How to create a viral Instagram post, according to Emily in Paris

Create a viral Instagram post like in Emily in Paris

How does Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) in the Netflix original Emily in Paris manage to make her Instagram account go viral seemingly effortlessly?

Well, the first thing to realize is that even with its cliches, the series is a fun binge partly because it’s a modern-day fairytale. Her fast growth isn’t realistic.

But is the way she uses social media applicable to the real world? If you follow these five Emily in Paris tips, is it possible your Instagram will go viral, too?

Probably not, as a writer at Huffpost found out when she created an Instagram account (@ringardeinnewyork) to test the theory. She posted basic pictures with basic captions as she perceived Emily did, but she wasn’t rewarded with hundreds of likes or thousands of followers.

Admittedly, Emily’s social media presence is rife with perplexities. As Buzzfeed pointed out, for such a social media maven, why did she only start with 48 followers? How did she jump to 250 and then over 1,400 followers in a few posts? (Before going on to top 20k plus and growing.) Because they agreed with the Huffpost assessment that Emily’s posts are pretty ringarde. (Which means “basic” and is among the French words Emily learned in season 1.)

I actually didn’t question Emily’s account starting out low. That made sense to me. I assumed she created a new one for her move to France.

I did question that she was a little shocked at her sudden growth, though, too. But I shrugged it off that maybe for clients she expects to nab results but it wasn’t her intent to blossom into an influencer on her personal account.

Which brings me to the first of our Emily in Paris tips for creating a viral Instagram account. I think she’s successful because she does these five things, and maybe you can grow your Instagram this way too.

Tip 1: Be authentic and have fun

Emily isn’t trying to emulate anything or anyone else. She’s posting what she sees when she sees it.

She’s not trying to force an agenda on anyone or post for likes. I think her followers appreciate the genuine reactions she has to the people, places and situations she comes across and the way she allows others to see the world through her eyes.

She also has a lot of fun using social media. That shines through, too. And she engages others by roping them into her photos and videos too.

Like when her French friend Camille (Camille Razat), Camille’s boyfriend who is also Emily’s neighbor, Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), and Emily hit the town. They’re having a blast goofing off and her Insta captures that.

Or when she gets her grouchy neighborhood baker to finally warm up to her. Emily gets her to make a Boomerang with her, and guess what? The grouchy baker loves it!

Enthusiasm is contagious and people gravitate to others having authentic fun.

Tip 2: Be spontaneous and don’t overthink your content

Emily doesn’t stress about what her account looks like, meaning she doesn’t waste time or spend energy on planning her posts to create an aesthetic feed.

She just posts. She doesn’t plan for a certain time or a certain day. I think that helps her because she reaches different audiences, giving her a broader reach.

Tip 3: Use a combo of posts, videos and stories

Variety is the spice of life. Emily has a keen sense of when to just post a picture versus making a video or adding a story.

You could experiment with that if you’re not already. But keep in mind Emily might have success with this because it’s less an experiment for her and more about being another way to have fun with her Instagram.

Tip 4: Keep captions short and sweet and don’t overuse hashtags

Realistically many people use hashtags galore to try and hit more feeds. In fact, that’s one of the suggestions social media experts offer for growing accounts.

Emily doesn’t concern herself with any of that, and I think that’s actually part of why she’s so successful.

She calls it as she sees it. Sometimes she uses a hashtag or two, other times she doesn’t.

I have to admit her photos aren’t really that compelling, and IRL most people don’t pay that much attention to captions. However, it works for her because she keeps her captions short enough to read with the photo, which makes the entire post easily digestible. Boom. More likes!

Tip 5: Post with no expectations

You can’t control how many people will see what’s on your social media (as the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma highlights).

Well, you can.

You can pay to boost posts. You can also watch your metrics to know when your audience is most active and likely to see your content and interact, but Emily doesn’t bother with any of that.

I think she created @emilyinparis to share her adventures with friends and family back in America. It just so happened she got lucky and found a few hundred other people to follow her to. Which continued to help multiply her followers.

Why? In the real world, it was probably because once Instagram detected she had an engaging algorithm, it started showing her posts to more people.

And then people are funny, right? We tend to think if someone has a lot of followers and likes, they must be someone worth following.

All of which is easy to do, right?

No, of course not.

These Emily in Paris tips will likely not help your Instagram go viral like Emily Cooper’s. The only time they might is if we lived in the same fairytale world that the series is set in.

However, these tips may help you enjoy social media more. And if it so happens that leads to increased followers? C’est la vie!