Greg’s thread of hilarious crowdsourced design ideas was a real sensation on X. At the time of writing, the entire thread was viewed a jaw-dropping 76 million (yes, million) times by people from all around the globe. The entire discussion got so big that it even attracted some well-known names.

For example, the official Lego account shared its own idea for what to do with the apartment space. As did a whole bunch of other verified businesses and X users.

The idea behind the thread is brilliant in its simplicity. It encourages folks to share their ideas. It’s engaging. It’s comical. It’s a great way to let your imagination loose. You can also learn a ton about other people’s sense of humor.

While some go for a traditional approach, others embrace a more avant-garde and postmodernist form of comedy. There are lots of pop cultural references, mixed in with pure randomness.

Greg has a huge following on social media. He created his X account back in 2021 (when it was still Twitter). On that platform alone, he has 846k followers. Meanwhile, on Instagram, the content creator has another 10.8k loyal fans.

Not to oversimplify, but a lot of his popularity is directly linked to him sharing awesome and unusual content. In other words—it’s quality stuff. So, it’s no wonder that so many people love what he posts.

Viral marketer Jonah Berger, the author of ‘Contagious: Why Things Catch On,’ told The Journal of Consumer Research that there are six main principles that drive what people talk about and share. These principles are social currency, triggers, emotion, public, practical value, and stories, which all add up to a simple-to-remember acronym—STEPPS.

According to Berger, what we say affects how others see us. So, the more something makes someone look good, the more likely they are to pass it on.

Meanwhile, the viral marketer notes that certain ideas trigger other thoughts. “Just like peanut butter reminds us of jelly, the more we’re triggered to think about a product or idea, the more we’ll talk about it,” he told The Journal of Consumer Research. We’re also more likely to share the things that arouse our emotions, no matter if they’re positive or negative.

On top of that, we can’t forget that people are social animals. Human beings tend to copy what others do in public. We long to be part of the ‘in-group,’ so we imitate others’ behavior. That also means that something that’s already viral has even more potential to spread. That said, folks are also practical.

So, the more useful something is to them, the more they’ll share it. They’ll do the same with things that have a good story built around them that flows into a broader narrative.

In terms of content creation, if you want to get lots of attention online, your best allies are consistency, quality, and passion. There’s a huge element of luck when it comes to any post (not) going viral.

Sometimes, even a high-quality post gets ignored because you posted it at the ‘wrong’ time or there’s something more important dominating the social media feeds.

So, your best bet is to post your content consistently, according to a schedule. It doesn’t really matter if you post a dozen times a day or only once a week. The goal of consistency is to show your followers that you’re disciplined and trustworthy.

And it doesn’t matter how often the content comes, so long as it’s quality stuff. Sure, you don’t want your followers to ‘forget’ you. But leaving a good impression with top-shelf work is better than spamming everyone with filler material.

In the meantime, even if you have great ideas for your content, you won’t build an audience if your work is sloppy. Put simply, you probably want to aim for visual clarity. This includes using high-quality images and easily readable fonts. You also want to edit any text that you add so it’s punchy and to the point. Walls of text are likely to push many social media users away.

They probably don’t have the attention span or energy to read it when there’s so much info in their feeds already.

At the end of the day, though, you have to enjoy the content you put out. If your goal is to be a content creator for a long period of time, you have to love what you do. If you’re posting things just for views and likes, you’re probably going to burn out and start resenting social media if you don’t get the results you think you deserve. It’s better to focus on consistently posting quality stuff you’re passionate about, and leave the worrying about engagement metrics for the future.

What did y’all think of Greg’s viral thread, Pandas? Which of the interior decor ideas people posted did you like the most and why? What do you think the content creator’s friend should do with the space? Tell us all about it in the comments section at the bottom of this post!