Making online content: you won’t believe how it can change your life!

With over 3 billion of us creating and consuming content on the internet, have you ever wondered what it takes for content to go viral? There is over 300 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, so it’s no small feat for one of those videos to become a part of our pop culture!

What makes content spread?

An article by Santon Chang describes social media as a highly democratic human system, where everyone can participate freely. You are free to access any information you want and share what you like. Santon goes on to describe social media as a tribal environment, where users gravitative towards others who have similar interests or views. For content to go viral, it needs to gather widespread interest from a diversity of tribes:

With a distinct Korean origin, the popularity of Psy’s Gangnam Style is not constrained to a certain geographical area. With over 2.3 billion views, it is a cross-cultural success which created a massive global response. You must have been living under a rock if you hadn’t danced like this at least once:

Barack Obama admitted he dances like Psy in the White House to annoy his kids and the Secretary General of the UN was taught the dance by the pop star himself:

But what lead to this becoming the most viewed video on YouTube?

In the above video, YouTube Trends Manager Kevin Allocca claims that there are three reasons why videos may go viral:

• the influence of trend makers
• community participation
• and unexpectedness

You can view the initial reactions to the unexpectedness of Gangnam Style on Reddit, where the first mention of the video was in a thread titled “Words cannot even describe how amazing this video is…‟. From here, trend makers bring a video into popular consciousness as Ellen Degeneres did on her show:

Popularity brings with it community participation and this is how we become part of the phenomenon, either by spreading it or doing something new with it. Let me introduce to you, Baby Gangnam Style:

Or the Ohio University Marching Band’s take on it:

And (un)fortunately there’s a ‘Strayan version of Gangnam Style too:

Allocca goes on to say that:

these are characteristics of a new kind of media and a new kind of culture where anyone has access and the audience defines the popularity. We all now feel some ownership in our own pop culture.

Creating your own viral content

Is there a magic formula to ensure that your content will be viewed and shared by millions? While there is no exact science to virality, there are some structures which explains why things go viral. Jonah Berger identifies six principles that cause people to talk about and share an idea or product, defined as his STEPPS model:

• Social currency:, It’s all about people talking about things to make themselves look good, rather than bad
• Triggers, which is all about the idea of “top of mind, tip of tongue.” We talk about things that are on the top of our heads.
• Ease for emotion: When we care, we share. The more we care about a piece of information or the more we’re feeling physiologically aroused, the more likely we pass something on.
• Public: When we can see other people doing something, we’re more likely to imitate it.
• Practical value: Basically, it’s the idea of news you can use. We share information to help others, to make them better off.
• Stories, or how we share things that are often wrapped up in stories or narratives.

There’s even 10 simple things that you can do that will help increase the sharability of your content, for example Tuesday is the best day to publish and promote content. Creating viral content can lead to many successful outcomes, such as increasing awareness in ALS or signing with a record label. So, do you know of any other successful viral content? Or have you seen something that deserves the worlds attention? Comment below!