Or, perhaps the real question we should be asking is how did a 56-second video of a baby biting another child’s finger get over 700 million views on YouTube and inspire multiple parodies and remixes?
Although the next viral video is unpredictable, there may be a few reasons why your content isn’t getting the hits you want.
- Lack of Emotional Appeal – People tend to share positively charged content that inflicts emotions such as curiosity, amazement, humor, admiration, etc. The subject matter should be relatable – yet it should evoke some sort of emotional reaction. For example, the “Charlie Bit Me” video went viral because it featured two adorable children with silly antics. Content should also touch a triggering situation for your audience and offer solutions. The “Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife”, or “Bed Intruder Song”, although resulted in hilarious remixes, concentrated on a terrible incident and warned America about home intruders.
- Not “Share-Worthy” – What you share on the internet affects how others see you. Therefore, people will only share content that makes them look good to others. To stay current, your subject should tell a story and revolve around a conversation taking place at the moment. You also have to make people feel special, or as if they have an inside look into something others don’t know about just yet.
- Bad Timing – The time of year is crucial to whether or not your content goes viral. Summer break, back to school, holiday season, etc. should all be considered when planning the exact time your content is most in-demand. Unless your subject relates to a popular event, such as The Oscars, avoid posting your content near events that will most likely blow up the Twittersphere. The day of the week is critical, as well, because weekends often interrupt sharing. Also, the time of day is important when considering who your target audience is and what time zone they live in.
- Poor Distribution – The launch of your content determines the initial spark that will ensure its success. Exposure is important, therefore influential connections and constant sharing with friends and colleagues are necessary. You should also consider going outside the YouTube box to broaden your audience by uploading videos to alternative websites, such as Howcast, Yahoo video, Blip.tv, and Vimeo.
Gabriel Shaoolian, Blue Fountain Media CEO, was interviewed on “Fox News Live” and shared his own tips on how to share your content – and make it go viral. As an SEO and web development expert, his advice is a little more scientific! Shaoolian agreed that people appeal to humorous subjects and tend to notice content that they can relate to, therefore, you shouldn’t act “ too corporate”. By knowing your audience’s “pain points”, you can ensure that they will react to topics in certain ways. Also, the title of your content is “make or break” and determines whether your video or blog post will be clicked on immediately or scrolled past meaninglessly. Shaoolian suggested that the title should get the readers/viewers to question themselves and spark curiosity. And then there are the technical things you should do to move your content up in search and get more eyeballs on it to increase its chance of going viral.