The Recipe in Going Viral
Why do some ideas spread like crazy? Find out.
Did you know over 100 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute? That’s a lot of video, but YouTube is a big entertainment channel so having a lot of content is not surprising when you think about it. While many video’s go viral, it’s important to note that fewer than 1% of videos on YouTube will ever exceed 1 million views, hence the chances of going viral are incredibly slim – so never make this a success measurement.
It’s the same with Facebook, where over 4 Billion items are shared every day, with the average post by a brands page will only reach 16% of their fans. Statistics like this make it hard to cut through the crowd or to get you message to stand out, let alone think of the next big thing!
So, why do some ideas spread like crazy? It’s not about smarts, certainly not bid budgets, or by accident (most of the time), or even the massager – just think about the message and focus on it to make it easy to share.
EMOTION.
SOCIAL PROOF.
PRACTIVAL VALUE.
STORIES.
Embed your products in stories that people will want to tell, as they won’t just share information, they will share the stories. Take the Facebook group Humans of New York (HONY), as an example. Portraits of local New Yorkers alongside a quote or short story giving people all around the world a glimpse into the lives of stranger from the big apple.
We live in a visual world, and because a photo is worth a thousand words – it’ll prove valuable to strengthen your overall message. In the case of HONY, the portrait accompanying the stories captures the raw emotion, serves as proof behind the message, provides value in their wisdom shared, and the story shared will reach thousands of viewers. These are small details – but they can make a huge difference.
So, find humor in the message – as we all love a good prank video or animals and kids doing the funniest things, shock the audience so they won’t believe what just hit them, or add an element of mystic and doubt the audience into thinking if it’s real or not like the recent explosion of the dress that was either blue or gold depending on the person.
At the end of the day, it will come down to luck. So be inspired by some of the success stories out there, from the Dove Beauty campaign where they focused on real beauty instead of photo shopped beauty, to the Pepsi Max and Jeff Gordon test drive campaign that saw over 33 Million views in less than a month! There is a lot of inspiration out there – take the time to explore them and find your own inspiration.
