What's the best way to make a video go viral?
October 30, 2008 1:32 PM Subscribe
What's the best way to make a video go viral? One of my friends is trying to hype up interest his nonprofit organization with a funny video featuring one of the founders. What specific websites or other modes of communication should he utilize to get the video out there?
Videos are viral for 2 reasons:
1.) It lets the person forwarding the video be a comedian. Forwarding the video has to feel like a re-telling a great joke. Mildly humorous isn't good enough. Most people are not funny when they try to be funny. Often this might mean the viewer needs to laugh at you, not with you.
2.) It's a spectacle. It's something that people have never seen before. People will forward it because they want the credit of being the first one to show it to their friends.
The video should make the person forwarding it feel like a hero. If you can't *honestly* imagine someone feeling like a hero for forwarding your video, it ain't going to be viral.
posted by specialfriend at 1:56 PM on October 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
1.) It lets the person forwarding the video be a comedian. Forwarding the video has to feel like a re-telling a great joke. Mildly humorous isn't good enough. Most people are not funny when they try to be funny. Often this might mean the viewer needs to laugh at you, not with you.
2.) It's a spectacle. It's something that people have never seen before. People will forward it because they want the credit of being the first one to show it to their friends.
The video should make the person forwarding it feel like a hero. If you can't *honestly* imagine someone feeling like a hero for forwarding your video, it ain't going to be viral.
posted by specialfriend at 1:56 PM on October 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
Assuming you have a video that will catch peoples attention, I would start by putting it up on YouTube. Then forward the link on to people, encouraging them to do the same.
Lather, rinse and repeat with Myspace, Facebook, Livejournal and other sites of that nature.
posted by arishaun at 2:01 PM on October 30, 2008
Lather, rinse and repeat with Myspace, Facebook, Livejournal and other sites of that nature.
posted by arishaun at 2:01 PM on October 30, 2008
You can upload to YouTube or whatever, link it all over the place, and hope for the best, but you can't force it, theres no magic button that guarantees success. If your entire marketing campaign relies on a video going viral, you might want to rethink your campaign.
posted by jjb at 2:04 PM on October 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by jjb at 2:04 PM on October 30, 2008 [1 favorite]
Can you post a link to the video? It might help answer the question.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 2:18 PM on October 30, 2008
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 2:18 PM on October 30, 2008
Response by poster: I would post a link, but I do some work for the organization as well and I don't want it to seem as though I'm plugging my own product. I've heard there have been problems with that in the past on MeFi.
posted by easy_being_green at 2:27 PM on October 30, 2008
posted by easy_being_green at 2:27 PM on October 30, 2008
Since any answers to the question might be improved by seeing the video in question, I think it's okay to post a link to it here.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 2:36 PM on October 30, 2008
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 2:36 PM on October 30, 2008
Or you could post a seemingly innocent question on AskMeFi, piquing people's interest enough that that they ask for a link to the video. As a polite Mefite you decline to post the link yourself, but privately email the video to the person who requested it. ... And so, the virus finds its first host.
See... you're half way there already!
posted by Kabanos at 2:37 PM on October 30, 2008
See... you're half way there already!
posted by Kabanos at 2:37 PM on October 30, 2008
I'd start by posting it to Youtube and perhaps one other video-sharing site (Vimeo, blip.tv, etc.). Embed it in the organization's website (homepage if possible) with accompanying embed code for others to use. Find friends and co-workers who have blogs, Twitter accounts, etc., and ask them to embed or link to it. If you know someone prominent in the organizational structure/network who blogs or has a presence in the social media realm, send them a message telling them what you want and why in plain terms. Do the same with any journalists. Whatever you do, don't try to trick people into watching the video.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 2:41 PM on October 30, 2008
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 2:41 PM on October 30, 2008
Keep it short - Under a minute and a half is best.
posted by DrDreidel at 3:02 PM on October 30, 2008
posted by DrDreidel at 3:02 PM on October 30, 2008
Response by poster: Thanks all for the helpful tips so far. My friend asked me not to share the videos (there are three that they're plugging) until they are edited and polished, so I'll describe them instead.
First of all, I was totally off-base about the content - they're not funny at all. The organization is focused on development in rural Sudan, and the videos are tours of one of the the founder's village and interviews with local people. They are fairly long (5-10 minutes), to counter DrDreidel's good advice, and they are more along the lines of being simultaneously gut-wrenching (conditions are bad) and heartwarming (development is underway). In short, the focus of the publicity for the videos is awareness about Sudan and the efforts of the nonprofit.
posted by easy_being_green at 3:27 PM on October 30, 2008
First of all, I was totally off-base about the content - they're not funny at all. The organization is focused on development in rural Sudan, and the videos are tours of one of the the founder's village and interviews with local people. They are fairly long (5-10 minutes), to counter DrDreidel's good advice, and they are more along the lines of being simultaneously gut-wrenching (conditions are bad) and heartwarming (development is underway). In short, the focus of the publicity for the videos is awareness about Sudan and the efforts of the nonprofit.
posted by easy_being_green at 3:27 PM on October 30, 2008
Unfunny is a much harder sell for viral. Off the top of my head I can only think of one gut-wrenching video that was still popular enough that I got it forwarded to me multiple times. It was the AIDS awareness vid with all the five year olds cutting each other's hair. It was a sad video about a serious issue, but the angle of post apocalyptic kindergarteners was interesting enough to send it viral.
posted by the latin mouse at 4:14 PM on October 30, 2008
posted by the latin mouse at 4:14 PM on October 30, 2008
You'd be fighting an uphill battle trying to get videos like that to go viral. IMO, the whole philosophy behind viral videos is getting the viewer into a state of 'OMG, that was so amazing/funny, I gotta send it to my friends RIGHT NOW!' Obviously, that is not the mood people will be in after watching a video of a poverty-stricken third-world country.
posted by Hargrimm at 4:30 PM on October 30, 2008
posted by Hargrimm at 4:30 PM on October 30, 2008
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