micro-pauses makes the video feel much snappier and faster-paced, which is essential for short-form content.
  • This technique is often overlooked even by experienced editors, providing an opportunity to stand out.
  • Only exceptions are intentional, carefully placed pauses for dramatic effect, or if a creator makes zero cuts due to exceptional charisma.

Step 4: The Crucial Role of Consistency in Content Creation [20:50]

Virality is not about luck; it's a skill developed through consistent effort.

• Skill Development Takes Time:
  • Achieving a high level of content creation skill typically takes 1 to 3 years.

    

  • While some in his community have "speed-run" it in a year to gain hundreds of thousands of followers, consistent dedication is key.
• The Power of Consistent Posting:
  • The speaker has posted around 481 reels in the past two years. His 10 viral "Is it possible" videos are just a fraction of his overall output.

    

    

  • Many videos initially do not go viral. The growth in views and skill is an upward trend with peaks and valleys, but only for those who persist.

    

• Avoid "Slop" Content:
  • Simply posting consistently isn't enough; the content must continuously improve.
  • Creators must actively learn viral scripting and editing fundamentals, study top creators, and strive to make their videos 1% better with each iteration.
  • Humility is required to acknowledge when content is not performing well and to commit to improvement.
• Long-Term Mindset: Treat content creation as a career or long-term endeavor. Sustained consistency, coupled with continuous learning and application of viral principles, is what ultimately leads to significant growth and replicated virality.