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The Going Viral Myth

posted on November 19, 2010

Almost every morning I have The Today Show on in the background while I start my morning routine and minutes ago I heard Matt Lauer say, “Our most ambitious viral video ever coming up this half hour.”

Once I stopped laughing from the complete absurdity of it all, I figured it was a good time to remind you all that while everyone talks about making viral videos and forcing things to go viral, it is all a big myth.

We talk about it in Content Rules, that you can not force anything to go viral. I always use a quote I heard at SXSW last year that if you want something to go viral just put boobs or kittens in it. Even that isn’t a guarantee.

There is a myth in the marketing world that you can force content to go viral and I’m here to tell you once again: IT IS A MYTH!

The beauty about the world we live in now is that at any moment you can’t guess what might grab the world’s attention. You can’t buy it. You can’t schedule it. You can only create something that is awesome, compelling and invokes an emotional response. After that, you have zero control.

So instead of focusing on how many views, buzz and warm fuzzies you want to get, why not focus on what you hope to get out of the content and then create it in the best possible way.

If you are ever lucky enough to have something go viral, are you even set up to capture that momentum and do something with it? Sure, a lot of people might watch your video, but then what? How does that help your business? How does it make you more money?

They just showed the video and guess what? It was nicely done, but I’ve seen it before. There was nothing original in it. It was an imitation of a sing along that we’ve all seen before. They didn’t even change the song. It left me yawning. They had the chance to create something truly unique and instead they rehashed something we’ve all seen done before.

Anyone got a connection at NBC to have me on to chat about how it could have been done better and the myth of making content go viral?

Don’t embrace the myth and stop spreading the virus.

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Categories: Rants
  • Glenn Engler

    Thank you. I just had this exact conversation with one of our clients 2 days ago, sending us a video entitled “our viral video” with a request to comment on it. I had to forcefully, yet diplomatically tell them that THEY don’t get to label something as viral — consumers do. And with 35 hours of new video uploaded every minute to YouTube (love that stat), the likelihood isn’t great. So, focus on telling a great and engaging story about your product instead — on brand, relevant, engaging, of value. You said it perfectly in this post…thank you

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      I’ve had similar conversations with clients and it is never easy.

      What kills me is that because the media keeps pushing it like they do, they don’t listen to us and that just makes it keep going and going.

      The key way I handle it with clients is go “Ok, IF this does go viral then what?” That always stops them and forces a better conversation.

      • http://www.informationjunkiesanonymous.com InfoJunkiesAnon

        That question stopped me too. Thanks for the insight; it might be an obvious question I should ask myself, but I didn’t really see it.

  • http://www.youintegrate.com Kneale Mann

    Viral and branding are both myths. Those are activities formed between customers. We can set the table but many have tried and prepared a meal that went bad. I have clients who say “Should we get a YouTube channel?”

    With more than 24 hours of video being uploaded, downloaded, side loaded and shared every minute, go ahead and toss your drop into the ocean and wait for the self-ringing phone to do its magic.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      I still think the concept of branding is an important one. But, that too isn’t magic and an instant thing. It takes years and LOTS and LOTS of moving parts to make it work great.

      I saw an updated stat that it is up to 35 hours a minute. Insane!

  • Anonymous

    Great post! I’ve been thinking this all week – even the OK Go original was a re-hashing of their style. You just can’t force these things. They said several times “our attempts to be internet sensations,” which shouldn’t be the goal at all. My gut is the more you force it, the less likely it is to actual be v&*#l.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      WELL said.

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  • http://www.convinceandconvert.com jaybaer

    It’s not viral until it is. And that’s not the marketer’s decision, and it’s beyond the marketer’s reach.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Exactly. Sure you can help nudge the community in the right direction, but there is no way to force it. Can’t be done.

      • http://socialbutterflyguy.com/ DJ Waldow

        Love it. I wonder what the reaction would be if you titled the video VIRAL. I know. I know. That’s weird. Just a thought. It’s Friday. Brain. Fried.

        dj

  • http://twitter.com/plrodriguez Pedro Leandro

    good post noting what only some of us seem to remember

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=616360898 Jennifer Scott Spencer

    “Make it go viral” is not a strategy.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Nope and yet companies ask for it as a solution all the time.

  • http://rawfoodswitch.com Nathalie Lussier

    Yes! So many times I see things that are so contrived that there’s no way it could go viral.. but you know that was the intent behind it. Ouch.

  • http://www.ricardobueno.com Ricardo Bueno

    Your community is the one who ultimately decides when something goes viral, not you.

    I have 14+ Youtube videos. They have modest views. One of them unexpectedly took off and hit 22,000+ views. I didn’t force it, it just took off and spread all on it’s own. Why? The community decided it was useful and worth spreading :-)

  • newmediajim

    but you gotta admit, the cameraguy did a REALLY good job! ;)

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      For sure and so did the producer. The logistics in filming it were crazy and they pulled it off for sure. It was good TV, but it could have been better is all.

      I did think the t-shirts were a nice touch.

  • Homncruse

    Now wouldn’t it be completely ironic if this post went viral?

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      If it did, it wouldn’t be because I set out for it to. But, yes that would be a bit funny.

      • Anonymous

        I hope it does–it would do a lot of good! If I hear another person say “we are creating a viral video”, I may cry/scream/run away!

  • http://www.fastcompany.com/user/sam-ford-0 Sam Ford

    This is reminiscent of a Xerox campaign a few years back, with a press release sent out announcing a new viral video coming out that I wrote about awhile back: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/sam-ford/conversation-convergence/spreadable-media-cure-viral-marketing

    Communication and culture doesn’t work like a pandemic. We don’t accidentally catch content and pass it along unawares….I’m working with Henry Jenkins and Joshua Green on a book on “spreadable media” at the moment, which looks in part at exactly why the “viral” metaphor distorts how we understand how content spreads.

  • Paulm

    But you can create successful promotions that are expressly intended to go viral, e.g. halo’s ‘I Love Bees’. Yes, only a tiny minority will be successful, but that is still better than creating some nice content and hoping someone will see it. Engaging content + multiple avenues of promotion (of the promotion) is surely the way to go. Though wacky videos are unlikely to be the answer.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Agreed, when I was running The Advance Guard and working with Campfire we developed and ran numerous campaigns like this. In fact every campaign we did we hoped for this, but we knew going in it was not a given.

      It takes lots of promotions and compelling content like you said. But, still even with that you can’t FORCE anything to go viral.

      “I Love Bees” seems like so long ago, but it was really well done.

  • http://billy.wenge-murphy.com/ Billy Wenge-Murphy

    “How doe, a deer, a female deer, that help your business?”

    (PS: You have a typo ;)

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Buck! (a male deer) *laugh*

      Thanks for catching that and I just updated it.

  • http://neilbearse.com/ Neil Bearse

    CC – We were definitely channeling the same muse, here. I recently wrote about the same thing: http://neilbearse.com/2010/11/19/the-siren-song-of-viral-marketing/

    The unfortunate thing is that people see “viral” as the biggest prize to win in marketing. I was recently speaking to a student working on a marketing plan as a school assignment. One of their main elements was “we’re going to create a video that will probably go viral”.

    I told him I was holding a lottery ticket that was “probably going to win”. Hardly something you want to build your company around.

  • http://www.thursdaybram.com Thursday Bram

    I’ve had clients come to me and say that they want me to write a post that will go viral…and I always get this mental image of people reading such a post and catching the flu as a direct result.

    I just can’t see a value in viral posts, over creating good content that will (over and over again) reinforce a connection with your audience and get them to act. Sure, a viral video can rack up viewers, but if it’s viral, by definition, most of those viewers won’t be in your target audience.

  • http://phineaspoe.tumblr.com/ phineaspoe

    I would submit 42 Entertainment’s ad campaign for the Dark Knight as an example of someone aiming for a viral marketing campaign and hitting their mark. Also, Will It Blend. It can work but you write about it like it’s horrible and unattainable.

  • http://socialbutterflyguy.com/ DJ Waldow

    “You can only create something that is awesome, compelling and invokes an emotional response.” Boom.

    DJ Waldow
    Director of Community, Blue Sky Factory
    http://www.blueskyfactory.com
    @djwaldow

  • http://twitter.com/mirandamem Miranda Martin

    NBC does this with Celebrity Apprentice, too. In at least two or three separate seasons, a task required the teams to compete in creating “viral” marketing videos. Of course, the brands attached so many stipulations that all the teams could do was create commercials.

    I agree: it’s a myth.

  • http://www.junkdrawerblog.com JunkDrawer

    I didn’t exactly “go viral” with a video of mine, but it did get picked up for a Today Show piece about the loud 100% compostable Sun Chips bag. Had I known that would happen, I would have made a better video. But it was originally just for my blog readers, so I didn’t give it a second thought. The take-away is put some time into anything you put in a video in case it does go viral. Then you won’t cringe when you see it nationally.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Thank you for sharing that story and it is good advice. Of course now I’m craving some Sun Chips!

  • Anonymous

    C.C., you are spot on here but I am kind of frustrated with the Social Media crowd for not admitting this sooner. We have a lot of work to do as a collective communications industry.

  • http://www.jeremymeyers.com/ Jeremy Meyers

    *sigh* Viral is a result, not a strategy or a creative direction.

    • http://www.mashtup.me thomasbarrell

      I couldn’t agree more.

      PS: I’m going to use this line from now on…

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1296262866 Howard Dinatale

    Thank you for posting this. I cringe whenever I hear “viral” because I know that word of mouth does not diffuse (spread) in the same manner that a virus does. A virus needs one person to spread, but word of mouth requires small groups of “evangelists” to spread effectively. I’ve read several published marketing articles that prove this statistically.

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  • http://www.linkedin.com/in/mdyoder Michael D. Yoder

    Thanks for your post, CC. And, congrats on the new book. If we could only get people to focus on great content. I’m constantly encouraging people (and businesses) to focus on the 3 B’s: Be interesting, Be relevant, and Be helpful. It’s pretty simple, but it works when it comes to engaging with your clients, customers, target audience, or whomever. Oh, by the way, I can’t believe you admit to starting your day with the Today Show in the background. :)

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      What is wrong with The Today Show? It is the easiest way for me to stay on top of e basics of what is going on in the world. CNN Morning and then Today show almost every morning.