I’ve had my @learningtosmoke account on Instagram for over two years now and have seen my share of highs and lows. I’ve had posts that have done really well and others that get overlooked, I’ve been trolled and praised, I’ve been fortunate to collaborate with some cool companies and critiqued on pretty much every aspect of BBQ that I can think of. And with one viral post, all of these things happened at once.
I recently posted a video of me showing how to properly slice a tri-tip. This isn’t the first tri-tip slicing video I’ve done. I have at least two or three others on my account and have seen some moderate success in views. On average, a good video (for me) will get about 10,000 views in the first 24 hours. Not bad, but still not getting the reach I hope for. The tri-tip video you see in the screen shot above was shared on 4/2/2018 ended up getting over 320,000 views in 24 hours! I was shocked. I don’t understand why this video, out of all of the videos I have posted up to this point, has far and away gained more attention than I could’ve imagined. It doesn’t make sense to me: I shared it on a Monday night. I wasn’t doing a giveaway. It wasn’t the first time sharing a tri-tip slicing video, either. No fancy cameras were used. No elaborate background or sound effects. Just me using my iPhone, a cutting board, knife, and of course, the meat.
At first, I was thrilled. Seeing my work being viewed all around the IG barbecue world was a dream come true. I finally made a video that was getting a lot of attention. I was famous. Internet famous. Instagram famous. If only for a few minutes. I felt on top of the world, but then I learned that there are two sides to fame. I was getting a lot of positive comments from friends and followers and seeing my new followers grow more in 24 hours than I typically see in two weeks. It seemed unreal! And then, the ugly side of social media reared it’s head.
As the video went viral, it continued to expand its reach to more and more Instagrammers. And when a post goes viral, the trolls come to pay a visit. After my followers within the BBQ community had made their encouraging comments and moved on, others started coming in and critiquing every little thing I was doing. It seemed like the negative comments were pouring in one after another. I was being trolled by vegans and carnivores alike. I way overcooked it. I didn’t cook it long enough. I should’ve used a Japanese style knife to cut meat and not the European one I had used. I used the fork wrong. I shouldn’t have used a fork at all. Meat is murder. I’m going to get cancer from eating meat. I shouldn’t use a wood cutting board for meat. It felt like every little move I had made in the video was getting scrutinized. I ended up deleting some comments and blocking a few people (which I maybe block one person a year). After being proud of the video, I was now growing frustrated with it. I actually debated whether or not to delete it. I love to engage with my followers and strive to reply to every comment. In this case, I didn’t feel like I had to justify everything I did to every negative commenter, nor should I have to. The video is what it is and I’m proud of it so I have kept it up.
I try to be a positive person and created my website and social media pages to encourage and help others not feel inadequate in their barbecue journey. But the incessant trolling on my page was making me wish I could kick a comment in the nuts. But that isn’t me. If I let them get to me, then I become like them. I would lose my identity I have worked hard to create and they win.
The reason I share this with you is because most of us using social media strive to have our posts be recognized by others and we hope our hard work reaches the masses, but we sometimes overlook the downside of going viral. Just remember that its you who is in control of how you react. Keep working hard for your success and don’t let the haters discourage you from you goals. Remember (again): haters gonna hate while winners keep winning.
