Let’s start with the obvious: virality ain’t what it used to be.
In the prehistoric days of the internet (a.k.a. 2012), “going viral” meant millions of eyeballs, happy customers, and maybe a book deal. Now it means your CEO is trending for blinking weird in a TikTok, and your PR intern is crying in the bathroom. Virality mutated.
The question isn’t can you go viral — it’s can you do it without becoming the villain of someone’s thinkpiece?
Viral = powerful. But viral also = volatile.
If you want attention in 2025, you’ll need a smarter weapon than “just post it and pray.”
Enter the SPREAD framework, courtesy of Harvard Business Review and David Dubois, with a hefty dose of “please don’t embarrass yourself publicly.” It’s a six-part filter to ensure your content is both contagious and conscience-friendly. And today, we’re hijacking that framework and stuffing it full of Manychat automation strategy, because your content deserves to travel far and convert like hell.
Let’s break it down.
S — Socially Useful and Sensitive (Don’t be a Clown; be a Connector)
Viral content doesn’t just entertain; it also engages. It says something about you. It makes people feel like better humans for sharing it — whether it helps a cause, sparks a convo, or just feels like a high-five to their values.
If all your bot does is sell, it’s a spam cannon. If your grand plan is to use DM automation as a digital bullhorn to yell “BUY THIS NOW” the second they interact with you, you’ve fundamentally misunderstood the assignment. Automation isn’t a one-night stand with the algorithm. It’s a long game. It’s showing up with value before you show up with a coupon code.
When someone comments on your post or replies to your Story, that’s not an invitation to start foaming at the mouth and launching links like a possessed sales intern. It’s a chance to build rapport, deliver something useful, or, at the very least, make them feel like you’re not a soulless funnel in human cosplay.
Your audience is smart. They’ve been sold to so many times that their eyes twitch when they see a bit.ly link. So when you use DM automation, make it worth their time. Teach them something. Entertain them. Help them solve an actual problem. And then, maybe, if you’ve earned the right to be in their inbox, you can mention the thing you sell.
But start with humanity. Not a hyperlink.
What to do instead
Automate moments that actually help your audience. Here’s how:
- Set up a Manychat DM automation triggered when someone comments “HELP” on your post — give them free mental health tips, a self-care checklist, or affirmations if you’re a wellness creator.
- Create a trigger like “DONATE” that delivers local aid links, or sets a reminder to check in with a friend.
- Use Quick Replies to auto-respond to sensitive words like “anxiety,” “burnout,” or “lonely” with thoughtful resources. No selling, just support.
Action step
Create a Quick Automation that delivers a downloadable resource (e.g., “Top 5 Tips to Avoid Burnout”) when someone comments “STRESSED.” Make it public, helpful, and shareable.
→ Try the “Keyword Reply” automation in Manychat.
P — Provocative (not Problematic)
Let’s get spicy. Provocation drives shares like Red Bull drives insomnia — but only when done well. That means challenging norms, poking the status quo, or shaking things up — without punching down, trivializing trauma, or making Kendall Jenner your crisis PR mascot.
But if you’re going to poke the bear, make sure you’re doing it for a reason. Are you challenging a broken system? Calling out a cultural contradiction? Holding up a mirror and daring people to look? Great. Build a Manychat automation around that moment. Let people respond, vote, remix, and share the hell out of it.
But if your version of “disruption” is just a cheap headline and a naked grab for engagement? The internet will smell the stunt from a mile away…and it won’t end in applause. It’ll end in screenshots — and not the good kind. The kind that end up in a marketing class cautionary tale.
Use automation to amplify a message that matters. Deliver something bold that earns the share. Not something that earns the ratio.
What this means for your brand
Playful provocation is your ticket to the algorithm gods. The key is to use it to elevate conversation, not hijack it.
- Are you a fitness brand? Try a lead magnet like “Unfollow Your Trainer” with a DM automation that busts toxic fitness myths.
- Beauty creator? Trigger a sequence when someone comments “REAL” to start a convo on filtered vs. unfiltered beauty. Let them vote inside the flow.
- Create “truth bomb” quizzes where followers find out what’s actually in their skincare or how bad their screen time is.
Action step
Use Manychat’s Story Reply automation to launch an edgy quiz with a “tap to reveal” vibe. Topic? Something that makes your audience go “WAIT, WHAT?” and then share it.
→ Turning replies into leads gets people into your sales funnel.
R — Replicable (Let Them Remix It)
No one wants to just watch your content anymore. They want to wear it as a costume, butcher it into a meme, remix it with a SpongeBob voiceover, and make it their own brand of weird. That’s the internet now.
Replicability is the secret sauce behind every unexplainable trend you wish you thought of first. It’s why “Roman Empire” broke TikTok. It’s why everyone was pretending to love having “girl dinner.” It’s why brands like Heinz asked people to draw ketchup, and people did — by the thousands. Because it wasn’t about the brand; it was about what the audience could do with it.
So here’s your litmus test: does your automation give people something they can take and twist? Can it become a duet? Can your CTA turn into a community inside joke? Can it live beyond your feed?
People don’t want to be talked at. They want to be in the damn group chat.
So make it easy. Trigger automations with meme-worthy quiz results. Let people customize their response paths. Give them templates to remake and tag you in. Build your automations like party invitations, not product demos.
What this means for your brand
Build automations people can riff on.
- Launch a challenge like “Draw Your Biz in Emojis” or “Message Me Your Vibe in 3 Words” and respond with personalized memes (yep, Manychat can do that).
- Create a Comment-to-DM trigger like “I’m in!” for a 5-day challenge — fitness, mindset, productivity, finance, whatever you do. People love a journey.
- Encourage them to remix your CTA with their own followers. Give them swipeable content, not just a funnel.
Action step
Send a customizable Canva template when someone comments a trigger word. Prompt them to post it with their spin and tag you.
→ Use Zapier to integrate Canva and Manychat so you can upload your templates.
E — Emotional (Cry, Laugh, Feel Something, Dammit)
No one ever shared a spreadsheet out of love. Emotion is the gasoline of the internet engine. But not just any emotion. You want emotion that aligns with what your product actually does. Otherwise, it’s just manipulative BS.
The only thing the internet spreads faster than drama is feelings — rage, joy, awe, nostalgia, cringe. Not crocodile tears. Not generic “thanks for your order” energy. We’re talking tailored, intentional, product-aligned emotional chaos.
Think about how your brand fits into someone’s emotional landscape. Are you a life coach? Tap into pride, growth, “holy crap I did it” energy. Selling wedding invitations? Nostalgia and tear-jerker territory. Running a meme account that drops merch? Channel the inside-joke giddiness of sending your best friend a shirt that says “emotionally damaged but cute.”
Don’t wait until the CTA to bring the feels. Bake emotion into every step of your automation. Make the welcome message hit like a warm hug or a bestie voice memo. Turn your DM quiz into a self-discovery moment. Let your follow-up feel like a dopamine boost, not a sales pitch.
Emotion isn’t decoration; it’s function.
What this means for your brand
Engineer emotion throughout the journey.
- Are you a coach? Automate a birthday message flow that includes a heartfelt note, a throwback photo, and a freebie.
- Sell art or products? Trigger a “thank you” voice note after purchase that makes people feel like royalty.
- Running a community? Set up a “check-in” bot for your audience to DM when they’re having a rough day. Give them three uplifting options: laugh, cry, or motivate.
Action step
Build a post-purchase automation that triggers a surprise voice memo + an exclusive bonus. Make them feel something.
→ Use Manychat’s voice messages feature to add a personalized touch to your replies.
A — Ambiguous (Confuse Just Enough to Intrigue)
Not everything needs to be spelled out. Ambiguity makes people stop scrolling. It sparks curiosity. It makes people ask, “Wait, what is this?” That pause?
The internet is one giant dopamine casino. People crave mystery — a weird little breadcrumb. The scroll is fast, the attention is fickle, and the brain loves a riddle.
You don’t have to explain everything. You shouldn’t. When you spoon-feed the story, people consume it and move on. But when you hand them a weird little fragment (just enough to spark a theory, a feeling, a “WTF did I just watch?”), you create a mental itch they have to scratch. That itch? That’s the share. That’s the comment. That’s the moment they drag a friend into your funnel just to say, “You need to see this; I have no idea what’s happening.”
Stop over-explaining. Give them cryptic trigger words. Let your chatbot respond in riddles, emojis, or choose-your-own-chaos storylines.
You’re building a world that your audience wants to explore, decode, and share. Mystery is magnetic. Confusion, when done right, is conversion fuel.
And if they don’t “get it?”
Good. That’s how cult followings start.
What this means for your brand
Leave just enough mystery. Not clickbait — brain bait.
- Tease a new product with a cryptic comment keyword, such as “Soon.” Then, auto-DM people a puzzle or a hint.
- Use mystery flows: “Choose one: 🔮, 🔥, 🌊” and reveal a different piece of content or advice for each emoji.
- Play with generative AI-style responses in Manychat to serve “weird but on-brand” results based on user inputs.
Action step
Create an emoji-based DM quiz that gives users a surprise identity, like “Which villain are you?” or “Your biz alter ego.” Then invite them to post their results.
→ Use the Multiple Choice input + condition branching inside Manychat.
D — Distributive (Send it Into the Universe)
Your content must travel. It should work on TikTok, thrive on Reels, slide into group chats, and be forwarded in email chains by someone’s aunt.
You didn’t build that masterpiece of a DM flow just to let it rot in your Instagram inbox like a forgotten avocado. In the age of algorithm whiplash and platform polyamory, your content must adapt. It has to shapeshift. It has to leave your little brand ecosystem and start infiltrating other people’s group chats, FYPs, Reels, Stories, iMessages from chaotic friends who text “LOL u” at 2:42 a.m..
That is what it means to be distributive. Not just postable. Not just repurposable. Forwardable. Remixable. Taggable. Dumb-screenshotable. If your flow can’t survive outside its natural habitat, you’re screwed.
So build automations that live beyond you. End every flow with a nudge: “Send this to someone who’d fail this quiz,” “Tag your ex-best friend,” “Dare your group chat to beat your score.” Make it feel like passing a note in class. Make it easy. One-click. No friction. No download. No “sign up for our newsletter” gatekeeping.
Let your content go. Let it mutate. Let it spread like gossip in a small town.
What this means for your brand
Make your flows frictionless. Give people something that makes them want to forward it. Add one-click reposts, hashtags, and tag-a-friend language.
- End your automations with a share prompt: “Send this to your smartest friend.” Or “Tag your chaos twin.”
- Build giveaways with a viral loop: “Comment to enter, share to double your entry.”
- Create a shareable carousel or tip guide that is triggered via DM.
Action step
Add a final “share step” to your automations: invite users to tag a friend or forward your DM for bonus content. “Know someone who needs this? DM us their @handle. If they reply to us, we’ll send you both something better.” Then set up a keyword trigger for the friend’s reply (e.g., “OMG”) that unlocks a hidden reward flow.
→ Use Manychat’s “Keyword” and user input actions to play matchmaker for viral loops.
Let’s Wrap This Viral Sandwich
Here’s the TL;DR on how to go viral in 2025 without accidentally becoming a meme for the wrong reason.
Feeling inspired? Go build your first “viral-ish” Quick Automation in Manychat in under 10 minutes.
And hey, if this post made you laugh, think, or prompted you to screenshot something…don’t keep it to yourself!
