Getting Started with Viral Videos

Before delving into the world of viral videos, let's first discuss what a viral video is. A viral video is a video which has become popular by sharing through online social networking and bookmarking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, etc.

Many videos increase in viewership primarily by sharing, but what separates viral videos from most is that they become popular very quickly. For example, if a video posted in 2006 slowly grew, and in 2011 has 60,000 hits, it isn't considered viral. On the other hand, if a video suddenly received 20,000 hits in one day, that's very viral.

Videos posted by prominent Youtubers aren't generally considered viral videos since a large portion of the viewers are subscribed to their channel. In other words, they don't become popular because of online sharing, but more so because of a large number of subscribers.

Before video sharing sites such as Youtube, there were only a handful of comedy and entertainment sites online. Their videos were shared through email and online chat. Prior to these sites, very few videos were shared online compared to today.

In present times, Youtube is the third most popular site worldwide.

These characteristics are not rigid, but serve only as a general guideline for spotting viral videos around the web.

As stated above, viral videos are not ordinarily uploaded by active Youtubers. More commonly, they're uploaded by new accounts or accounts with low activity with few subscribers. Often times, the accounts have only 1 or a couple of videos. Sometimes active youtubers produce viral videos and it can be seen by the discrepancy in views compared to their other videos.

Viral videos are usually short in length and are rarely over 5 minutes. Many viral videos have a 'grassroots' or candid style, although professionally produced viral marketing campaigns have become increasingly popular lately.

Here are some examples of some well known viral videos:

Here are a few examples of viral marketing campaigns: