Creating a viral video — that’s the dream, isn’t it?
I had that happen just this week, and I’m still waiting to see the implications. The idea came to me suddenly and completely. I knew what I wanted to say, I knew how to put the video together, and I had a strong feeling that it’d resonate. It was a bolt of lightning, one of those creative sparks that I had to act on right the hell now.
But I stepped back for a minute, thought about it, and turned it into a powerful marketing tool. Here’s why it worked, and how it’s going to help my business get its name out.
First, some background. We’ve been doing some video work for Georgia Southern University’s athletics department. It’s fun stuff, and has taken me from being “meh” about my alma mater’s football team to being a pretty rabid supporter. One of the teams we’re going to go up against this year is Georgia State, a larger college with a vastly inferior football program.
Because we’re in the same conference, the same state, and have similar names, television and radio announcers are constantly referring to Georgia Southern as Georgia State. It’s a pretty minor (and mostly understandable) faux pas, but it’s one of those tiny annoyances that makes Georgia Southern fans crazy.
So there was the idea. No grand comedic concept, no thoughts of changing the world… just a light-hearted and completely unfair comparison of the two teams, newsreel-style, exhorting “Southern, not State!” And within an hour of being posted on Facebook, it blew up. The video got thousands of views in just a few hours. It was short, sweet, and made it tempting for folks to click the “share” button.
First and foremost, the video was made to promote my video production company. We did that by making sure there was a nice little copyright notice with the business name at the bottom of every text slide in the one-minute piece, and having a callout at the end like we’d sponsored the thing. All of the video came from stock, and featured no players or trademarked elements to keep us out of any possible copyright or NCAA issues.*
The intention was definitely for the video to go viral, but we were thinking more of a cold than the flu — something small, localized and fleeting. I knew the video would resonate strongly with Georgia Southern’s fanbase, based on the buzz that the announcers’ mistakes had generated for a solid two weeks on social media. On top of that, almost all of my video business comes from a 50 mile radius of our studio – an area that coincides with that fanbase.
There’s an added bonus. Georgia State is in Atlanta, a city that’s also chock-full of loyal Georgia Southern alumni. That’s a video market we’ve slowly been breaking into, so getting our name spread a little wider has been a good thing.
For distribution, I made sure to put the video on Facebook first. As soon as it was up, people were sharing it. I also made sure to put it on Youtube (and tweet out a link), and also Vimeo (’cause we’re classy). It’s best to hit the big two of FB and YT at the very least, just to maximize your coverage. Believe it or not, there’s a strong contingent of folks who won’t share a Facebook video, but have no problem pasting in a Youtube URL.
The best part? Just like a cold, it’s going to come back. The video hit on the Monday after Georgia Southern scored a big football victory (I’m writing this the Thursday after). They’ve got an open week this week, and the next Saturday they head to Atlanta for the Georgia State game. As the smack-talking intensifies (intra-state rivalries are fun!), I’m fully expecting to video to make a resurgence late next week, giving us a whole new round of exposure!
So for going viral:
- Think about who you want to target, and what’s a good way to make them quickly, almost unthinkingly, share the video.
- Make sure you have something in the video connecting it to you or your business.
- For the love of God, make it funny. Or interesting. Or both.
*If you’re ever working with video of collegiate athletes, NCAA issues loom large. That association is capricious, arbitrary and won’t hesitate to completely screw over a clueless young athlete for something someone else did involving their image. We tread lightly around those issues, as should you.