You may have heard that getting a video to go viral on YouTube, or any other video sharing site, is more luck than anything else, but you heard wrong. Many videos that go viral were deliberately created and carefully pushed out into the Internet world with that specific goal. You can get your video to go viral too, if you use the right tools and follow the right steps.
Your videos content is clearly an important part making it go viral. It should be either very humorous or something outlandish that makes people sit up and take notice. If the content is good, the quality of the video isn’t very important. If it is entertaining, people won’t care that is isn’t professional, in fact, sometimes it’s better for it to have an amateurish feel to it, as long as it makes viewers want to share it with others. Preferably, your video should be one of the select few on YouTube’s “Most Viewed” front page, because that’s when the views really start to explode.
Your video should only be less than a minute long. Longer than that is okay, but shorter will get you more views. It should also have a great title, something that will grab the interest of someone searching for an entertaining clip to watch from the start. Sometimes, it’s advisable to give misleading titles to attract viewers. Make sure you include tags with your videos that will make them easily searchable. It is imperative that you make the video embeddable so that people can repost it and get you more exposure.
Once your video is uploaded, you’ll need to get moving. Start with email, sending it to as many contacts as possible and requesting that they forward it on. Next, move on to your social networking accounts; post it on friend’s pages, group pages, and community pages, giving it as much exposure as possible. Don’t forget to post the video to forums and blogs, as well as any other appropriate sites.
Start some controversy around your video by posting comments from multiple accounts, or get friends to help. A little debate can really get a video noticed, and although very few viewers will leave a comment, most will read them and may make them more willing to send the video along or talk about it to friends.
When you post your video, YouTube gives you the choice of three thumbnail screen shots of your video to post along with it. Of the three, one is always from the middle of the video, so take care to have something notable in the middle that will give you a great thumbnail to post. Once your video is on the web and you have people passing it along to friends, you are on your way to a viral video.
Now Try – Viral Videos
