Hi! I’m Angelika Eremeeva — digital marketing and SMM expert with over 10 years of experience, known for crafting innovative strategies that drive impressive audience engagement and set trends in the industry. Throughout my career, I’ve had the pleasure of working with major brands like Booking, Expedia, Aviasales, Travelpayouts, and WayAway, helping them build impactful social media presences and create lasting connections with their audiences. My organic approach to content creation has led to viral videos that generate 10-20 million views without any paid promotion, demonstrating the power of authentic, relatable content that truly resonates with people.
In today’s digital landscape, social media has become the epicenter of brand communication, with over 4.5 billion users engaging on various platforms. This expansive reach brings its own challenges — not just in attracting attention, but in keeping it.
My journey in digital marketing has taught me that authentic, humor-driven content that addresses the audience’s real needs and “pain points” is what propels engagement to new heights. This article shares the components of my viral SMM strategy — a significant contribution to digital marketing, shaping trends, defining new modes of brand interaction on social media, and driving millions of views for global brands.
What Makes a Video “Interesting”? Moving from Theory to Real Metrics
One of the most common pieces of advice in social media marketing is “make your video interesting.” While this seems straightforward, what does “interesting” actually mean in measurable terms? Interest is subjective — what engages one person might not interest another.
For platforms like TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts, “interesting” translates into specific engagement metrics. An “interesting” video is one that viewers engage with and spend time on. Key indicators include completion rates, replays, comments, saves, shares, likes, and follow-through actions (such as visiting your profile or watching other content). Social platforms track these behaviors to determine a video’s success, making these metrics vital to understanding and achieving virality.
The Secret Formula for Organic Success: Building High-Engagement Content
In 2024, the challenge in social media is not just about creating content but about standing out in a saturated space. Here are the key elements that drive high engagement across TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts:
- Attention-Grabbing First Frame: The first few seconds are crucial; a captivating image, humor, or something relatable draws viewers in and stops them from scrolling.
- Emotional “Hook”: A short caption that directly speaks to viewers’ experiences or emotions establishes an immediate connection. This is often done by touching on a shared pain point or humorous situation.
- Trending Audio: Music or sound effects that align with current trends amplify emotional engagement and make content more shareable.
- Content That Speaks to Audience Pain Points: Some of the most effective content addresses common frustrations and daily experiences. With my experience in travel and over 55 countries visited, I’ve developed an eye for travel-related humor that resonates with audiences. In one viral Instagram video for WayAway, I joked about avoiding baggage fees by wearing all my clothes at once. This relatable content earned 18 million views and generated over 5,000 new followers.
- Concise Video Length and Optimal Retention Rates: An ideal video length is 10-15 seconds to maximize retention. For longer videos (around 50-70 seconds), aim for an average view time of at least 20 seconds; for short videos, high retention alone isn’t enough — engagement actions like comments, saves, and shares are also key.
- Comments: Comments are a powerful metric because they reflect genuine interest and discussion around your video. Algorithms also factor in not only comment volume but also the time viewers spend reading and interacting with comments. Even if someone doesn’t leave their own comment, liking or reading others’ responses adds to your engagement score.
- Saves: Saves are a crucial “interest marker” for algorithms, signaling that your content is valuable enough to be revisited.
- Shares: When viewers share your video (either through direct messages on TikTok/Instagram or by copying the link to share in other apps), it demonstrates strong viewer interest. Shares are among the most impactful actions for increasing a video’s reach, as they draw new viewers directly to the platform.
- Reposts vs. Shares: It’s important to differentiate between shares and reposts. A share typically happens privately, while a repost is a public endorsement of your content on the viewer’s own profile. Reposts in Instagram Stories, for instance, positively impact video performance. In TikTok, the influence of reposts is less clear, as the platform currently lacks a dedicated repost counter, though they likely have a positive effect.
- Profile Visits and Follows: Profile visits and follow-through actions (such as following your account) indicate that your video holds enough value to encourage viewers to engage further with your brand. While profile visits aren’t visible in standard metrics, TikTok and Instagram do display new followers gained from each video, helping you gauge its broader impact.
- Likes: Though relatively minor in terms of algorithmic impact, likes represent an indicator of audience loyalty and appreciation for your content. They are a simple, immediate response that adds value but doesn’t hold as much weight as comments, saves, or shares.
Key Metrics That Algorithms Favor
To maximize video reach, it’s crucial to understand which metrics social media algorithms prioritize:
- View Duration and Retention: Algorithms prioritize videos with high retention and replays, especially when viewers watch until the end or rewatch engaging short clips.
- Engagement Rate: For shorter videos, additional reactions like saves, shares, comments, and reposts are essential for reach.
- Viewer Completion Rate: On platforms like TikTok, a high completion rate sends strong signals to algorithms, helping videos reach larger audiences.
Social media algorithms excel at interpreting these metrics, so a video’s “success” is not just about interesting content but about how well it captures and retains viewers’ attention.
My Approach: Setting Trends in Digital Marketing and SMM
One thing that sets my approach apart is my early adoption of video memes, long before they became mainstream. Experimenting with humorous, bite-sized video content was once seen as risky, but I wasn’t afraid to test new formats — even if they didn’t always succeed. This courage to innovate and adapt allowed me to create a strategy that resonated widely, setting industry standards and helping brands engage audiences on a deeper level.
By focusing on authentic, humor-driven content that addresses viewer pain points, my SMM strategy has influenced how brands build connections through social media. This approach has become a significant contribution to the digital marketing industry, shaping trends and redefining how brands communicate and interact with their audiences.
The Future of SMM: Adaptability, Authenticity, and Personalization
Digital marketing is evolving rapidly, and flexibility is more important than ever. I see the future leaning toward hyper-personalization, with a focus on building emotional connections based on shared values and experiences. Today’s audiences want brands that are not only service providers but also relatable entities that speak their language. Brands that innovate with AI for personalization while maintaining authenticity and genuine engagement will thrive.
Looking forward, my strategy — rooted in humor, relatability, and emotional connection — remains highly adaptable to these trends. By blending technology with a human touch, brands can lead in this digital age by fostering real, resonant connections with their communities, making social media a platform for lasting relationships and impactful communication.
