flickr photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allegedlyart/7100797807/sizes/l/in/photostream/
We have all heard of the Kony 2012 video. Most of us have probably seen Rebecca Black's Friday. You may also recognize these other titles: Charlie Bit My Finger, Justin Bieber's Baby, and the Kanye West & Taylor Swift video. What is it that makes these videos go viral? Is there a key to YouTube success and if so, how does one measure that success? Although each of these videos has had millions of views, I would not argue that each has been successful. The Kony 2012 campaign is a perfect example of this – the campaign showed great promise after the video's explosive success, but soon fizzled away.
Meghan Keane references work done at Harvard University that concluded that there is direct correlation between an advertising budget and a video's online popularity. It is undeniable that viewers appreciate content with high quality visuals but I do not think that the key to success lies only in video quality. A video goes viral because of many undeterminable factors. Viral videos emerge for many different reasons including the following: shock-factor, emotional pull (both positive & negative), fame of featured individuals, creativity, and aesthetic appeal. I would like to focus on emotional pull as a possible reason for a video to go viral.
Jeff Bullas includes emotive strength as one of his 4 key elements for a viral video. He delves into the different levels of emotion, explaining that videos with negative connotations or headlines get more attention than those with positive focus. This can clearly be seen even in the popularity of certain news stories over others. Have you ever noticed that most "breaking news" focusses entirely upon negative events? We can always count on Fox News or CityPulse 24 to give us our daily dose of negativity.
In contrast, Dan Ackerman Greenberg, who founded a viral video marketing company, outlines what he sees as a number of misconceptions regarding viral videos. He states: "you simply can't expect to post great videos on YouTube and have them go viral on their own, even if you think you have the best videos ever. These days, achieving true virality takes serious creativity, some luck, and a lot of hard work." Greenberg's article spurred my thoughts on what truly makes a video go viral. I have always liked to think that videos spread simply because of the emotional connections they create with individuals. Whenever I watch a video that I feel connected to, I immediately promote and share it across my network.
Perhaps this is not really the case. KONY 2012 went viral – this is undeniable. This campaign must have been planned over years to ensure the video's far reach. The video has the perfect combination of high quality footage alongside healthy portions of emotion-stirring and shocking content. However, unfortunately for the Kony campaign team,
Virality Doesn't Always Translate to Payday. This video experienced massive online success, but as we all know, Cover the Night was a flop. Does this mean that the key to YouTube success in fact lies in a well-planned, well-funded marketing campaign? I think that it does – but the real challenge is making a video's rise to fame look effortless.
Originally from Toronto - Queen's University undergrad student majoring in History. Entering my final year at Queen's as the Alma Mater Society Vice-President of Operations.
