Going viral

New video content is exciting – creating it feels great – but the expectations of those not involved in video creation can be overwhelming. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard ‘Let’s make this go viral!’ and (the ever-so-slightly accusatory) ‘This should easily get thousands of hits on YouTube!’

Let’s start with this – you cannot MAKE something go viral (I could easily swap the word ‘make’ for ‘force’ or ‘push' in this context, as that’s what people really mean), you can only create compelling video material and present it to the world. The whole point is that people want to share it – the power is with the consumer, which must wrangle the any traditionalists out there. Yes, you heard me correctly, there's been a massive shift of power since the advent of social, and the people have strong and diverse opinions, so us marketers all must work harder.

This makes me think about the success of the Kony2012 campaign in March this year. There are many blogs and articles claiming to share the ‘secret’ of its viral success – just 3 days after its release, more that 70m people had viewed or seen parts of the video – and I’ve tried to round up some sensible information (if only for my own use/sanity!)

This blog post is a great, in-depth (if lengthy!) analysis. My key points from it are about grabbing attention, making sure your video is high quality and to make it SIMPLE. My ultimate favourite point is to ‘measure what you find valuable’ – which in this case is awareness. A difficult task, but if done right is magic!

An opinion piece in Marketingweek emphasised another brilliant aspect of Kony2012 – the dying art of storytelling. The Kony2012 video is quite long for this digital age – 30 minutes – but is captivating and engaging, holding the viewers attention throughout.

A blog post in Marketing Mag talks about the value of listening - Kony2012 was highly criticised as a marketing ploy, with the company's financials heavily questioned. A reply from the organisation was speedily published - emphasising that if you're going to use social platforms, you need to listen and respond to people, whether the feedback is good or bad!

Hopefully these tips can help you, and me, when tasked with video creation!

(I wont go further into the Kony2012 campaign. I hear the second video hardly got any hits and the Cover the Night campaign was a washout. They talk of slacktivism, and the difficulty of conversion from a video to action... All I know is that I watched the first video, but didn't actually do anything.)