February 25, 2010

We have all seen them, those amazing viral videos – Frightened hamster, Susan Boyle, Smirnoff’s Tea Partay. Yes, it might seem like luck or happenstance that some online video gets more than say, 100,000 hits, and it often is, but it turns out that just as often that viral video was the result of some careful planning.

Planning that you can do too.

My recent post about the power of video as a SEO tool got me to thinking. Just how does a video go viral? I mean, if we could create a clever video for our own businesses and get that video to go viral, the branding alone would be priceless, would it not?  So I dug in, did some research, spoke with some experts, and discovered that creating a viral video is a skill that can be learned. If someone else did it, so can you.

Is some of it luck? Sure, but less than you think. Here are the steps:

1. Make it different: First of all, your viral video cannot be an obvious ad; no one would recommend that. Instead, it has to be funny, shocking, clever, controversial, interesting, different, sexy, or quirky. Making people laugh or go ‘wow!’ works best.

Some examples of businesses that get it are

·      Quicksilver dynamite surfing

·      Designer Mark Ecko tags Air Force One

While you may think that the cool concept is the be-all-and-end-all when it comes to going viral, experts say that is not the case. Of course it has to be intriguing, but because going viral is about more than just creating a cool video, the video is only part of the process.

And of course, make sure whatever video you come up with fits your brand.

2. Make it short: 30 seconds is good. 2 minutes max. A lot longer is not a lot better. Shorter is fine.

After it is done, upload your video to YouTube and...

3. Give it an attention-grabbing title like Dog drives car!! Think advertising. Give your video a headline that will draw attention.

4. Use the power of the thumbnail: YouTube gives you three options for thumbnails when uploading a video. Make sure that the thumbnail you choose is clear and intriguing.

5. Get comments: Comment on your own video, and get other people to comment on it too. The more comments the better.

And note. Remember that controversy creates comments, and sales (you don’t think Donald Trump really hated Rosie O’Donnell do you?) I am reminded of the time I wrote a USA TODAY column and said to small business owners: “Don’t tweet!” I was wrong, but the lesson learned was that controversy creates comments. Boy did I learn that!

6. Tag, you’re it! YouTube allows you to tag videos. Use that. But don’t tag generically, tag creatively, specifically. Tag with SEO in mind. Be different.

7. Build buzz: This is where the rubber hits the road. Once you have a good video and have uploaded it to YouTube, the magic is in getting people to watch it. You start by using some good, old fashioned marketing.

·      Blast an email out to your list. Link the video and recommend that people watch it and forward it.

·      Tweet about it. Embed it and share it on Facebook. Ask friends on Facebook and Twitter to share it. Digg it. You know the drill.

·      Put it on your homepage

·      Embed it into your blog and blog about it on your site.

·      Try and get other bloggers, high profile bloggers, to blog about it. Some folks even pay bloggers to embed it and blog about it.

·      Go to relevant forums, post it, recommend it, and start threads about it.

All of this is intended to give your video a fighting chance to make it onto the homepage of YouTube. What you are looking for is to get onto the “Videos” tab of the homepage. Once you get there your job gets demonstrably easier. The “Videos” page is where the most popular videos on any given day are found, and so your video will go from being one in 15,000 loaded onto YouTube every day to one of 20 on that tab.

Once you make it there, your views will skyrocket.

And remember, YouTube is not the only game in town: There are scores of video sharing sites: Funny or Die, MSN, AOL, Yahoo, TubeMogul, Metacafe, Blip.tv, CollegeHumor, DailyMotion, Crackle, and many more. 

(A special thanks to Dan Greenberg, co-founder of the viral video marketing company The Commotion Group for some of the ideas in this article.)

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Steve Strauss is one of the country’s leading small business experts. A USA TODAY columnist, author of The Small Business Bible, speaker and spokesperson, you can follow him on Twitter @SteveStrauss

Join the conversation ( 5 )

• Amy Sanchez 8 months ago

  

  I watched a lot viral videos in wally.tv .They are more hilarious. Such as *** bank, ANGRY BIRDS theme, Jeff Dunham Achmed. You can take a look that will enlighten your gloomy day.
  http://wally.tv/videos

• BOB PHIBBS 1 year 10 months and 28 days ago

  

  Hi Steve - here they are: the video, Motivation: Stop peeing in your own hat is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQu7-y5S8Lo
  The blog it references that explains more is at http://www.retaildoc.com/blog/motivation/hat
  
  Thanks for the push - hope you all like its message, creativity, shock value title, etc.

• Steve Strauss 1 year 10 months and 28 days ago

  

  Hi Bob - OK, game on! When you get the video done let us know and we'll help it go viral.

• BOB PHIBBS 1 year 10 months and 28 days ago

  

  Hey Steve, I'm taking this as a challenge and doing my own. WIll update you in a week how it worked.

• Douglas Miller 1 year 12 months and 6 days ago

  

  Interesting idea here - and certainly a desire of many. I can't think of any situation whereby someone producing online video might not want their content to go viral, but I think you may have missed the mark. I dispute the premise that one can _create_ a viral video at all. Granted, I understand that - like you suggest for creating a viral video - the title of your post was created with a certain amount of hyperbole in mind, but I contend that it is important to distinguish that one does not create a viral video, one creates a video and *the public at large* makes it viral. What you share as steps for creating viral videos are not so much points of _strategy_ as they are _common traits of previous successes_ (which can only be proven as common, NOT as CAUSAL) mixed with some best practices about posting video online in general. The sum total of your viral video strategy in this case is to "make it to the front page of YouTube" - which makes as much sense as a master painter instructing an apprentice that the best way to hold the brush is to get a painting in the Louvre. Again, not that I don't think these things are important or valid,(framed differently=no prob) I just think it is misrepresenting of the nature of social media behavior and perpetuates an unfortunate myth folks are easily delusional about - that it is possible to make *any content* viral as long as you follow a given number of steps. Again, I contend that one makes a video and that the public makes it viral. Predicting what people will or will not view and share is a much more involved process than what is covered here, and I contend, has more to do with an understanding of good storytelling techniques than proper tagging or titles. My contention is also that the public at large has grown weary of the business world's ways of attempting to force content to be viral and equally weary of the practice of using controversy to gain attention, about which I could write another 2000+ characters.