The Unpredictable Nature of Virality: Why a Video Can’t Always Go Viral

As marketers, we are constantly seeking ways to create content that will capture the attention of our target audience and spread like wildfire.

The idea of creating a viral video is the ultimate goal, as it promises widespread exposure, brand recognition, and a significant increase in engagement. However, despite our best efforts, the truth is that making a video go viral is more complex than just creating a fantastic piece of content.

The first thing to understand is that virality is an unpredictable phenomenon. It cannot be forced or manufactured. Rather, it results from a perfect storm of elements that come together to create a viral sensation. This includes the right timing, the right audience, and the right content. While you can control the quality of the content you produce, the other factors contributing to virality are largely outside your control.

Moreover, the competition for attention online is fierce. There is an overwhelming amount of content being produced and shared every day, making it harder than ever to capture the attention of your target audience.

In order to stand out, you need to create content that is not only high-quality and engaging but also highly shareable. This requires a deep understanding of what resonates with your audience and what will inspire them to share your content with their network.

While the idea of creating a viral video is appealing, it is important to understand that virality is not something that can be controlled or predicted. Instead, focus on creating high-quality content that is engaging, shareable, and relevant to your target audience. This will help to increase your chances of success and ensure that your content reaches the right people.

Here are several key elements that can contribute to making a video go viral:

  1. Emotional appeal: Videos that evoke strong emotions, such as happiness, sadness, anger, or surprise, tend to be more likely to be shared and spread quickly.
  2. Timing: The timing of a video’s release can greatly impact its virality. Releasing a video at the right moment, aligning with current events or trending topics, can help it gain traction and spread quickly.
  3. Shareability: The design and format of the video should make it easy to share and shareable on various social media platforms.
  4. Unique content: Videos that are innovative, entertaining, or educational and offer something new and unique to the viewer tend to be more likely to go viral.
  5. Relevance: The video should be relevant to a large audience, touching on universal themes and topics that people can relate to.
  6. Influencer endorsement: Collaborating with influencers or popular figures who have a large following can help to increase exposure and reach a wider audience.
  7. Viral triggers: Certain elements such as humour, shock value, or a call to action can trigger users to share and spread the video.

It is important to note that while these elements can increase the likelihood of a video going viral, it is not a guarantee. Virality is largely influenced by external factors and is an unpredictable phenomenon.

I interviewed Viral content expert Lee Kennedy-Washington in a recent Simon Says Video podcast. Here is a clip where we discuss whether you can make a video go viral.

I Blame Kevin Costner

I blame Kevin Costner! Do you remember the film ‘Field of Dreams’ starring Kevin Costner where he hears a voice when walking through his cornfield which says “If you build it, he will come”.

I often think of this analogy when clients make ‘build’ a video, upload it to the website or plonk it on YouTube and expect people ‘he’ to come and watch it. This might have worked in the past, but not anymore.

If you think about it, we live in a noisy content world. Look at the facts, over 300 hours per minute of video content is uploaded to YouTube. Five hundred million Instagram stories are posted per day. It’s getting tough to get your content seen by your audience. And even if you have a warm audience, they’re very likely to miss what you’re trying to show them.

Social media channels make their money through advertising. You may of heard the phrase “Pay to Play” and, like it or not, this is the world that we live in as marketers, and we need to see this as an opportunity. See this age of video ads as a Goldmine Era. What I am referring to is that you can reach a wide audience and not pay a lot of money at the moment, but this won’t last forever. All the social media platforms are offering video ads, which can be very highly targeted. But before you rush out there, there are a few things to consider to make this campaign effective.

The first, have clear goals. Do you want this to be a brand awareness campaign? Or do you want people to consider one of your products? Or you want a conversion and sales? This will shape what your video content will be.

The second consideration is to have a budget in mind. Now, you can spend just a couple of dollars, obviously, right up to hundreds or thousands of dollars, it depends on the size of the target audience and also their geographic location. But if you’re niche and know exactly who and where your audience is, you can run a very effective campaign for not a lot of money.

The third, measuring the results, and having an online campaign like this, will give you great metrics. So you need to consider what goals you want:

  • Do you want just purely views?
  • Do you want to promote people sharing and engaging with your content?
  • Do you want people to click through to a landing page?
  • Do you want to go straight for conversions?

Now, each platform has a slightly different setup, depending on these goals that you want to achieve. We are nearly halfway through 2019. The digital landscape is changing all the time. I would recommend you at least test some paid promotion for your video content. It’ll give you an unfair advantage over your competition. And believe you me, a lot of businesses are not doing this.

They say video is expensive $$$

They say video is expensive $$$

I get asked this question many times, “why is video expensive?”. There are lots of variables when it comes to producing video content and depends on what you are comparing the cost against. Video can only be seen as expensive if there are no goals, no promotion and no performance set against it. Next time you’re thinking of making a video, don’t see it as a cost, see it as an investment.

How to make awesome videos

If you are thinking about shooting or editing your own content, this video is for you. In this episode, I give lots of tips and hacks to make awesome videos without having to spend the big bucks.

I cover:
1. Why you need to batch
2. It’s not about the kit
3. Not sure, get some help
4. Shoot ‘B-Roll’
5. Keep it short
6. OutSource the editing

If you want some advice or training on making your own content please contact us.

 

How to make a video without filming

How to make a video without filming

This is day one of the video challenge. Believe it or not, you can make a video without shooting a frame, if you watch the video below, I talk about the options you have, especially if you’re a little bit shy of the camera.

In the video, I explain:

  • How to use PowerPoint to make a video
  • Cost effective editing
  • Finding a cheap voice over professional
  • How to make cost-effective animated videos which look amazing