How to Make a Viral Video
Yesterday was one of those weird days where I had contradicting conversations on the same topic in a matter of 3 hours with 2 different people. The topic was viral videos.
Here’s a summary of the two conversations:
Scene 1: Int. Two young men (Harsh and I) sitting at the Cha bar
Harsh: I think we can kill it with videos for Klip, like make some kick ass viral (stops presumably to correct himself), I mean, kickass and interesting videos that says what we want to do with Klip and why are we here best.. and keep making them.
Maneesh: Got that, but it would have been okay if you had said you want to make viral videos, I don’t subscribe to the thought that “you can’t make a viral video”
We then had the regular debate, you know how it works. I will certainly get back to telling what I meant by my line, but before that you might want to read a conversation with a client of ours 3 hours later.
Scene 2: Int. Smursh Office, Maneesh on the phone
Client: Why can’t we make a cool viral video instead of this one
Maneesh: What makes you think this can’t go viral?
Client: I don’t think this will go viral, there’s nothing in it
Maneesh: What would a viral video have?
Client: I don’t know, you know like the ones you see
..Debate about Kolaveri happens..
Maneesh: See a video is a video, a video becomes viral when you share it
Client: I know that
The argument continued till we reached a settlement of sorts which is not pertinent to the point of this post.
I am sure if you are of any relevant position in the business of digital media you might have had one of these at some point as well.
I constantly see tweets of this kind, it is an altogether different matter that these come from people who have probably no clue of how to make good quality videos and who’s only connection to anything viral is tweeting “This shit is viral”. But you know what I mean here. The point though is about me (excuse the immodesty 
), and how I told Harsh that we can make viral videos and how I told the client that no one can make viral videos. I must quickly admit that the conversations above are not verbatim and I have used my discretion to pen dialogues that didn’t happen exactly the way they did for cinematic effects.
Making a Point on Viral Videos: You Can Call Them Viral Videos
I run a video making business, and given that it is exclusively focused on videos for the web and mobile space, ‘viral videos’ are discussions that we frequently have both internally and among clients and partners. I don’t see any harm in the term ‘viral video’. I think it purely dictates a sentiment that we want to make a video that people can’t help but share. If you set about to make a video purely with this intention, why can’t you name it as a viral video? If it does eventually go viral just call it that – a viral. And not a viral video, it has then become a piece of content like any of the many img.ur and rage comics images that go viral on a relatively frequent basis.
But my point about calling viral videos viral videos is not just about the liberty to call them that. It is in fact about conceptualizing and strategizing video with a certain amount assurance that if we do 9 out of 10 things right in this video the likelihood of it going viral is close to 100%. I am completely certain of that. It is naive and wholly ignorant to a large extent to think that just making a kickass/cool video and praying it gets hits. It doesn’t work that way, on the contrary, one can make a viral video, whether it goes viral depends on how well the strategy is executed.
When you talk about Strategy of a Viral
There are two things to keep in mind
- It works at a conceptual level – your script needs to have hooks based on a keen understanding of the audience, which can either be gut instinct or data driven (both work equally well depending on whose gut it is and whose data it is)
- It is dependent a lot more on the execution level post production – it’s not just fancy editing but the first few hours after the video hits the web. How it come online, where all does it first show up and what are the associated activities to amplify it? These are pertinent questions that need to be strategised and planned well in advance. When done right, it can get you a viral.
Conceptualizing a Viral
There are 3 core component of a viral video concept. How much do people relate to it, how does the video position that person who shares it and thirdly where or who do they find it from?
- Getting people to relate to a video’s content is a tough ask, it requires not just intuitive and creative thinking but a strong dose of analytics. The question to ask is – are we saying what this particular person wants to say? People are implicit hinters online. If they are angry they put out some angry messages quoting nameless people, or sharing their angry music for instance. What people share defines them a lot more than how they’re able to define themselves. It is the core tenet of branding and social media. Kolaveri for instance stuck a chord with hapless lovers (that’s just one of the reasons of course) who have had soup days of their own. Your video has to say things for people that they can’t say because if they do it might taint their image in some way. The content should be contextually relevant to people’s broadest network, it should not only make them go “hey this is me” but also, “fuck this is malkani” (malkani in this case is that friend in your circle that everyone knows and loves of course). Your video’s script should get these hooks in place.
- Everyone wants to be a finder, people like to be the person that other people turn to. I personally believe it is inherent to our quest for survival (it’s a mix of behavioural economics and philosophy, will keep it for some other day). So they’re constantly on the lookout for things newer and better than what others are sharing in their network. Therefore, the second step is to ensure that you’re not repeating what someone else has done, if you do you’re going to show your network seeder in a poor light. That is like the Sakinaka signal for viral videos. New, innovative presentation of sorts is the pertinent point here. This bit is tricky because a lot of content producers end up thinking this is what will make a video go viral, that just the presentation being so unique is enough reason for shit to go viral. I have faced such instances myself at CWS. The fact is it is not, it amplifies but it is not the crescendo itself. Presentation is like design while the core content still has to be strong. Think – how cool will the first person to find this video seem to everyone.
- How is someone going to find the video perhaps is the most critical point. It makes or breaks a video in terms of reach. And this is where expertise and processes really comes into play. You need a broad audience with influential spheres within them that take it to other networks.
Which website, blog, fanpage or twitter user is going to get first access? What time do we get it out? These are standard questions. However, things don’t end there. The web is built of systems and platforms and algorithms. They can be understood, they can be figured out in a way, to not be unethical, but still use them to optimize your reach. You need to think of how ratings, comments, taggings and keywords affect theYouTube ranking, how does YouTube select videos to put on the homepage and what can you do to get there.
A key ingredient is to build momentum, get things hot, make a lot of people watch the video at the same time. This is completely in your hands if you are efficient with your communications.
That is how a viral is made.
Why Did I Tell the Client Otherwise
There was conceptual issue and which was with the approach to the project. Viral isn’t a type of video, it is not a mould to fill in. Any video can be viral when you add value to the person viewing it – it can be entertaining, emotional, informative, anything. The important bit is to touch a nerve. In case of my conversation above, this basic ingredient of understanding was missing. It is not a regular agency blames client thing, in fact the said client is quite far from what the picture the above lines might paint, but there are a number of people of who carry a similar mentality, my effort was just to put a character in place for representation.
The crux of it is that when you create video content with the intention for people, your first focus should be consumer and then later the producer and production.
Alright, So What Viral Videos have You Made?
None. Came close a couple of times and there have been instances of highly engaging (8000+comments on FB feeds) videos but did it get people to share not quite. But from our first effort to the last one, we’ve been constantly bridging the gap, we’ve seen instances where it almost met the threshold but other factors gutted things.
It happens, but that said these views are coming straight from the field and not the fence.
