How Do YouTube Videos Go Viral? 14 Answers

When Trend Makers Share The Video

Trend makers have a lot of power when it comes to making videos go viral on YouTube. Trend makers are people who are respected for their taste or opinion in a particular area. When they share a video, it can often start a chain reaction that leads to the video being seen by millions of people. Sometimes, trend makers will share a video because they think it’s funny or entertaining. Other times, they’ll share it because they think it’s important or informative. In either case, their endorsement can be enough to get the ball rolling and help a video go viral.

When The Video Generates Humor and Laughter

Tom Segura and Bret Kreischer are famous comedians. They have Netflix specials and they’ve made the rounds on late night. But they’re more famous now than ever before because of a video clip from their “2 Bears, 1 Cave” podcast. Segura was astonished at the amount of Kool-Aid Kreischer drank each day.

When he learned that Kreischer consumed two 64-ounce containers of Kool-Aid each day, he exploded into laughter. He laughed so hard and for so long that he cried.

Kreischer laughed, too, realizing (possibly for the first time) how absurd it was to drink that much Kool-Aid in a single day. The clip went viral because it consisted mostly of two close friends laughing hysterically. People love to laugh – and they apparently like to see others laughing, too.

When You Share The Video Content Across All Social Channels

Focus on creating interesting and compelling content that is shared across all your social media platforms. Interlink the YouTube video within a blog post on your website, post a preview of the upcoming video on Twitter or TikTok, or share an older video with a new audience on Facebook. The key is to consistently create new content and find ways to remark past content while promoting your YouTube videos on all company social channels.

When You Post Consistently To Get People Attached to Your Content

We are well aware that YouTube is the most popular video platform and that there are numerous YouTubers to entertain viewers. So, if you’re worried about getting noticed or making your videos go viral, don’t be. The key is to maintain consistency. To elaborate, if you are a vlogger, try to make daily uploads to your channel. Make your videos short, simple, and consistent. People are somehow attached to your daily activities, and you will receive more views if you post more frequently. Perhaps your subsequent post will become a hit!

When There is an Element of Shock From The Content

The common trait among all viral YouTube videos is shock factor. In terms of the professional world, you want to be able to craft a video that has a message that addresses a current problem in the world. This is why TedTalk videos can have so much success. Each individual is trying to bring forward a solution to a problem that many individuals deal with on a daily basis.

When The Video Shows Enticing Thumbnails and Engaging Title

An eye-catching thumbnail is likely your video’s most critical feature – right behind an engaging title. YouTube thumbnails, which are small, clickable snapshots that viewers see when searching for videos, can be just as important as the title of a video because they provide a preview of the video and entice viewers to click through. Your thumbnail needs to do the following to catch users’ eyes: Display high-quality images; avoid illegible or hazy writing; accurately reflect the video’s subject matter and engage viewers’ visual senses.

When The Video Release is Well-Timed

The ultimate reason youtube videos go viral is for the timing factor. The timing at which a video is released plays a significant role in its virality and the number of likes it gets. A video’s viral peak and total volume of shares increase with the number of shares it receives in the first two days following launch. 

Marketing professionals should also consider front-loading initiatives to optimize exposure during this opportunity. The launch day also has a huge impact. The best days for sharing youtube videos are Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday; however, this may differ based on your target audience’s persona. At our startup, we aim to upload videos every Wednesday and Friday because those are the days when they are most active watching videos.

When The Video Generates an Element of Surprise

Most viral videos have content that is surprising or shocking. For example, the viral video of a man putting an iPhone in a blender grabbed people’s attention because they wondered why he would do something like that. It’s also incredibly fascinating and entertaining to watch. Viral videos play on emotions like excitement, humor, or schadenfreude.

A small percentage of videos go viral for having a “cute” element like babies or small animals. Though videos go viral for a variety of reasons, there’s no way to predict what the next viral video will be.

However, if a topic is trending at the moment, creating an entertaining video around that topic can be one strategy for going viral, especially if it includes the element of surprise. There are infinite ways to create surprise in YouTube videos, especially if they’re shorter in length. It can be a clip of someone being interviewed and saying something outrageous or someone running around a small town dressed as a superhero. You never know.

When The Content Connects on an Emotional Level

When a video goes viral, it’s because it’s able to connect with the viewer on an emotional level. Viral videos, whether they’re advertisements or just short clips that make people laugh, are often ones that have a deeper meaning than what they seem at first glance. You can’t go viral if you’re just trying to sell something. You have to connect with people emotionally, whether through humor or a deeper meaning that causes people to think in short, sweet, and to-the-point videos. You don’t want long, drawn-out clips that have you wondering when they’ll end. Viral videos grab your attention from the first second, and don’t let go until it’s over.

When The Transitions Are Seamless and Sync With The Audio

When it comes to trending videos, it’s all about seamless transitions. Whether it’s a scenic video that moves from location to location or a funny video that’s made up of multiple clips, make your YouTube video more likely to go viral by investing time into creating seamless transitions that sync with the audio. When you can do this, your video naturally becomes more pleasing to watch, whatever the underlying concept may be.

When The Video Follows a Current Trend

Youtube videos have bigger chances to go viral when they catch the trend right when it’s still piping hot. Think back to a trend that you’ve researched whether due to personal interest or as part of your research for a work project. You’ve probably also searched for similar videos related to the trend on Youtube. 

We can’t deny that video has been a consistently strong player in the digital world for the past few years. And while Tiktok has taken the world by storm, Youtube continues to be a vital player in the video marketing landscape. Keeping an eye on trends and being quick on your toes to create content that’s relevant to the topic can be a surefire way for your video to gain more views, get picked up by the algorithm, and eventually go viral. Don’t forget to include the right keywords in your Title, Description, and Tags!

When Users Can Easily Relate to The Video Content

YouTube videos go viral for a lot of reasons but one of the most common is relatability. For example, in 2014 a video of a woman walking around NYC for 10 hours went viral. It highlighted a common and upsetting issue that women around the world deal with each time they leave their house. It sparked conversation because it revealed an experience that almost half of the population could relate to. In “Ain’t nobody got time for that”, a more light-hearted example from 2012, Sweet Brown echoes a sentiment that most of us have had when dealing with tough situations. In 2015, Keegan Michael-Key became Obama’s anger translator in a viral video where he expressed what Obama and most of us had been thinking at a White House dinner. Not only are these videos relatable, but they’re also subversive. They take what’s going on in mainstream society and turn it on its head. They appeal to human psychology and the need to connect with others.

When The Video is Unique and Different

We get asked this question a lot and always tell our clients the same thing. Think outside of the box and be bold. Make your video unique, informative and funny to give yourself the best chance of going viral. I have helped our clients get over 140 million views of their promotional videos on YouTube and other social media channels since I graduated W.P. Carey in 2010. The more unique and different your video is, the more likely that people will go out of their way to share it with their friends. The algorithms look at engagement rate, average view time and percentage of shares when determining which videos to highlight or display more frequently. If your video can exceed most other videos in all 3 of these categories, your video will go viral.

When it Appears to Share Secrets and Hidden Knowledge

Everything that is not allowed has always tempted people and aroused great curiosity.
You’ve probably encountered headlines like “Uncovered the slim body secret”. The use of hidden knowledge impressions helps to attract attention and build curiosity because even useless information sometimes turns out to be interesting when we are the “chosen ones” who can get it.

Do you know what is the one component of a viral video that no one has written about yet? Well, exactly. 

In videos, it is worth building interest and the impression of inaccessibility. You can offer secret methods previously undisclosed by anyone, access to a blocked website, a secret discussion forum, an association, or just introduce something new and unusual.