As we are often told there is no such thing as a viral video.
There is however a plan to make a video go viral. And it does not take an experienced video team or in-depth technical knowledge.
Step One:
You do need a network of people with some measure of influence that you can tap into to give the video an initial push. You need to give it some traction. This is not something that can be done overnight. You should be developing your social network anyway, because it’s the smart business thing to do. Then when you need it for spreading a video, or another piece of content or in a crisis, it’s already in place.
Step Two
You need a video that will attract attention and interest. That’s not likely to be a standard corporate video. It has to be interesting, unusual, exciting content.
For example: I went to Salt Lake City last week to host ten bloggers at the Grand Opening of City Creek Center. I had heard a lot about the features of the center. The feature that I felt would most likely get people’s attention and interest is the fountain built by WETDesign, the people who built the Bellagio Fountain, which combines fire and water.
I made sure that I got the shot once it got dark and the fire was turned on in the fountain. It was shot on a Kodak Zi8 – a simple handheld camcorder. I am not a brilliant videographer. But I know enough to get the job done.
Step Three
Get the video online fast. I had the video up a couple of hours later. I had primed several of my best connections to watch for the tweet about the video. By Thursday morning it was already being retweeted.
Step Four
Keep an eye on the views, and who is retweeting or posting about the video. Send it to more people with influence and lots of followers.Ask them to retweet the link.
Step Five
Thank everyone who helps you with the distribution of the video.
Step Six
Watch for pick up in big blogs and mainstream media.
Retweet those links.
This video has been posted in
A Google Search of those headlines shows that those two posts have been republished on more than 1000 other websites and blogs.
To date the video has had 92,923 views.
This chart shows how many views most videos on YouTube get.
This puts the video in the top 2.69% of all videos on YouTube.
Not a bad result for a 2 minute video shot by a PR person on a flip-type camcorder.
And if it gets over 100,000 views it will be in the top 1.73%!! So pass the link along, would ya?
