A Simple Way to Create a Viral Video

Steve Young gives us tips on what to consider before starting to create viral content.

1. Think like a street magician
   Storytelling — while a David Copperfield type magician has an engaged audience to tell a story to, you only have a few seconds to capture someone’s attention so think like a street magician. Hit the audience with quick snippets that keep them wanting more.
2. Be a purple cow
   As Seth Godin said, we don’t notice any single brown cow, there are plenty of them in the herd. Something off/weird will catch someone’s attention.
3. Use High-Quality production
   9 of the top 10 most viral videos on YouTube in 2012 were created by professional producers. You don’t have to be a professional to have good production values, we know when we’re taking shortcuts on edits.
4. Insanely practical tips have got people 41m views
   Provide insanely actionable tips they can use in daily life. In Wendy Nguyens most popular viral video, she shows viewers 25 ways to wear a scarf in 4.5 minutes. It has over 41 million views so far.
5. Promote like a Kardashian
   Think about your target audience, find them and contact them, send them something that will give them an idea of what you’re going to release. Upload it to multiple sites.

Read more about How to distribute your content.

This article is part of the ‘How To Create a Viral Video for Your Boring Software’ series.