The challenge of producing a viral video
One of the great challenges for many marketing teams today is to understand how to make a viral video in 2022. One that will soar across the Internet and reaches millions of viewers. A goal that is often sought after in content marketing and building social brands. After all, who doesn’t want their creativity to expand organically and reach a large part of the world?
Content that is capable of generating high engagement in a short period of time are popularly known as viral, precisely because they seem to be “contagious”. They pass from one person to another quickly and, in a matter of hours, reach people in nearly every part of the whole world: everyone begins to take charge of commenting on and reproducing this material.
Viral content and videos are characteristic of the digital moment we live in and today, theoretically, anyone can create viral content.
Videos like Dave Chappelle’s 8:46, posted on Jun 12, 2020. The 21-minute video went on to reach millions of people in the week of its release. If that wasn’t enough, Mr. Beast posted a video of an egg on Jan. 16, 2019, that went on to gather 90 million views on Youtube and over 18 million engagements.
And contrary to what many people think, these viral contents are not made only of ridiculous and funny things. Viral videos can help you learn new strategies for content creation. However, at the same time, if you want to have a good marketing strategy and gain authority in the digital environment, you must be careful with these materials and consider numerous points before embarking on the “dream” of doing something viral.
Keep reading the article to better understand these two points and also learn how to make a video viral that is worthy of its mark.
Elements that help to make a viral video
Even if you’ve never created a viral video or don’t intend to, viral content tends to have a common structure and certain elements that you can — and should — take into account in your own materials.
And with that in mind, the first element that you should consider in your viral video is:
Humor
One of the most important and most common points in viral videos – as you may have noticed – is their humorous character. And this is not particularly new!
More than a decade ago, in 2011, North Carolina’s Elon University analyzed the 20 most popular viral videos of the moment according to the Times magazine and the study revealed that 30% of the videos that go viral have the so-called “laugh element” in the first 30 seconds.
This is important because, normally, people tend to be more attracted to light and relaxed content.
Fortunately, humor continues to attract the attentive gaze of Internet users to the point of encouraging millions of replays not long after being uploaded to the internet.
In this way, we can say that taking the humorous approach in the first seconds of a video makes it possible to increase the number of views, retention and commitment to the material.
Timing
Another important point about making viral videos is knowing how to take advantage of opportunity at the right time. That is, to have good “timing” of trends when producing updated content and using the appropriate context.
Although you may not have video content yet, it is good to observe these cases to better understand how it is possible for a brand to take advantage of situations and when to engage their audience.
It’s not that you just need to produce memes and humorous content. You can create really relevant content from the topics of the moment.
Therefore, you should always look for ways to relate to something that is relevant to your brand and your audience. Otherwise, you may achieve results opposite to your expectations.
Engagement Speed
Another essential feature of viral videos is the speed with which they can spread on the Internet and succeed among the audience.
As soon as it reaches the network, a video with enough potential to go viral reaches thousands of people and begins to go from computer to computer or mobile to mobile. And this is a key point!
After all, the more time passes from the moment you publish your video, the greater the risk of falling into oblivion and completely losing visibility.
Therefore, it is essential that shortly after publishing a content, you share it and disseminate it in all possible ways, so that it reaches more people.
Good stories
Including a great story can really help a video to go viral. This is because, according to studies, the human brain finds it easier to absorb and engage with stories than with simple sequences of explanations and facts.
So, if you want to make great videos, invest in a good script and make sure you create stories, whether they’re funny, curious, fantasy, or real.
Element of surprise
Another point of how to make a viral video is the element of surprise. When you’re watching content and you come across something unusual or unexpected, it increases the likelihood that you’ll share that material, as you want other people to have that reaction as well and feel the same way you’ve experienced.
This element of surprise can be something funny, an unexpected reaction from someone in the video (like a child, for example), something scary, or the revelation of some curiosity.
Use creativity to plan these surprise points!
Content that is useful, arouses emotions or shows a talent
For a video to go viral, it must have something very important: quality. And it doesn’t really matter what the background or form of the material is, as long as it’s interesting, relevant to your audience and to your brand positioning.
Depending on your strategy, you can produce humorous, motivational, and emotional videos, or you can also produce tutorials and DIY videos.
You can also highlight some interesting talent or process of your team, give advice and even explain about topics and technical terms.
Success will depend on your focus and your audience’s interest in this content.
Music quality
Another very important point when creating successful videos are the sound elements.
Choosing the right music and effects for your content is extremely important to capture the audience’s attention and get them to react as expected to videos.
Regarding the musical component in this type of videos, they usually have some element such as background music, singing or references to well-known songs.
That’s why it’s important to carefully choose music for your videos.
Why you should be careful when making a viral video
Making a viral video is long been a goal of many people and few industry professionals. However, in their ambition to have famous content, they can risk the reputation of an entire brand and also their digital envelope.
As we’ve already pointed out, it’s fantastic to try to create viral videos inspired by the best of them. However, it’s always important to remember that any content you create must be relevant and appropriate to your business, as well as your audience. For example, if your audience is predominantly teenager and likes memes, great! To get their attention, you can produce more humorous and ironic videos.
However, if your business consists of a law office, for example, and needs to be respected and treated seriously, you should be careful with this type of approach. Keep in mind: it’s not that you can’t produce lighter, more relaxed content. You just have to think about how interesting this material will be for your brand and audience.
Also, just because everyone is making videos on a certain topic doesn’t mean your company should do the same. If you do not put your planning before wanting to make a viral video for the simple fact of doing so, you could end up having problems with your digital positioning.
The same way that positive content goes viral through the internet, negative content also gains massive attention and can end up compromising your business brand, or image.
For this reason, before you try to make a viral video, regardless of the topic, think about whether it’s really right for your company, whether it fits its traditional tone and approach, and whether it could somehow be used against you. This more thoughtful reflection will help you avoid annoying and viral derogatory situations.
You may want to reach out to a media relations company that specializes in managing mass media affairs. They can offer you valuable insight as well as help manage your public presence.
Conclusion
We hope this helps you to understand a little more about the features that make up a number of today’s viral video and also the risks of producing this content without proper care. Tell us if you’re working to create your own viral videos in the comment section !
Read also: Authenticity in the age of Social Media
