Why is it that something as dumb as a 5-second video of a waffle falling over has over 3 million views yet Hilary Clinton’s first presidential campaign speech 3 weeks ago has barely 170,000?
Okay, I have to admit that the waffle video is pretty endearing. And for a lot of us, politics are a bit of a dry subject. That’s probably why some things succeed online while others just sit around collecting virtual dust. Some videos make it big thanks to big marketing schemes while others are complete flukes that just blow up.
A Waffle vs. Hilary Clinton: Why Some Videos Go Viral & Others Don’t
1. Riding the coattails of current popular trends
A year ago, the ice bucket challenge was all the rage. Celebrities, companies, bloggers, and even our moms were jumping on the bandwagon. Obviously, the trend has lost its footing, and doing it now would always be considered a #ThrowbackThursday (#TBT) kind of move. Regardless, you can gain traction to your videos or build your personal online brand by seeing what sort of video is getting the most hits.
One semester, there was a girl in some of my college classes that I actually had seen her makeup tutorials/shopping hauls on the internet because I stumbled across her by accident previously when her one rant video about being Jewish got viral through Tumblr. I realized that even an exceptionally normal girl from a small-town university was able to be popular worldwide by doing the popular kinds of videos that thousands of people are apparently watching. Granted, she rarely came to class because she was probably too busy making them, it still was impressive.
2. Being more concerned about the theme and not the production quality
The most popular videos on the internet don’t have to have the craziest budgets or high-tech equipment. In fact, low-budget prank videos or personal vlogger videos captures on a GoPro can end up being internet sensations. Quality helps, but it’s the actual video itself that counts.
3. Ensuring their syndication plan is on point
Whether you’re able to pay for advertising tools such as Taboola or RebelMouse to bring more exposure to your post or simply organically cross-platform promote your video, syndication is the foundation of a successful video. If you do choose to use something like RebelMouse, your budget will bring your video to “similar stories” all over the web through an advertising network. Or, you can always do it old school by conducting your
4. Drawing the masses in with emotions
Upbeat videos are proven to do better than sad ones. But, even more so, we’re drawn to things that anger us. Whatever the video’s subject matter is, it’s important for it to strike a chord with us emotionally whether it be through humor, disgust, or intrigue.
5. Being short and sweet
Circling back to the waffle video compared to Hilary’s speech…it’s 5 seconds versus 46 minutes. Length is pretty important here. Not many people are going to want to sit around on YouTube staring at a dry campaign speech, no matter how you feel about her political affiliations.
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