When Dan Depaula of Trumbull, Conn.-based Picasso’s Flooring Designer hit “share” on an Instagram Reel of his brother water-popping a parquet floor, he knew it would go viral. When you have more than 600,000 Instagram followers and a top video pushing 100 million views, you learn a few things. The water-popping video, shared at the ideal posting time (around noon on a Wednesday), quickly hit hundreds of thousands of views, eventually peaking at 9.6 million views. Depaula says there are three reasons: 1) the beautiful existing parquet; 2) the pop of color when the water hits the wood “makes it very satisfying”; and 3) Depaula’s brother misses a spot while spraying, and the video doesn’t show him fixing it. “A lot of people online think they know everything,” Depaula says. “They love a chance to tell you how to do it better.” Depaula began posting on Instagram in 2018 and it’s now a key part of his business, connecting him to high-end jobs outside his state. Along with consistency and an ability to ignore the online “haters,” Depaula’s biggest social media advice is to love the work itself. “That’s the most important thing for a business to be successful,” he says. “You should fall in love with what you do.”
