Did you just record a heart-melting moment of your little kitty or accidentally captured an unusual situation at a protest? There you go, you already have a video predisposed to go viral. All you need to do is give it a bit of a professional look and play around with several distribution channels to make the magic work. On the other hand, if you are a business owner or a Youtube vlogger, I bet you already know what a viral video would mean for your brand, especially if you are still small in the business. According to Wyzowl, the number of businesses using video as a marketing tool, overall, has increased from 61% in 2016 to 85% in 2020. Since businesses already use video, why not make it viral? That could be a game-changing moment that will certainly make a place for your brand next to the biggest players in the industry, if you play your cards right.
In order to make this happen, whether it is just a happy-chance recording or producing a million-views content is in your marketing plan, two rules are there to follow:
- Create content worth sharing
- Show it to the world
Considering that you already have a video ready to go viral, here are several surefire ways that will help your story reach the millions you want.
1. Utilize the Power of Facebook
The number one rule to follow – when on Facebook upload your videos directly to Facebook! According to Agora Pulse, Facebook native videos have up to 86% higher reach. Moreover, Facebook native videos get 478% more shares and 110% more interactions. Now that your video is properly optimized and ready to evoke some strong emotions, it is the time to make it seen.
Share and Get your Friends to Share
First things first. Start with choosing the optimal time to post your video. Moreover, use the ‘featured Facebook video function’ to increase the likelihood of shares and engagement. Don’t hesitate to ask some of your family or closest friends to share, especially if you see similar content on their feed.
Share to Facebook Groups
This is very risky, but yet one of the best free ways to gain organic reach. Use the right keywords to find the most suitable groups in your niche and ask to join. Before sharing your video, study each group separately to see if there are any specific rules, and engage with the other posts. Never share a link only. A well-written sentence which outlines a good reason why your video is suitable to be shared in that particular group is always helpful. Make sure that you are not spamming. Choose the right time intervals and don’t post too much to avoid getting blocked. Additional tip – get your friends to share too.
Reach Out to Popular Facebook Fan Pages to Make Your Video Go Viral
As a matter of fact, if you manage to get your video shared by a fan page with hundreds of thousands of followers, you are one step closer to the throne. Imagine you just filmed a very funny video of your cat which made your friends burst out laughing. You now have the key to conquer the internet, but the question is which door you should knock on? Just type ‘cat’ in the Facebook search box and don’t be shy to send a message asking to be featured by a page which shares content similar to yours. Many of them, such as Life with Catman, welcome their followers to contribute to their Facebook page and blog.
2. YouTube – A must-have for all viral video makers!
Have you heard the latest social media stats? YouTube is more popular with teens than Facebook. Only 51% of teens in the United States still use Facebook. So, if you’re still thinking whether to build a YouTube community, think no longer.
Moreover, according to Wyzowl’s report about Video Marketing in 2020, 88% of marketers plan to use video in 2020, whereas 76% plan to use Facebook.
Even though Facebook has become the dominant Social Media platform, we can’t neglect the fact that YouTube attracts 2 billion users worldwide and is the 2nd most popular social network as of April 2020. According to Datareportal, 79 percent of internet users say they had a YouTube account in 2019. In a nutshell, YouTube is an essential part of how Gen Z audiences consume media.
Therefore, putting some extra effort into this incredible video platform will do no harm. Given that you already did the SEO correctly and included a great Call to Action, now is the time to place your video in front of your potential audience’s eyes.
Post Regularly and Encourage Community
The more you post the better are the chances that one of your videos will go viral. Furthermore, YouTube is an excellent place for building a community. You should encourage your viewers to respond to your questions in the comment section and send you material for future videos. This is a long-term strategy and you can’t expect the magic to happen with your first video. To get a clearer picture, check MrBeast, a YouTube channel that has done an amazing job building a community around its videos.
3. Get Connected with the Reddit Community
For those of you who didn’t know, Reddit is the place where many of the popular entertainment websites look for their daily dose of viral content. Once a video gets viral on Reddit, it gets viral everywhere. Big websites such as BuzzFeed or Digg miss no chance to feature Reddit’s most popular stuff. Important to know is that videos are the most highly upvoted external links on Reddit.
However, the first thing to remember is that unlike Facebook or Twitter, where someone subscribes to see all of your content, on Reddit if you don’t add relevant value to the conversation happening in the community (so-called subreddit) you won’t get any traction. The subreddit which is the birthplace of viral videos is Reddit Videos.
Nurture Reddit Relationships
Before you share a post on Reddit, make sure you are commenting, sharing your opinion, and adding value to the community. Also, make sure that you speak the subreddit’s language and don’t look like an outsider.
Find the Right Subreddit for Your Video to Catch the Attention
You may have the greatest video of all time, but if you don’t distribute it in front of the right audience, it’s all in vain. Spend some time on Reddit to explore the subreddits in your niche and then make your post fits.
Ask for a favor
This is not just a shameless asking. If you spend a little time on Reddit you can foster good relationships with other contributors. As a result, you can feel comfortable to ask them to share.
Alternatively, if any of your friends are quite active on Reddit, ask them for a favor, no one would refuse to share an incredibly good video.
4. Go Viral on Tik Tok
TikTok is the new big social media trend. What people love so much about it is the ease of going viral. And, you don’t even need the best quality videos or many followers to blow up.
TikTok makes it possible to go viral overnight, and, usually, that’s much easier than with the other social media networks. There are several strategies you need to follow if you want to make your video viral on TikTok. From optimizing your TikTok account, being hyperactive, and collaborating with TikTok influencers to using viral TikTok hashtags and participating in TikTok challenges, and with a good plan, you stand a great chance to make it to the top.
Furthermore, TikTok is excellent for brands that are ready to fuel their creativity and want to be seen. There is a never-ending list of reasons why you should use Tik Tok if you want to go viral, so, next time you want to make it big, make TikTok a must-have in your strategy.
5. Blogging and Link Building
Create a Blog Post around Your Video
If you have a blog in the same niche as your video then making a separate post about the video you want to go viral is inevitable. Tailor a great story based on the video itself and present the readers with compelling reasons why they need to watch it. Keep the text short. When you optimize this blog post keep in mind that your intention is to make the post go viral too. Using the same title and keywords as the ones for your video can help you show up at the top of Google’s results.
Reach out to Popular Websites
If getting featured on popular Facebook fan pages in your niche brings you closer to the throne, getting featured on websites like BuzzFeed, will definitely bring you right there. For your video, it is enough to ensure a publication at least on one of these mega-popular news-sites in order for thousands of smaller sites to take the news very shortly. With this in mind, don’t waste your time and start pitching your video to as many popular websites as possible. Don’t wait for it to go viral, these brands want to have it before everybody else does. A good hint is to include that in your pitch – just say that your video is starting to get viral and you want their website to have it first.
Additional tip: While you are reaching out to these popular sites, there is no harm in pitching to lower-authority websites too. You can either ask them to feature your video or offer a guest post with a backlink to your own blog post.
Here is a list of several websites I highly recommend.
5. Get Influencers to Share Your Video
Influencers are everywhere and they really do influence. Whether you retweet a tweet of your favorite Twitter person or watch Instagram video story, there are millions of other people around the world who watch that same video and retweet just what you did a second ago.
Although this may be difficult, if you get an influencer in your niche to share your video, then you stand a chance of getting your video reshared by hundreds of other people. Create such a good influencer marketing strategy so that they can’t say no.
6. Direct Messages and Email Marketing Can Help for Your Video to Go Viral
Dedicate Your Next Newsletter to Your Viral Video
Assuming that you are already utilizing the power of email marketing, what would be a better strategy than giving your newsletter a breath of fresh air. Breaking your series of informative emails with a brand spanking new type of content will most probably captivate your readers’ attention. With a ‘call to action’ included properly, it will surely add up on the virality of your video.
Send Direct Message to Connections on Instagram and Facebook
This might not be a very common practice, but it works in certain niches. For example, if your video is about cats, feel free to drop a short message to other cats accounts on Instagram asking them to check out your video and re-share if they find it funny. Choose carefully who will you send a message to and don’t over-send.
7. Collaborate with Viral Video Licensing Companies
Although this may be a very attractive method for individual video creators, brands should consider such partnerships too. Here, you won’t only get the help with increasing your video views, but you will also be able to make some money from your video. With the assistance of these companies, you can even make money from recording cute moments of your cat or dog, not to mention something extraordinarily funny or unusual. These licensing companies have extensive connections with television, news media, and popular websites and often include distribution to famous shows and news sites in their packages. Some viral video companies even produce their own TV shows. Depending on what you want to achieve with your video, choose the company and the package wisely. Be aware that some of the agreements are exclusive and by choosing one partner you dismiss the possibility to work with others.
Here is a list of good viral video licensing companies worth checking out.
While many may think that creating a viral video is all luck, using these free ways to share your footage out there will produce results without a doubt.
If you want to go big, check Statista’s list of the fastest viral videos as of June 2020 to get an idea of what works best.
Above all, don’t forget that content is king. All these methods can work only if your video is really worth the attention you want to get. With this in mind, if you accidentally filmed a funny moment, with a little bit or no editing you are good to go. But, if you want a video for your brand which will stand a high chance to get viral and you need assistance, from script writing to filming and editing, we at Ignite Global Media can help you get featured on some of the world’s biggest sites. Don’t hesitate to contact us!
