Planking, Moustaching, Grumpy Cat and Harlem Shakes oh my! You see these videos and images on talk shows, news media and blogs. They receive thousands of hits and views and other viewers start to imitate them, they want to be involved in what are virals and memes. Businesses want to take advantage of this for their content strategy, they also ask creatives that they want their videos to go viral. Honestly, you can’t make a video go viral because it all depends how viewers respond to the video and its content.

I happen to come across this particular Ted Talk video by Kevin Allocca, YouTube’s trends manger, and he explains in steps on how a video can naturally become viral and it all falls on what viewers find entertaining. In his presentation, Kevin notes that there are three elements that makes viral videos and images successful:

Tastemakers

Individuals with high influence such as celebrities, talk show hosts, and well-known bloggers will find these videos and images and post them on their social media platforms and on television. People hold these influencers in high regard and so they to will start disseminating the found videos and images.

Communities of Participation

Viewers of particular viral videos and images want to get involved with the trend, perhaps put themselves on the spot as well so they imitate the initial viral video and images that became very popular. Viewers can be very creative so they may produce their own version of the content. One example was the recently popular Harlem Shake viral videos.

Unexpectedness

Videos and images can go viral if they are very unique. Viewers want to be surprised and entertained by the latest creative trends.

Watch the video for a more comprehensive illustration and who knows, you may be inspired to do something that may actually go viral.

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