Why Some Videos Go Viral: 6 Reasons
The basic elements of highly
successful online videos are really just fundamental principles of human
interaction. and you can apply to nearly any form of communication (especially
marketing).
While there's no way to guarantee
that anything will "go viral," studying and applying those basic
elements can significantly increase the impact, engagement, and sharing of the
marketing pieces you're already putting together. Marketing is expensive, so
you might as well make it count for as much as you can.
There are six primary factors that
go into making viral videos (and your marketing efforts) highly successful:
Emotion, Surprise, Intensity, Relevance, Validation, and Style.
Emotion: In a world obsessed with productivity, obligations, and
metrics, people really long for opportunities to reconnect with their humanity.
Romance, anger, disgust, joy, nostalgia, ambition, and all the other emotions
stir our blood, remind us who we are, and motivate us to connect at a deeper
level.
Surprise: Our brains are wired to pay close attention to anything
that violates our expectations, so you can make your message stand out (and be
remembered) but doing something in a surprisingly different way, whether it's
an unusual image, a bold statement, or an unexpected outcome.
Intensity: Because so many forces are vying for our time at any given
moment, it's important to grab the audience's attention right away, and to keep
that attention through brevity and density. Whatever you have to say, chop it
in half, and then chop it in half again. Make every word count, and leave them
wanting more. (If you feel like you've said everything you want to say, your
message is probably far too long.)
Relevance: Reframe your message in a way that's directly relevant to
your target audience. Think about their perspective, rather than focusing
solely on the message your organization wants to put out there. (For example,
we do a lot of branding work at Forty, but we found that the majority of business
owners have very little idea what "branding" actually means, so we
started eliminating that word from our marketing materials because they weren't
seeing it as relevant. We still do the same work, we just talk about it using
more relevant terms to our target audience.)
Validation: You have to have a significant amount of common ground with
your target audience in order to effectively spread your message. People share
things that validate their own worldview, and that represent their beliefs and
opinions. (Look at your Facebook news feed and you'll see lots of this.)
Likewise, they tend to automatically reject messages that contradict their
worldview. You typically can't make people care about something they don't
already care about, but you might be able to help them see how you fit into
their existing worldview. Focus on people with compatible beliefs, and show
them the ways in which your product or service can be a vehicle for extending
and communicating those beliefs.
Style: When your message is presented in a distinctive sensory
style (visual, verbal, auditory, etc.), it's easier for people to remember it
when thinking about related subjects later. The way something is delivered
becomes one of its key identifying characteristics that helps us recall it later
(just as we might remember people because of the way they speak or dress).
To find ways to significantly
improve your current marketing efforts, consider one particular marketing piece
at a time, and see how it stacks up against these six criteria. In less than a
minute you'll probably have identified several key areas for improvement.
While you shouldn't expect that your
marketing pieces will suddenly be shared by millions of people overnight, you
can see how introducing these elements into your company's marketing could
significantly punch up its effectiveness, and get you significantly better
results than you could get without them. (You don't need a huge budget, you
just need to know what works.)
James Archer is the relentlessly optimistic and future-focused CEO of Forty, a nationally-respected firm specializing in deep customer experience
http://www.inc.com/james-archer/why-some-videos-go-viral.html?cid=em01020week19e&nav=su
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