Social Media: Viral Videos

Everybody, well almost everybody, loves crazy, wacky, cool or interesting videos. Some videos generate so much attention they become classified as "viral". This word can mean a few different things, but in the context of Internet popularity viral refers to "becoming very popular by circulating quickly from person to person, especially on the Internet: the most memorableviral videos; a book that's gone viral." http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/viral

But what things constitute a video going viral? According to the self entitled article "What Makes a Video Viral?", it can be understood that five million or more views in a three to seven day period would satisfy this requirement. I have heard otherwise. There is no doctrinal information constituting the exact number of views that absolutely defines a video as viral.

It is quite natural for people to share the things they enjoy with their peers. As soon as I see a hilarious video, I immediately text my friends about it and encourage them to check it out. A few weeks will pass and before too long we will have our favorite videos memorized and quote them non-stop. It would be ludicrous to assume that a video with one million views came from one million different users. I am sure that 20-30 of the total views  on my favorite videos come from me alone.

The previously referenced article can be found at:
http://socialtimes.com/what-makes-a-video-viral_b61409

Viral videos are considered to be mainstream. Meaning they are extremely popular and enjoyed by various types of people. Not all videos start out this way. Promoting and exposing a video in its early stages can be a difficult task. The video has to have content that can promote itself. It has to be quotable, extreme, hilarious, gross or just distinguished in such a memorable way that it sells itself.

In an article providing a recipe for a successful viral video, we can read about the importance of great content and more importantly the right kind of advertising. The most effective place to try and route people to a video, is at the end of an already successful video. The fan base that is already embedded  in certain videos is the target audience for videos that are trying to make it big. It doesn't matter how the video gets big, it just matters that it does. The article concludes with an interesting point about clear titles that can be searched and found with ease. I completely agree with that bit of information. I have searched for videos of which I have forgotten the title and finding them again can be difficult if the title is not clear and descriptive.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123481783053894227.html

In case you might be wondering where all these videos are, feel free to check out this website: http://www.viralvideos.com/  It's always nice to receive news ahead of the curve and this site shows you what is up and coming.