What exactly does it take for a video to go viral? How is it that some make and some don’t?

The research team for Twitter in the UK have recently released their findings after studying three viral videos. According to Twitter UK’s editorial manager Gordon MacMillan:

There are no rules to virality. While some ignite, and spread like wildfire across the web, the growth of others is much more measured, like ripples spreading across a lake.

The three viral video examples used by the research team were:

1) Vine video entitled ‘Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal’

2) Astronaut Commander Chris Hatfield belting out his rendition of David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ while onboard the International Space Station, and

3)Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches video.

To better understand the spread of viral content, Twitter produced their own video visualisation. The blue dots represent the tweets that promote the viral video while the yellow dots represent retweets.

These are Twitter’s findings for each video.

‘Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal’ 

This Vine video series was created by @RyanWMcHenry, and  shared by @BestVinesEver and @VineLoop which increased its reach and exposure.

The viral video 

 

How the video went viral on Twitter

Chris Hatfield sings ‘Space Oddity’ onboard the International Space Station

Originality is key. How many videos will there be of an astronaut singing ‘Space Oddity’ by David Bowie while onboard the International Space Station orbiting Earth? This video was uploaded on 12 May and has since racked up over 17 million views.

The viral video 

 How the video went viral on Twitter

Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches

This video stimulated conversation about “real world problems”. MacMillan said:

This video showed less burnout than the others, and there were also fewer influencer-induced spikes. Instead, conversation existed in clusters of communities spread around the world — showing the value of local engagement.

The viral video 

 How the video went viral on Twitter

 

[Source: Mashable]