The Oxford dictionary defines the term ‘Viral’ as, ‘an image, video, piece of information, etc. circulated rapidly and widely from one Internet user to another’. But what makes something viral? What does that image, video or piece of information possess that makes it so much more shareable?
The researchers over at the Harvard Business Review have uncovered three main reasons for a video or image’s viral nature. The factors that they believe influence something’s ability to go viral are:-
The emotional response- In their research, they figured out that wholesome videos were shared more often than hilarious ones. In essence, people tend to spread cheer with wholesomeness.
Super sharers- They are internet users who tend to share media upwards of once a day. They are the ones who cause more than four-fifths of the total shares on the internet. Hence, unless a group of these super sharers take notice of something somehow, it isn’t going to hit the highs of internet fame.
Timing- Most material goes viral within the first 2 days of its launch. But, this isn’t always the case, for example, the Shaggy meme, as well as the Despicable Me meme format went viral years after their initial cinema debuts.
But it’s not purely down to these 3 reasons. Then what other factors are at play here?
‘Shoes’ was one of the very first videos to go viral through, the then new, streaming website, YouTube. Uploaded in 2007 it has garnered over 65 million views till date. Liam Kyle Sullivan produced, created, acted, directed and sung the masterpiece that is ‘Shoes’. Did he sing it well? No. Did it deserve the attention it received? Certainly. In the early years of YouTube, content creators could relatively easily go viral as long as they had original ideas and could put that idea together.
In its infancy, YouTube creators would have to make content that would attract viewers on the merits of the video alone. A goofy kid with a terrible camera and an ability to make people laugh was all it took to make it to the top. But, the question still remains- why did this video get so popular? Well, its simple and repetitive lyrics, slightly offbeat tune and the silly video tailored to fit, was the perfect combination that propelled several other content creators to instant fame.
‘Smosh’, the former #1 channel on YouTube shot to popularity thanks to their theme song videos; their Pokémon theme song was unfortunately taken down due to copyright claims from the Pokémon company. Their theme song covers were always accompanied by weird, crazy videos which no doubt helped them garner subscribers and build a strong fan base from where they could take off.
Who remembers ‘Charlie bit my finger — Again’? Why did we like and share that short video of a toddler biting his older brother? Well, cute kids doing funny stuff, right? Not exactly, Professor Jonah Berger, a world-renowned expert in word of mouth and social influence, makes it clear there are various other factors involved as well. He claims that physical arousal plays a very important role as well- when the body gets excited, the mind is quicker to share.
According to a study people are more likely to share something online after a 60-second jog than before. This means if a video is able to make us sweat or increase our heart rate, akin to something intense, we are more likely to share.
Sometimes all it takes is something absolutely ridiculous, something silly, unique and weird that you just can’t help but make sure that your boys laugh along with you. Recently, the hashtag JCB ki Khudai exploded out of the blue. Why did it get so popular in such a short period of time? Well, because a bridegroom was riding a JCB to his wedding, making it appear fashionable in the process.
Viral memes and videos need not have such a complicated back story either; in fact, as this very article was taking shape, a new meme had taken off, what is it? Crabs. Yup the word ‘crabs’. Why? Because a dude on the Internet saw a dream in which the word was the meme… But just a couple of days later, it died and slipped into oblivion and now only resides in the memories of the people who had seen that meme. The Internet isn’t really picky with its memes; but, at the same time, it has no qualms about ditching the ‘older’ meme formats for the fresh ones. It doesn’t matter if it is funny, weird or just downright mundane. If the internet likes it, it will go viral, just don’t expect it to like anything for long.
But the internet is not just all fun and giggles. In a sort of internet equilibrium, for every funny viral video, there also exists another video viral thanks to its darker and meaner contents. Remember the shortsighted lady who tweeted “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!”? She, Justine Sacco, worked in Public Relations, and as expected she was fired and reportedly couldn’t find work. This is not the only case of a post going viral with negative content, and this example barely scratches the surface.
If the funny and more light-hearted posts go viral for all the right reasons, why do these type of posts go viral? Well, for the answer we have to look back to prof. Jonah Berger’s words. Physical arousal; posts about injustice, unlawful conduct, trickery etc., unsettle the netizens who may come across such a post. The unsettled populace share the post in a bid to gather attention to the matter at hand.
Many posts have ticked off all the required boxes and have proceeded to go viral, and the people who were featured in them received their 15 minutes of fame. These 15 minutes, if used properly, can catapult you to fame and wealth. Fail to utilize it and you are no better than before. But in the worst case scenario, you nuke your whole life.
Over the years we have become used to people who gain overnight success from one innocent video posted on some social networking platform. A great example of this case is the ‘Walmart yodeling kid’. Despite being only 11 years old he has performed at Coachella. But the fact that your career can be destroyed overnight is something to be wary as well. Its effects can range from the woman who lost her job after her tweet bashing her employer went viral, or the high school student who lost her internship at NASA by cursing at a senior engineer of NASA without knowing who he was, to losing a bid to become the most influential man in the world.
Barack Obama was the first-ever African-American president of the USA. His name will forever remain in the annals of history. But not many people remember the name John McCain, another great leader who lost out on his bid to become the man in charge of one of the most influential countries of the 21st century. Most experts attribute his crushing defeat to the now infamous ‘McCain scream’. It was just another scream of his during his campaign, and for a country like the USA where election campaigns can reach a feverish pitch, this wouldn’t usually be considered eventful. But, somehow, due to some unfortunate twist of fate, the media played that one 5 second clip on a loop and effectively crushed his bid; a simple gesture resulted in a crushing blow.
The “share now” option doesn’t seem all that innocuous, does it? A bonkers video and some thousand clicks are all it takes for someone to skyrocket towards fame… or be dug under the grave of shame. Psychology buttresses the reasoning behind millions of people joining the viral bandwagon, with the content and timing of the video an elaborate makeover of the wagon to bait them. Half of the world’s population is intertwined via the behemoth that is the Internet; 71% of this Internet population checks in at airports, posts Stories, shares snaps, and tweets irrelevant mumbo-jumbo. That’s 2.46 billion people messaging, watching and reading anything and everything scattered across this vast virtual empire. And, if you consider an approximate (and overly generous) benchmark for a video to go “viral” as 10 million views, that’s a measly 0.4% of the social media population.
Going viral doesn’t seem all that daunting or far-fetched now, does it?
