Browsing YouTube these days is a fascinating experience. You can find anything you can imagine: funny, unfunny, terrible, excellent, helpful, bogus, cooking recipes, music lessons… its universe is so big, today I was wondering if there is a way to quantify all the total views of all videos in youtube. I am sure the number would be so huge I don’t think there are enough servers to compute it (well, maybe yes).

Having a bit of experience in Marketing, people always ask me about Viral Videos. Much has been said about the “key tips” or “how to” produce a good viral videos, with most available online articles pointing the obvious facts: “keep it simple”, “be natural”, “use SEM” and “play with fantasy and reality.” I believe there is more to this art.

The first thing that I believe a YouTuber has to ask himself is “Am I interested in having this video become viral?” If the answer is “Yes”, then person has to create a plan of action that will implement several steps to improve the probability of having the video reach tons of hits in a decent time frame. Let’s keep in mind that it’s very hard to see a video go viral in less than a year. Sure there are “accidental successes”, but generally speaking, it’s a hard milestone.

About five years ago I came across a video called “Castlevania II Angry Nintendo Nerd Review” (or something like that, the name has changed now ever since). The video was a satiric review of all the odd situations and challenges the game Castlevania II had compared to other videogames of the same genre. The YouTuber who produced it -known as the Angry Nintendo Nerd- has now become a famous name, posting more of these rants against both videogames and movies. His first videos had a decent to minimal production value. They were done in a way that the message intended to be transmitted was delivered efficiently. Questions like “Am I saying the right thing“, or “Am I showing the right angle“, didn’t seem to be part of the production equation. That is why his videos felt like a genuine natural expression of his feelings. I believe this is one key element that will allow you to win followers: be genuine.

Instructional videos are another way to generate a viral video, and it’s actually one of my favorites. It is tough though because of two factors: a) you have to be very good in the area you are providing instruction (and compete against existing ones), and b) you have to have decent production values. Depending on the instruction, higher production values may have an edge, though it’s not quite mandatory: there’s a user called patrickJMT who explains math in videos where all he does is film his hand writing on a piece of paper. His drawings aren’t exactly artful, but they aren’t sloppy either, they’re decent/good. His lighting is good and his voice’s tone is good too. More importantly, the examples he uses are perfect, which makes up for a wonderful product. One of his videos has 140,000 views: it is a simple math video of derivatives.

The other group of viral videos is the actual segment of people who upload their videos with the goal of becoming viral. These are the videos I believe follow to the tip each one of the basic recommendations everyone share: “Be yourself”, “Don’t try to force being funny”, “SEO, SEM.” These clips require a lot of effort and dedication, as well as practice and perseverance.

In all, the marketing of a viral video cannot be summarized into a list of tips where the YouTuber must be able to identify the core competencies of their product. Once this is done, then the path will be clear to let things flow naturally, and see the results happen as time goes by.

HR