Yesterday, Josh Csehak, a talented flash/video artist at Digital Influence Group, who is also a screenwriter and student of all things social media, shared his thoughts on what makes a video go viral. He believes that if a video has the same qualities you would find in a successful vaudeville act, it has a better chance of going viral. See if you agree. His argument is laid out below.What makes a video go viral? What makes you enjoy it enough that you think your friends will enjoy it too? Can it be quantified? I looked at the most watched YouTube videos of all time to see if I could find out.Of the top 100, 70 are music videos. We'll ignore those. Aside from that, we've got:
- a 6-minute dance/comedy routine
- a 10-minute topical (about terrorists) comedy routine
- some woman talking about the show "The L Word"
- cute kid biting a finger
- cute baby laughing
- a 2-minute funny puppet harry potter song
- oral sex tips
- a homemade music video where the visuals are spongebob clips
- 5 minutes of amazing guitar wizardry
- a really neat treadmill dance routine
- nature clip of an animal brawl
- clip from American-idol type show where a guy with wonky teeth sings beautiful opera
- a really sad slideshow of some kid that got abused and killed holy crap that was depressing
- a short film/video about a social experiment giving away free hugs
- clip from american-idol type show where a cute-ass kid sings beautifully
- homemade “music video”
- an animated short about weird unicorns
- a vaudeville-style silent comedy skit
- miss teen USA showing how retarded she is
- video blog of a guy making a funny about youtube
- sneezing panda
- video blog about sex
- clip of guy with massively misshapen head
- neat hand movements to daft punk song
- sexy funny (not really) commercial
- an iraq veteran remembrance slideshow video
- STD prevention information
- guy doing amazing urban acrobatics
- homemade music video making fun of paris hilton
- animation about an annoying frogWhat do these all have in common? They all have either remarkable or emotional content, or both. Without one of these, a video will not be viral. Some have just one. The treadmill clip, for instance, is nothing more than clever. The sneezing panda and laughing baby are cute, and that’s it. But it’s enough.Emotional content falls into 5 categories:
funny
cute
sexy
sad
upliftingInterestingly, there are major movie genres that aren’t represented here — Romance and Horror. People love to feel romantic, and people love getting scared. I’ll even virally link you up right now: http://www.biteycastle.com/taken.htm
Why is there nothing in youtube’s top 100 that’s romantic or scary? I don’t know.Remarkable content falls into 3 categories:
a document of a naturally remarkable occurrence (like the nature one)
a document of someone with a high degree of skill, weirdness, or stupidity
a routine or video that’s either visually or aurally cleverBut most of the time there’s overlap. The video of the 6-year-old girl that sings beautifully has both remarkable subject matter (that she had such a nice voice) and was cute, uplifting, and a little funny all at once. It couldn’t fail.But I can think of a lot of well-known "viral" videos that aren't on this list. Maybe YouTube's just weird. I'll look at another couple lists:msnbc's Keith Olberman countdown most viral video article
- the shining redux
- afroninja
- kolla2001
- Trojan games
- John west salmon bear fight
- Exploding whale
- Kylie minogue: agent provocateur
- One night in paris
- Numa numa
- Star wars kidTime's Top 10 Viral Videos- Leave Britney alone
- The landlord
- Miss south Carolina teen usa
- Hillary 1984
- Prison inmates thriller video
- I ran so far
- Can't tase this
- Dan rather collar up
- Clark and Michael
- Daft hands
THE UPSHOTTo be viral, a video must be at least one of these:Remarkable
naturally remarkable
high degree of skill, weirdness, or stupidity
clever routineEmotional
funny
cute
sexy
sad
uplifting
- a 6-minute dance/comedy routine
- a 10-minute topical (about terrorists) comedy routine
- some woman talking about the show "The L Word"
- cute kid biting a finger
- cute baby laughing
- a 2-minute funny puppet harry potter song
- oral sex tips
- a homemade music video where the visuals are spongebob clips
- 5 minutes of amazing guitar wizardry
- a really neat treadmill dance routine
- nature clip of an animal brawl
- clip from American-idol type show where a guy with wonky teeth sings beautiful opera
- a really sad slideshow of some kid that got abused and killed holy crap that was depressing
- a short film/video about a social experiment giving away free hugs
- clip from american-idol type show where a cute-ass kid sings beautifully
- homemade “music video”
- an animated short about weird unicorns
- a vaudeville-style silent comedy skit
- miss teen USA showing how retarded she is
- video blog of a guy making a funny about youtube
- sneezing panda
- video blog about sex
- clip of guy with massively misshapen head
- neat hand movements to daft punk song
- sexy funny (not really) commercial
- an iraq veteran remembrance slideshow video
- STD prevention information
- guy doing amazing urban acrobatics
- homemade music video making fun of paris hilton
- animation about an annoying frogWhat do these all have in common? They all have either remarkable or emotional content, or both. Without one of these, a video will not be viral. Some have just one. The treadmill clip, for instance, is nothing more than clever. The sneezing panda and laughing baby are cute, and that’s it. But it’s enough.Emotional content falls into 5 categories:
funny
cute
sexy
sad
upliftingInterestingly, there are major movie genres that aren’t represented here — Romance and Horror. People love to feel romantic, and people love getting scared. I’ll even virally link you up right now: http://www.biteycastle.com/taken.htm
Why is there nothing in youtube’s top 100 that’s romantic or scary? I don’t know.Remarkable content falls into 3 categories:
a document of a naturally remarkable occurrence (like the nature one)
a document of someone with a high degree of skill, weirdness, or stupidity
a routine or video that’s either visually or aurally cleverBut most of the time there’s overlap. The video of the 6-year-old girl that sings beautifully has both remarkable subject matter (that she had such a nice voice) and was cute, uplifting, and a little funny all at once. It couldn’t fail.But I can think of a lot of well-known "viral" videos that aren't on this list. Maybe YouTube's just weird. I'll look at another couple lists:msnbc's Keith Olberman countdown most viral video article
- the shining redux
- afroninja
- kolla2001
- Trojan games
- John west salmon bear fight
- Exploding whale
- Kylie minogue: agent provocateur
- One night in paris
- Numa numa
- Star wars kidTime's Top 10 Viral Videos- Leave Britney alone
- The landlord
- Miss south Carolina teen usa
- Hillary 1984
- Prison inmates thriller video
- I ran so far
- Can't tase this
- Dan rather collar up
- Clark and Michael
- Daft hands
THE UPSHOTTo be viral, a video must be at least one of these:Remarkable
naturally remarkable
high degree of skill, weirdness, or stupidity
clever routineEmotional
funny
cute
sexy
sad
uplifting