by Bryan Boettger, Chief Creative Officer

Increasingly, businesses and corporations are seeking to create viral videos. However, true viral videos are not typically “created,” rather they “happen.” So, in order to better “create” a viral video, we sought to better understand how these videos in fact “happened.” The outcome was The Buddy Group’s Viral Barometer, a tool to help gauge a video’s viral potential. In this post, we break down the Viral Barometer’s methodology so you can better understand and use the tool.

(You might wish to visit the Viral Barometer at ViralBarometer.com before continuing.)

SOURCES
In order to reverse engineer viral videos, we first needed a set of viral videos to analyze. Searching online for Top Online Videos and Top Viral Videos lists, two rose to the top as both comprehensive and somewhat objective in their selection process:
• Mashable’s Top YouTube Videos All Time — May 25, 2009
• Videogum’s Top Videos 2009 — Dec. 25, 2009

These two lists provided a total of 39 videos from which to gain insights. After (re)watching, analyzing, breaking down and comparing the 39 videos, a combination of 10 traits emerged as indicators for a video’s viral potential. These 10 traits fuel the calculations for the Viral Barometer.

BEFORE YOU START
There are four important facts that are imperative for properly using the Viral Barometer.

1) Accurate assessments require divesting yourself from the video.
It takes a personal investment of passion and energy to make a compelling video, but it takes a personal divestment to properly assess the video. Think of it like home movies of your kids — you find them so amazing you can watch for hours, but an honest assessment tells you your neighbors are likely to gnaw a limb off to escape more than 15 minutes.

2) Like a true virus, viral videos need good hosts to spread.
You might have the funniest, most unique video in the world. But, if it only sits on your own blog and you don’t actively share the video, get others to share the video and put it on sites where people can discover it…it’s virtually guaranteed to not go viral.

3) If it’s not unique and interesting, don’t even bother.
These two factors are so vital to a video’s viral potential, we didn’t even bother including them in the indicators. Uniqueness and interest are beyond indicators. They are necessary for any hope of viral spread.

4) This is a tool, not a prognosticator.
We cannot guarantee results based on the Viral Barometer. However, we can promise you that using it can help you 1) Better assess your video and 2) Highlight areas for improving the video.

POPULARITY INDICATORS
The first elements of the Viral Barometer are the Popularity Indicators. These are the bread and butter of viral videos. Let’s take a look at what we mean by each Popularity Indicator.

Authentic: This trait is best defined by understanding its opposite. A video can be deemed authentic if it is not staged, a hoax or overly marketed. The video must have a sense of real-ness to it. That does not mean the video cannot be planned out, it simply means the video must feel in-the-moment.

Irreproducible: A video can be irreproducible in three ways. First, if the video captures a moment in time that cannot be recreated. Second, if the video shows someone doing something that the general population of viewers could not do themselves. Third, if the video shows someone doing something so painful, embarrassing, etc. that the general population of viewers would not try it.

Odd: This is one of the hardest to define and most subjective. When a video has the quality of oddness, it often elicits a reaction of “huh?” or “what?” or even “what was that person smoking?” They can sometimes be weird, other times quirky.

Funny: Quite simply, will the video make people laugh? But, not just you. Will it make a general, broader audience laugh?

Musical: Another straightforward indicator to spot. A video is musical if music is heavily incorporated into the video. However, that doesn’t just mean some background music. It might include the primary subject singing, someone dancing to music or music setting the scene for the video.

Surprising: Is the video going to surprise the people watching it? This might occur through an unforeseen twist, an event people haven’t seen before or something that happens that scares the viewers.

Once you have accurately, and honestly, assessed which Popularity Indicators your video possesses, it is important to look at what PIs you video does not have. These should be seen as opportunities. Ask yourself: can I slightly adjust or build upon my concept to add additional PIs into the concept? If you can, you might just help boost your video’s viral potential.

MULTIPLIERS
Where the Popularity Indicators are the bread and butter of the Viral Barometer, the Multipliers are the seasoning on the dish. They are the elements that kick up the interest, flavor and excitement of the video. Multipliers tend to have a much larger impact than Popularity Indicators.

Impressive: A video is impressive if it elicits a reaction of “wow.” There are a few reasons it might do this — an exhibition of an extreme talent, someone doing something so crazy it is hard to believe or something being done that must have taken an extreme amount of time to make happen.

Parodied or Copied: Of all the traits, this is probably the most difficult to accurately assess ahead of time. One might say, “You can’t know if a video is going to be parodied or copied until it actually happens.” True — somewhat. You also don’t know for sure if people will find a video funny, odd, surprising or impressive. You can ask yourself some questions to help better assess its potential for being parodied or copied. Is there a person doing something that can be easily copied? Is there a person with such overt personality characteristics that people will be inclined to mimic them? Are you teaching or showing something that people will want to try themselves?

Painful or Embarrassing: On the other side of the coin, these traits are quite easy to assess. As sad as it might be, if someone gets hurt or embarrassed in the video, it is going to help the video’s viral potential. NOTE: WE ARE IN NO WAY CONDONING OR SUGGESTING PEOPLE SHOULD INTENTIALLY HURT OF EMBARRASS OTHERS.

Like the Popularity Indicators, once you determine what Multipliers your video has, you can then look to see if there is opportunity to add additional multipliers into your concept.

BONUS
Pop Culture Timeliness has some unique qualities to it. It is an attribute that has similar weight as the Popularity Indicators. However, Pop Culture Timeliness has the potential for two additional benefits for your video.

Jumpstart: Having a video tied to a timely pop culture event can help kick-start the viral growth of your video. It will instantly have more relevance because it is tied to an event that is already at the forefront of popular interest.

Longevity: Not only can Pop Culture Timeliness jumpstart a video, but it can also make a video’s relevance last longer. The video does not have to create a lasting relevance of its own, but can instead piggyback on the lasting relevance of the pop culture event.

There are many elements that can give a video Pop Culture Timeliness. A few are:
• If the video is commentary on a cultural event
• If it captures protest, outrage or love of a cultural event
• If it involves a celebrity of the moment in a way of cultural relevance
• If it is from a television show or movie
• If a massively popular song is key to the video
• If the video is tied to an election of importance

FINAL WORDS OF ADVICE
An accurate assessment and adjustment of your video concept using these traits can help to predict the viral potential of your video. However, there are a few important concepts that must also be taken into account when trying to create a viral video.

Don’t try too hard.
Trying too hard to add traits into your concept will likely cause the viral potential to drop, not increase. Trying too hard reduces the likelihood of your video honestly being Authentic, Funny, Odd, Surprising or Impressive. If you are trying too hard to add traits to the video concept, maybe you just need a new concept. Don’t be afraid to scrap an idea. An idea might be fun, but it might not be viral.

Kids, Kittens and Puppies are already included.
Many people will say that kids, kittens and puppies will make any video better. However, we believe that these elements are not traits of a viral video, but rather vehicles for the traits described above. Kids, kittens and puppies are often inherently Authentic (they are what they are), Irreproducible (videos of them are often a moment captured in time), Funny (they all have a cuteness that often makes things funny) and Surprising (they do the darndest things).

Too much marketing is going to hurt you.
Much like trying too hard, having too much marketing in a video is likely to decrease the video being Authentic, Funny, Odd, Surprising or Impressive. Be careful how much and how you put your brand and marketing into a potential viral video.

WRAPPING UP
So, as we said, utilizing some of the tips above and the Viral Barometer as a tool, you just might increase your odds of your video becoming viral. However, as much as we’ve tried to break it down scientifically, remember that it is still much more art than science. It’s just a matter of applying some science to your art.

Good luck!

Bryan Boettger Bryan is Chief Creative Officer at The Buddy Group. He enjoys hikes along the shoreline, discussions about photo composition and holding hands with his favorite font (which he can't tell you or else the other fonts will get jealous). Follow him on Twitter @bboettger.

This post is the author's opinion and not necessarily that of The Buddy Group™ (unless it's about ice cream - they never disagree about that).