Nobody can reliably predict what pieces of content will go viral or when.
Nevertheless, understanding the types of content that tend to spread rapidly via organic or word-of-mouth channels will give you a much better chance of creating content that goes viral.
With this in mind, we'll highlight four factors that can improve your chances of creating viral content.
Let's get started!
Human Content Has a Better Chance of Achieving Virality
Factual, statistical, or economic content rarely goes viral, whether in video or written form.
Instead, viral content tends to be human-centered.
Considering this, examples of viral content include:
- A homeless man singing on the street.
- A baby laughing at something senseless.
- A man playing the guitar skillfully.
Content That Elicits Strong Emotions
The greater the emotions you can evoke in your audience, the better.
For example, the "Charlie Bit My Finger" video features a baby whose brother bit his finger while he sits there laughing and complaining simultaneously.
Notably, this video went on to receive hundreds of millions of views.
To put it in perspective, that exceeds the population of the United States!
Considering the above, this particular video went viral primarily because of how observable the emotions were.
Accordingly, viewers can almost follow the baby's emotions and experience the joy of playing with their baby brother.
Videos That Deliver Unique Information
Informational videos often perform well and are another type of content that has the chance of going viral.
With this in mind, it is paramount that the videos deliver content that is unavailable elsewhere.
For example, one viral video featured a science professor showing how to light a candle without touching the wick.
Another viral video during the 2008 election featured a dozen famous actors asking people to vote.
Above all, informational videos work in multiple industries.
Again, though, they must feature something unique within them.
Targeted Content That Appeals to Distinct Groups of People
Content that appeals to specific groups of people does well if it elicits intense emotions or features informational content.
For example, emotional or informational political videos can go viral simply by being passed among party members.
As another example, consider new food laws.
An otherwise uninteresting topic could become compelling to vegans if it affects or limits the types of foods available for purchase.
That is to say, a video detailing the new laws could spread rapidly within that specific community.
In Conclusion
As shown above, content virality results from many people wanting to share and pass on the content.
With this in mind, consider the factors determining the potential for virality when planning your content.
Ultimately, like many other aspects of business, the key is to create unique and compelling content that people want to share.
Hope this helps,
Erik
We implement creative, results-based digital and hybrid marketing strategies for local business clients.
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