Why Videos Go Viral

Posted by YouTube Fan  at April 26th, 2012

YouTube is the biggest source of sharing videos. Since its inception, it has provided immense support to people across the globe to share their ideas and innovations with the entire world by providing a platform for videos of various caliber and quality. They provided a chance to even the lamest and the most un-technical people share whatever they want just by using a video camera. It can be seen and observed that majority of the videos on YouTube are nothing but simplest of videos, made without any thought or idea. It seems as if someone took out a camera and out of nowhere capture some moments.

It is estimated that nearly forty eight hours of video is uploaded every minute on YouTube. Now the question which arises is that how many of them are actually able to get the attention and notice of the viewers?
Although thousands of videos are uploaded on daily basis on YouTube, only a small percentage of them are able to go viral. A very limited number of the uploaded videos are able to get over one million views. People have this conception that those videos which actually go viral must be the ones which are made to perfection, technically as well as with respect to creativity. But this is not true. The ground realities are completely different.

How Does It Happen?

Studies show that there are three major aspects on which the whole system of videos going viral depends.

1. Tastemakers:
There are a lot of people who posts funny and hilarious comments about various YouTube videos on different social media networks, like Facebook and Twitter. Such comments actually help these videos to get the attention of a huge number of viewers and thus they go viral. One such famous example is the video of the song “Friday” by Rebecca Black. This particular video had very few comments when one day it wad ridiculed on some social media website and the next Friday it had gone viral!

2. Participation:
There are many videos on YouTube which gets promoted and viral just by the participation of others. People do not just get entertained when they watch a funny movie, but now they actually participate and play their part, making newer and funnier versions of existing videos, etc.
3. Unexpectedness:

Another major factor in the huge viewership of any video is unexpectedness. A lot of videos can be found on YouTube which are actually made on many social issues which go unnoticed in our daily life.
The question is, what does this study show? We can say that now with the advent of newer and advanced features on YouTube the world has gotten an altogether new type of media, a brand new culture, where each and everyone of us has the ability to access popularity and fame, which looked impossible some years back. It is a reality that many big super stars started their careers just by uploading their videos on YouTube.