Top 17 Tips to Make Your Video Go Viral: The Magic Formula

How to make a video go viral? Viral videos gather traction quickly and are shared multiple times through social media, reaching people who wouldn't normally see your content. Sometimes, they're picked up by larger publications and syndicates and keep spreading like wildfire.

Viral content is always highly coveted, but how to make your videos go viral is not that easy. All sharable content has one common point, high-quality as well as funny enough. Funny videos make new people or more people visit your site and increase conversions. Funny videos with high quality go viral.

How to Make a Video Go Viral

Don't have any good idea for making a funny video. What's your conception of "funny"? Some people think that pain is funny. Others think that squeaky voices are funny. Some just think scary things are funny. Everyone has a different definition of funny.

To make a video that appeals to everyone is completely impossible. You can't make everyone who watches your video laugh, but you can try to make something that will appeal to at least someone! Read on and you will get the useful tips and tricks in no time.

• Make your creative crew and cast. You can make a video by yourself or you will need a writer, a camera man, actors, a director if you want to do something professional. The actors would be better if they are people familiar with comedy, or people who have the gift for making people laugh.

• Brainstorm your ideas. Join your people involved together and list all ideas. Pass them around and get some feedback. When you're satisfied with them, go ahead and move on.

• Watch others' comedies. And get inspired by their ideas and scripts. Never copy but summarize what works and what doesn't, and watching carefully for timing.

• Create your script. Write the script and share the script around with your crew for improvements.

• Pick out your filming locations when the script is done. You can use familiar places like your own bedroom, living room, kitchen, etc. Or you may need to choose a more scenic venue like a business part of town, a local park or a well-known spot.

• Let's start filming. Then it's lights, camera, and.... ACTION! Make sure that there is a good director who has the sense of comic timing and the ability to make your video funny.

• After acting, edit the video. You can use something simple like Ligworks, iMovie or Windows Movie Maker, or you can use some editing software, such as Aiseesoft Video Editor. Prepared to edit with care and sensitivity to what's funny to the audience, as it is definitely a skill to edit a video.

And there is a video that lets you learn more about Video Editor.

• Share the video. This is a crucial step that makes your video go viral. If you want your video to be viewed and shared by the public, upload it to a video sharing site like Vimeo, Metacafe, Veoh, Crackle, MySpace. Check back often to see what people comment on your video!

Days ago, we interviewed Cristina, she focuses on creating inspirational videos for children's enlightenment education. She used Aiseesoft Screen Recorder to create short videos that got over almost 1 thousand shares! Cristina attributes their viral achievement to focusing on give her audience something valuable. The valuable content is the key formula to virality. Thus, whether you're educating, entertaining or on other purpose, ensure your videos are benefit to your viewers and your video will go viral.

Here is the video that lets you learn more about Screen Recorder.

It's the most important lesson you should learn if you want to create a video with the intention of making it go viral. Now, think it over about the videos you've shared ever with others, what were videos about and why people like you will share them?

Most people would say that the videos were funny. Take a music video as an example, Gangnam Style. Why does this video go viral? The reason why people like it was initially due to Psy's crazy dance moves. However, there are other reasons for sharing – the video must be awesome or controversial in some cases. And it evokes some sort of emotion, which leads to the path to Virality. This is exactly what is happening in the online virtual world when it comes to viral videos. So it's very significant to add some true emotion into your videos.

Jonah Berger, author of the book Contagious: Why Things Catch On, found the most highly sharable content tended to evoke strong positive emotions in the reader or viewer. According to empirical research, Berger and UPenn Professor Katherine Milkman found happy emotions tended to stimulate the sharability. To be sharable, content needs to strike an emotional chord in viewers. These same viewers are more likely to share upbeat content, so if you want your videos to go viral, it's important to strive for a positive spin.

People's attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, which means it's time to tighten up your video content, making it shorter. A survey published in The New York Times found over 19 percent of people would leave a video after 10 seconds. If your video gets tediously long, chances may exist that you may lose a lot of audience. By a minute in, the video had lost a staggering 44 percent of viewers.

Unless you put your most interesting, fascinating, funny, or surprising information first and foremost in your video. Creating viral video content is one place where you never want to save the best for last.

• Attention spans are shorter and peopele won't stick around if they are not entertained

• Get your most interesting/funny/surprising information at the first frame

• Use the best for last strategy.

Another key that make your video go viral is engagement. Engaging with a viewer or an audience can boost loyalty and interest. After all, people like to be heard.

Let's see an example:

Recipe and food videos have huge viral potential on social. We look at top publishers and their tactics to success.

The engagement numbers don't lie either. Food is a gold mine for social video.

We looked at food-focused publisher pages on Facebook and their video content for October through December 2016. We looked at likes, reactions, shares, and comments on just videos, including Facebook Live.

Adding an engagement portion to your videos, like answering viewer questions, can give your content a boost and make it more sharable.

Viewers are always looking for new or useful information and better approaches to perform daily tasks. If your video content is informative enough, it is also highly sharable. Everyone likes to learn something they don't know, and videos can be a great method for accessing useful information. The more useful information, the more clicks your video will get.

• Everyone likes learning new and useful things.

• Videos are a great way to share new information online and it will greatly increase the chance of video sharing.

• Gather some new information and your target audience will like your video.

• Pay attention to video display. "It's observing what other people are doing and observing what takes off," according to studies on various content on Facebook or other social platforms. For example, the square-size videos on Facebook -- it used to be that most videos shared online were landscape-oriented, but then creators figured out that square videos take up more landscape on smartphone screens. Facebook actively suppresses Vimeo links.

• Use the right format. Maximize the chance of creating a viral video by optimizing it for social sharing. Make sure your video is the right format for the platform it's on by taking into account how people are watching your videos. About 85% of Facebook video is watched without sound, and at the tail end of 2016 they had 1.09 billion daily mobile users, a number that's been steadily rising every quarter.

• Video volume is also import.

When your followers share your video on social media, the first thing their followers will see is your thumbnail. This is especially true for social media platforms that don't use autoplay! Create a thumbnail that captures the essence of the video and demands a click. If you can, avoid using text because it can look a bit blurry on certain screens and in specific formats.

• Use the proper Thumbnail dimensions
• Include a title in your Thumbnails
• User good contrast in your Thumbnail design
• Be consistent with your Thumbnail design and font
• Use attention grabbing pictures in your Thumbnails
• Be honest & accurate in your Thumbnails

Understanding the psychology of how the human mind processes information, and the role that content performs in our social lives, is key to brainstorming the right idea for a viral video. Make your video go viral, you cannot ignored some good books like Jonah Berger's Contagious, etc.

And no, the secret isn't cats, As Berger has explained to Knowledge@Wharton: "There are definitely some cat things that become popular, but that really doesn't tell us anything about why most things go viral." For that you need to examine the research.

Surely, quantity and quality are both important, what distinguishes many of the most successful creators and channels or other video sharing site is that they upload new videos regularly, which keeps their audience interested and active. You should aim for regular engagement with your audience, and when you're making the videos, focus on the quality of your message, rather than high production value.

Every video needs a valuable headline. Those clickbait titles always catch viewers' eyes. If that is not a part of your branding, you are still able to create a powerful headline that walks the line between clarity and curiosity. The title needs to set expectations for the video. Some people rely on curiosity while others tap into how the video would make you feel. The key is to figure out what works for your audience and tease out a strong emotional reaction.

Here are some sites that can help your video headline:

Buzzfeed

• 162 million unique visitors
• Over 106 million mobile visitors
• 394 million page views
• Ranked as the 11th largest site in the USA

Viral Nova

• Unbelievable
• Mindblown
• Absolutely
• Unforgettable
• Best

To make your video go viral, search for stories to inspire your viewer, whether it's a story of overcoming struggle, standing up in the face of adversity, or just finding success. Audiences love a good inspirational story, and the more inspirational it is, the more your audience will want to share it with others. Creating viral videos isn't easy -- if it was, every business would have a few viral hits. These six pieces of advice can help you improve your content's sharability and quality, improving your odds at viral success.

Simple, clear and succinct content works wonders. This is true when it comes to creating a high conversion landing page or a super shareable blog post and it is definitely true when it comes to creating a would-be viral video. Before you start, define what your video is about and focus on getting that point across as clearly as you can.

The first frame of the video needs to catch people's eyes right away, as otherwise they're going to scroll away instead. In the past, people would like to find a viral video by reading a splashy news headline and then clicking through with the express purpose of watching that video. Now they are more likely to browse through their friends' shared posts, etc. These Facebook viewers are likely semi-bored and willing to watch a video, but the video should be much eye-catching enough to trigger their interest in the first place.

The video process doesn't end even though you've hit 'Publish'. The secret to viral video is knowing your audience and exceeding their expectations. You can pay more attention to your viewers' comments and then improve your shared video. In addition, you are able to study the video stats and sharing analytics, better for making more powerful videos in the future.

Often times, your idea for a great viral video will come when you least expect it. The best way to handle these disruptive situations is to simply grab your mobile phone and jot down the idea in your note taking application. Be sure to thoroughly examine your vision and write down every detail that you see in your mind. Whatever you do – don't gloss over the idea by writing down a few incomprehensible notes. It's the small nuances of your vision that might really put the polishing touches on your video.

Then email it to yourself for review later. Try to come back to it a few hours later when you have time to devote to the idea. Setting aside time to review your idea is worth it. If the video does well, you'll be glad you invested those fifteen minutes to look at it.