Viral Videos – Key Elements
About Viral Videos
If you’ve read the last post on video marketing SEO, you know that Facebook, YouTube, and small niche blogs are key influencing factors in the process of making viral videos. A viral video is one that explodes in popularity through Internet sharing, whether through social networking sites, email, or other websites.
You’ve probably heard of Charlie the Unicorn, whose viral videos populated sites everywhere after it went viral (it now has over 65 million views on its original YouTube video and originally came out April, 2006). It has all the elements you might expect of a viral video–it’s fresh, it’s quirky, and it’s viewable. The most viral video of 2013 was Ylvis – “The Fox” which garnered over 330 million views in less than four months. Whew.
So, what does it take to make a viral video go viral? The answer is that no one really knows, but there are a few key elements all viral videos have in common.
1. It’s psychological
People want to share things that they find helpful, entertaining, or wickedly on-point. You know it when you read it–perhaps a post on Facebook that says boldly exactly what you had in mind, but didn’t know quite how to say it–and something clicks in your brain that says “Yes! I have to share this.” Viral videos are the same way.
2. It’s really entertaining
If your content is fresh, unique, clever, and entertaining, or capable of sparking an emotional connection with the viewer, you’re on the right track. Everyone enjoys being entertained and coming across a virtual goldmine of something new, wacky, and cool. Or, in the case of Kony 2012, a story that requires viewers to help in some way. But, it has to be unique. After all, people don’t want to tell their friends about the black dress they saw in the store, unless it was somehow out of the ordinary that everyone wants to hear about.
3. It’s news
And, it has to be something that people can talk about. Viral videos do more than get shared, they influence the cultural climate of the people who are sharing them. The Dove commercials of “Real Beauty Sketches” went viral because they were bringing to light a social issue that women were thinking about and which was discussed in the media, but which no one had thought of doing in that way yet. It’s essentially smart viral marketing. By being timely and filling the niche of need–much in the same way disposable razors first became so popular, or post-it notes–popularity of a video becomes explosive.
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