First things first. There is no straight forward receipe for viral success. There are a few key similarities in videos that have gone viral and steps you can take to ensure your video reaches it’s full potential…

Surprising
The number one idea is be creative, unexpected and think outside of traditional marketing.

Interesting
Sharing facts that personally affect the viewer and the person they’re most likely to share the video with are great. Relatable facts that affect us all, in a well made video, are shared often.

Moving
Tug at the viewers heart strings. As mentioned in our ‘Storytelling Videos are the New Marketing Buzz’ blog post, telling a story is a great way to connect with online users. It puts the viewer in the mind and space of someone else and for a moment, feel their pain, struggle, triumph, love etc.

Positive
Whenever possible, make people laugh. Viewers want to share positive and funny videos with friends hoping for the same reaction and positive feeling they received.

Practical
How-to videos like Wendy’s Lookbook are a great way to drive traffic addressing a practical need consumers are looking for. Other how-to’s related to your business can help you get traction online.

It’s Terrible!
There are a group of videos that while their viral success is undeniable, they failed in communicating their message and therefore, driving their audience. While it’s great we all know of East Hills, I won’t be going there for my boots or pants.

There is something to be said for a viral video failure, too. There are a number of websites dedicated to the viral videos that have failed, not in their success but in their poor messaging and video delivery. While creativity is good, keep it professional.

Don’t put the cart before the horse – If you’re constantly focused on your video going viral and the exposure you’ll get, you aren’t providing something you’re customers want or need. People share videos to enrich each other’s lives through emotion or practicalness.

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Jessica Stillman gave some great advice to inc.com about the process often required to make a video even capable of going viral:

“First, I posted to Facebook/Twitter, and submitted it to social news sites like Reddit and Hacker News. I personally asked many of my friends to share it. I tweeted it at well-known dancers. I emailed bloggers who had covered other viral dance videos.” And that’s just on the first day! Effort, in other words, is the undersung reason many videos take off.”

If you’re really serious about creating viral video, The Viral Video Manifesto is an excellent book that delves into great detail on making videos that go viral.

You don’t need to go viral for your video to be an online success. Take a look at how many views the video gets, if website traffic has increased, if your subscriber rate is up etc. There are other ways to measure it’s success and engaging your customers is a great start.