Videos are very popular on the internet. Approximately one billion people watch videos on YouTube. This means every day, videos on YouTube get about 4 billion views. You can reach more people between the ages of 18 to 49 than any network on cable television. Making videos that go viral is incredibly important. How do you do that?
Tips to Making Videos Go Viral
Keep your videos short. People have very short attention spans so the shorter, the better. Remember that people are used to living in a Twitter world where messages cannot exceed 140 characters. That translates into about 10 seconds per video. If you cannot get someone?s attention in that short amount of time, no amount of video production will help you.
Stay positive. People respond better to positive messages than negative ones. Your videos should include positive images and messages. These resonate better with viewers and they are then more likely to pass them along to their friends or share them with their social media networks. The more they share your video, the more likely it is to go viral.
Interact with your viewers. Social media is all about engagement. Ask your audience questions about your products, services and video content. Respond to what they tell you. Some companies read fan or customer mail on their channel. You can give shout outs to people via your Facebook page or Twitter account. The more people feel like they are a part of what you are doing, the more likely they are to share your content with their friends.
Provide useful information. If your videos contain interesting and informative content, it more likely to be shared. For example, if you offer advice about cleaning or cooking that can be helpful to a lot of people. The key is to develop content that is useful for your consumer. People are constantly looking for ways to do basic things on the internet so if you help them with that, you will find people return to your channels more often. One way to do this is to shoot mock news interviews, these fake news segments can provide fun ways to get information out to your audience. Just make sure it is clear in the video that they are mock interviews and not real news. Frisky’s cat food has a series of videos called, “Dear Kitten” where an older cat gives advice to a new kitten. These are really funny videos that do not mention the product at all but get a lot of hits because they are fun to watch.
Inspire your audience. Everyone likes an uplifting story. These often strike an emotional chord with the viewer and that is a near sure fire way to get them to share your videos with their social network. Look for inspirational stories to share with your audience, this will greatly help you grow your viewer base.
Keep your videos current. You do not have to reinvent the wheel with your videos. You do need to be up to date on what is going on in the world and with popular culture. If you know of something that is trending, try to link your content to that. This does not mean you should find links that are just crazy. Plopping the name “Karashian” into every video you make, even when it makes little sense, will not help you. Finding ways to include popular news items in your videos can help drive traffic to your channel. You can make commercials that are unlike any real commercials.
You do not have to be an expert at video marketing to get the most from your videos. You can even play up some short comings. If the head of your company is nervous on camera, that can work in your favor. Play to your strengths and have some fun with the videos you make. More than anything else, that will help you make videos that go viral.
