We've all seen all sorts of cool, amazing, stupid, or just weird videos that have millions of views, most of them coming within a short amount of time. But how do these videos make it big that make people want to watch it, and then send it to their friends? Almost all of them are very short in length...but there's really no general trend about the actual content. What do you all think makes a video viral?
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What makes a video "viral"?
- Thread starter Squirmin Dog
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Very short, shocking "I can't believe this just happened" stuff.
There is no formula to make your video viral though. It just happens.
And i have never seen a scripted viral video. its all in the moment in the right place, at the right time..
You'll be walking around the lake, with your camera turned on, and then BAM! There are two grandmas fighting with their purses. That will make video viral, i think.
Or a drunk 4 year old kid in the bar. Maybe a cute cat singing Frank Sinatra.
There is no formula to make your video viral though. It just happens.
And i have never seen a scripted viral video. its all in the moment in the right place, at the right time..
You'll be walking around the lake, with your camera turned on, and then BAM! There are two grandmas fighting with their purses. That will make video viral, i think.
Or a drunk 4 year old kid in the bar. Maybe a cute cat singing Frank Sinatra.
Pretty much this. Unless you're a partner with youtube like freddiew or epicmealtime, who script their videos, having a camera on you and ready to go will generate a viral video in no time. There's always funny stuff happening in the world. Just capture it.
I know the secret and for $19.95 I can tell you HOW to make your video go viral!
Seriously, this is no different than asking how does a movie make $100,000,000 at the box office.... It's Chaos Theory and a bird flapping its wings in Hong Kong caused the world to shift in such a way that this video caught on and a few million others are ignored.
Seriously, this is no different than asking how does a movie make $100,000,000 at the box office.... It's Chaos Theory and a bird flapping its wings in Hong Kong caused the world to shift in such a way that this video caught on and a few million others are ignored.
Saying you're going to make a viral video pretty much kills the very few chances that it'll actually happen.
re
Here is one idea make a cat or kitten videos they seem to be real popular on youtube. Just come up with something good. Look at the number of views on videos on youtube to get an idea what worked before.
Here are some good examples
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf_IIbT8HGk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9qKDwQYXFE
Here is one idea make a cat or kitten videos they seem to be real popular on youtube. Just come up with something good. Look at the number of views on videos on youtube to get an idea what worked before.
Here are some good examples
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf_IIbT8HGk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9qKDwQYXFE
Im just curious if anyone agrees:
I think sometimes, when someone see's something cool, they sort of feel cool, by showing everyone else it? If you get what I mean? Seems to me that is 90% of the reason why people post things on Facebook, and dont even get me started on Twitter!
I think sometimes, when someone see's something cool, they sort of feel cool, by showing everyone else it? If you get what I mean? Seems to me that is 90% of the reason why people post things on Facebook, and dont even get me started on Twitter!
Though not viral, I noticed something the other day.
Of all my youtube videos, the one with the HIGHEST download is a short unkeyed green screen shot that I uploaded as a test. My guess is that somewhere people are using it as a study or example of the key from the chromakey dsign..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPt9_CTZ7OU
goes to show you that you can never tell what will be the most interesting to the interwebs.
Of all my youtube videos, the one with the HIGHEST download is a short unkeyed green screen shot that I uploaded as a test. My guess is that somewhere people are using it as a study or example of the key from the chromakey dsign..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPt9_CTZ7OU
goes to show you that you can never tell what will be the most interesting to the interwebs.
http://www.britanick.com/videos/
This team knows how....BEACOUSE THERE SMART AND DARM FUCKING GOOD....
This team knows how....BEACOUSE THERE SMART AND DARM FUCKING GOOD....
To me, viral means peer approval. There's a good book called BRANDWASHED which talks about it. Read it.
Which means that a video goes viral when the content is the dumbest, lowest common denominator.
So a KARDASHIANS video will go viral in seconds but a theory on space/time will have five views per year UNTIL it's reported by a journalist in the NYTimes.
Human nature is afraid to like things until it's been pre-approved. You may think that doesn't apply to you because you're a rebel and an individual but it almost certainly DOES apply to you.
It depends on the person. Some people conform more easily, and some don't. Your theory doesn't make much sense if everyone conformed, because then nobody would watch videos because the video needs to be pre-approved right? But by who? The conformist? Impossible because they need pre-approval to watch first right? So no video would be watched with that model.
And it's not a bad thing to follow the herd, sometimes.
Other things come into it like subgroups and subcultures but it's a standard and pretty much accepted posit. Just read up on the psychology behind branding and advertising.
You'll watch a movie because it wins an Oscar, which is pre-approval. Trailers for Oscar nominees go viral.
The same psychology works behind links which are passed between people, which go viral.
Anyways...this Q should have been posted on a marketing forum.
I don't think a site that gets a massive amounts of hits because of one event -- like winning an oscar is technically viral. IMO a video that is truly viral becomes that way without prior manipulation.
I was merely stating that not everyone conforms. Other than that I agree with you.
Aside from that, I find it ironic that you're trying to convince me by saying it's a well accepted model for human behavior.
That is true, and what Philis is talking about isn't what makes a video go viral. It's true, but it's definitely not a component of viral videos.
It deals more with people passing the link around which is self-verification theory in social psychology or self-enhancement in which people want to be viewed in a positive manner, and want to maintain self-esteem. But this is also unrelated to the question.
To answer the question it has to deal with the content of the media being watched, and whether it's good enough to be passed around. Which is why I said it has to contain something full of win or full of fail.
EDIT: but then again some videos go viral without win or fail, so I dunno.
EDIT: I take back that pre-approval isn't a contributing factor to viral videos, at a certain stage, when views are high, and a user hasn't seen or heard of the video they will click on it due to high amounts of views.
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