You’ve seen it. Everyone has. You’re scrolling through X or TikTok at 2:00 AM and you see a post with 400,000 likes that looks like it took exactly four seconds to make. Maybe it’s a blurry screenshot of a notes app or a strangely specific meme about a brand of orange juice. People in the industry call it "this shit doing numbers." It’s a shorthand for that inexplicable, lightning-fast virality that bypasses every traditional marketing rule we’ve been taught since the 90s.
It's chaotic.
The term itself—"this shit doing numbers"—is a bit of a meta-joke now. It’s what users say when they see a post exploding, often with a hint of disbelief or irony. But for businesses, it’s not a joke. It’s the holy grail. When a piece of content "does numbers," it means the cost-per-impression is effectively zero. You aren't paying for reach; the world is giving it to you because they can’t help themselves. But here’s the thing: you can't just "do numbers" by trying harder. In fact, trying harder is usually what kills it.
The Psychology of High-Velocity Content
Why do we click? Honestly, it’s usually because the content feels like it wasn't meant for us, or at least, it wasn't manufactured for us. There’s a specific kind of raw, unpolished energy that triggers the Twitter (X) and TikTok algorithms. This is what experts like Jonah Berger, author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, describe as "social currency." When you share something that's "doing numbers," you’re telling your followers that you’re in on the joke. You’re part of the moment.
Think about the "Grimace Shake" trend from McDonald’s. That wasn't a corporate boardroom idea. Well, the shake was, but the horror-movie-style videos of people dying in purple puddles? That was the internet taking a corporate asset and making it "do numbers" through pure, unadulterated weirdness. McDonald's was smart enough to stay out of the way. They didn't send a cease and desist. They just watched the numbers climb.
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Most brands fail here because they have too many layers of approval. By the time a "funny" tweet gets through legal, PR, and the CMO, the "numbers" are gone. The moment has passed. You’re left with a "Hello Fellow Kids" meme that gets ratioed into oblivion.
Speed vs. Quality: The Great Trade-off
If you want to understand viral marketing, you have to accept that "quality" is a subjective term. In a traditional sense, quality means high production value—4K cameras, perfect lighting, a scripted narrative. In the world of "this shit doing numbers," quality means relatability and speed. Take Duolingo’s TikTok presence. They don’t post high-res tutorials on how to conjugate French verbs. They post a giant green owl chasing employees around an office or twerking to a trending audio. It looks cheap. It looks like it was filmed on an iPhone 11. And that is exactly why it works. It fits the native aesthetic of the platform. If it looked like a commercial, you’d swipe past it in 0.2 seconds.
The Algorithm Doesn't Care About Your Budget
Google Discover and TikTok’s "For You" page share a common trait: they prioritize engagement velocity over everything else. If 1,000 people see a post and 800 of them interact with it in the first ten minutes, the algorithm assumes it’s "this shit doing numbers" and pushes it to 100,000 more. This creates a snowball effect.
The technical term is "high CTR (Click-Through Rate) and high retention." But basically, it just means people are vibing with it.
Why Most Viral Content is Actually "Accidental"
There is a huge misconception that you can engineer virality. You can't. Not really. What you can do is increase your "surface area for luck."
- Quantity over perfection. Post more often so you have more chances to hit the vein.
- Low friction. Don't make people think too hard. If the joke takes more than two seconds to land, it’s dead.
- The "Ugly" Factor. Authentic content is often slightly ugly. It’s real.
- Lean into the comments. Half the reason things "do numbers" is the chaos happening in the replies.
Look at RyanAir. They are the masters of this. Their social media team basically bullies their own customers, and the internet loves it. They lean into the fact that their seats are cramped and they charge for everything. By being honest and slightly "unhinged," they generate millions of dollars in free advertising. They aren't trying to be a "luxury brand." They’re trying to be the brand that’s "doing numbers."
The Danger of Trying Too Hard
There is a very thin line between "doing numbers" and being "cringe." When a brand tries to use Gen Z slang incorrectly—like using "gyatt" or "skibidi" in a LinkedIn post—it backfires. This is known as the "uncanny valley" of marketing. It looks like a human, it sounds like a human, but something is deeply wrong.
Users can smell a forced viral attempt from a mile away. If you’re a 50-year-old CEO trying to make "this shit doing numbers" happen for your B2B SaaS company, you should probably stop. Instead, focus on "earned media." Earned media is when other people talk about you because you did something actually interesting, not because you used a trending sound.
The Lifecycle of a Viral Post
Most viral hits follow a "Power Law" distribution. They explode, peak within 48 hours, and then disappear forever.
- The Spark: A few key influencers or high-engagement accounts interact.
- The Surge: The algorithm picks it up and shows it to "lookalike" audiences.
- The Meta-Phase: People start making memes about the original post. This is when it's officially "doing numbers."
- The Decay: The joke is overused, brands start doing it, and the "cool" factor dies.
If you’re still trying to jump on a trend that peaked three days ago, you’re too late. In the digital age, three days is a decade.
How to Actually Use This for Business
Stop thinking about "campaigns." Start thinking about "moments." A campaign is something you plan for six months. A moment is something you react to in six minutes.
To make "this shit doing numbers" work for you, you need to empower your social media managers to be weird. Give them a "low-stakes" budget where they can experiment without needing five levels of approval. Most of what they post will fail. That’s fine. You’re looking for the one post that hits.
Practical Steps to Increase Your Numbers
If you want to stop being ignored and start getting traction, you have to change how you view content creation entirely. It’s a shift from "broadcasting" to "participating."
First, obsessively consume the platform you’re posting on. You cannot make a viral TikTok if you don't spend at least 30 minutes a day scrolling through it. You need to understand the rhythm, the sounds, and the "inside jokes" of the week.
Second, embrace the "Lo-Fi" aesthetic. Put away the DSLR. Use your phone. Text overlays should look like they were typed in the app, not designed in Photoshop. The more "produced" it looks, the more it feels like an ad. And people hate ads.
Third, be polarizing. Vanilla content doesn't "do numbers." It just sits there. You want people to either love it or argue about it in the comments. Argument is engagement. Engagement is reach. Obviously, don't be offensive just for the sake of it, but don't be afraid to have a personality.
Finally, watch the data, but trust your gut. Numbers tell you what happened, but they don't always tell you why. Sometimes a post fails because of the timing, not the content. Try again. Repost it with a different caption. Iterate. The internet is a giant laboratory, and "this shit doing numbers" is the successful experiment you’ve been waiting for.
Start by auditing your current social output. If it looks like a brochure, delete it. If it looks like something you’d send to a friend in a group chat, you’re on the right track. Lower the bar for "perfection" and raise the bar for "humanity." That’s how you actually win the attention game in 2026.