Viral videos: What exactly are they and why they're not the best thing for you and your business

I'm sure you've seen one of those videos, whether it's animal, bizarre or those sentimental commercials with a high level of production accompanied by millions of views.

You probably already know what I'm referring to: those videos known as 'viral'.

Those who for some reason of chance reach a miuntial popularity among us, the internet audience.

And at the end of the day, in simple words that's what they are.

Videos that overnight become extremely popular, spreading among users as quickly as their metaphorical figure indicates, like a virus.

So far the concept is easy to understand.

However, what's really hard to understand about them is why they become so popular in the first place.

Viral videos don't have a specific formula that can guarantee that thousands or millions of people will see them. The truth is, if that existed, everyone would.

The danger of all this is for those who enter or know very little about audiovisual and advertising production as they may be more susceptible to investing a lot of money in services that 'promise to go viral' any video they want.

It is difficult to be sure that the video you want to make goes viral by totally 'organic' means, this means, without the influence of being part of a paid ad or in the worst case, resort ingesting these services that artificially inflate the statistics of any video or post with views and comments made by 'bots'.

What do viral videos have in common with each other?

Having examined several copies of such videos it is possible to see that there are themes that many of these 'viral' videos share in common.

Many of these have some elements of the following in both their content and in the title and cover of these:

• Reactions (shocking content, impressive, unusual, people reacting to some unexpected event)
• Jokes (spontaneous situations that give laughter, planned jokes, compilations of various videos)
• Challenges
• Drama (something that is used a lot in the show, gossip, fights, among others)
• Those who thematically talk about money or there's money involved (bets, videos on how to earn more, money tips, etc.)
• Those who present or have in their title a 'Ft.' of someone famous or well known in a niche or specific sector. They also include here the collaborations with these people.

Features of viral videos

Now that you know what are the most frequent topics that touch this kind of videos, here you can see some features that have these that give them that touch of 'viral style' (referring more to the audiovisual style of these, not necessarily if they are so they will be instantly viral):

Most viral videos are usually like this:

• They go straight to the point or the action
• They have an authenticity factor, they are not usually so 'overproduceed' but the vast majority have a 'day-to-day' production level (recorded from a cell phone, continuous shooting without cuts or edits).
• They give an air that they are not prefabricated or planned, but occur spontaneously, at the moment. It makes the one who sees that this same one could have recorded that while there in that situation.
• Most are not promotional, they do not talk about the characteristics or benefits of a product or service directly as they would in a traditional advertising commercial, but tell stories to inspire.

Why not bet on viral videos in your business

No matter how you believe or order a video that follows these features or themes to the letter, one can never know for sure that they will go viral.

A business or brand shouldn't rely on viral videos.

Having the mindset that each of the videos you make HAVE to reach more than 10,000 views (or even more) to be considered a 'successful' production is a poor way to measure the results of your videos.

Such a mindset will only lead to frustration, demotivation and endless perfectionism.

The best thing I recommend to others (whether colleagues, customers or aspiring to create videos) is to have the mindset of focusing on doing what you can do best with what you have, because it means taking over your content with your own creative freedoms in lu being desperately trying to find viral success which is governed to a greater extent by arbitrary algorithms that are constantly changing.

We must remember that every thing we offer and share is not for everyone, and they don't have to be.

Sometimes it is better to see that what we believe is not something that is 'dark' but on the side that it is something 'exclusive', since not everyone will have the privilege of seeing what we share.

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