First off, very fun panel. They showed us lots of funny videos and cool videos and things that just had a certain something that made them go viral. The one thing they all had in common, and the major take away from the panel, was that they were simply good content. According to the panel:
• most viral videos tap into something human, something people can relate to (funny, sad, happy, sexy, painful, etc.)
• most are positive • many have an aspect of wonder, surprise, inventiveness, or the unexpected. Great example is the wedding dance. Looks like a boring wedding video and first but then something unexpected happens.
• Unexpected combinations work well, too
• Production values don’t matter all that much so long as the content is good. • Kittens and women’s sexy parts help things go viral.
• Great viral videos get spoofed.
What can you do to help things go viral (other than make good content that is)?
• distribute on multiple channels
• get it in the hands of trusted content distributors: tastemakers, discoverers, curators
• let people imbed the video wherever they want
• really think about your title and tagging, they’re “foundational” Two interesting facts:
• Initial traffic for viral videos is off site on blogs, video sites, etc. Then after people start to send it around and talk about it the traffic shifts to YouTube as people go searching for the funny kitty video they heard about
• YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world
• most viral videos tap into something human, something people can relate to (funny, sad, happy, sexy, painful, etc.)
• most are positive • many have an aspect of wonder, surprise, inventiveness, or the unexpected. Great example is the wedding dance. Looks like a boring wedding video and first but then something unexpected happens.
• Unexpected combinations work well, too
• Production values don’t matter all that much so long as the content is good. • Kittens and women’s sexy parts help things go viral.
• Great viral videos get spoofed.
What can you do to help things go viral (other than make good content that is)?
• distribute on multiple channels
• get it in the hands of trusted content distributors: tastemakers, discoverers, curators
• let people imbed the video wherever they want
• really think about your title and tagging, they’re “foundational” Two interesting facts:
• Initial traffic for viral videos is off site on blogs, video sites, etc. Then after people start to send it around and talk about it the traffic shifts to YouTube as people go searching for the funny kitty video they heard about
• YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world
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