How to make your video go viral

Viral videos are videos that become popular in a short period of time (often overnight). They are shared on Social Media, internet sites and cell phones. What makes a video viral, however, is not understood until it has gone viral. Creating content that has everyone taking about it doesn’t ‘’just happen’’ by coincidence. Viral videos have a lot of thoughts and effort put into them, as it takes tons of marketing, exposure, and planning to make it happen (and many fail at this attempt). Although there is no magical recipe to create a popular video, the following elements can give you an understanding on what makes a video go viral.

Tell a good story

Superficial content has a short shelf life. People want a solid story with a strong message. Good stories are always about people doing something for a reason. Stories that show struggle, courage, or success have a good chance to be shareable.

It must evoke real emotions

Whether the story is funny, sad, inspirational or happy, emotions that are evoked in the video must be genuine and cannot be faked. People love inspirational and feel good stories that evoke happiness. The more they are inspired, the more likely they would share the video so others can also feel the same. Just like a smile, positive content is contagious.

Be short and sweet

With the massive amount of content the average person is exposed to on a daily basis, our attention span is getting increasingly shorter. People first look at how long the video is before they watch it. No matter how great the video is, if it’s too long, unfortunately, people won’t sit though it and they will be less likely to share it. Therefore, less is more.

Be timely

Viral content is usually in sync and timely with current events. If you want your content to be viral, you should mirror the conversation everyone is having and speak their language.

It’s all in the title

A captivating title will trigger curiosity and will motivate people to click. Keep in mind SEO keywords in your title as well as in your descriptions to get more clicks.

Ordinary title: Young woman discusses her trip to Bolivia

Good title: Young woman’s unbelievable encounter in the Bolivian mountains

Have a marketing plan

You cannot simply rely on luck and ‘’wait’’ for your video to be discovered; you need to be proactive and build a marketing plan around your video. You should also engage your audience and encourage them to comment and follow you. Most importantly, your video should add value and create conversations.