It is a common misconception that all video's with 100,000 view or more were simply ‘found’ by the correct people, then, based on the quality of their content – went viral. More likely, these videos were tagged with popular words not relating to the video at all – the people that posted it were the ones commenting – and industry movers and shakers were paid to push it - but most people do not know the dark side of viral.

Digital Butter Vancouver and Digital Butter Hong Kong have come together to create 3 tips and tricks to help you leverage simple tools available to everyone in hopes of getting your video seen! 

#1 - Strong Content…Not Necessarily Accurate Content.

Is great content key? If you want a video to go to the top 1% of Youtube with 10’s of millions of views then of course you need to have truly epic content – but if you want to hit the viral mark of 100,000 content becomes less important. This is an important point because many people dwell on the next “Charlie bit my Finger” instead of using that effort to spread their video.

A few great key point:

 1.    Give the reader no choice but to watch it by blowing their mind with the title.

• “UFO in New York”

2.    KISS – Keep It Short Stupid

• 15-30sec is optimal. If you must, simply break the video into a number of small clips and create a series.

3.    Keep that Ad to yourself

• If viewers feel like they are being sold they will not  share it.

4.    Judge the book by the cover

• Use fake headers, giving your readers no choice but to investigate “Charlie Sheen meets Chuck Norris”

5.    Sex + Sex = 100,000

• When all else fails, use sex appeal to push your video (psst – check out yoga for dudes)

#2 – Are we there yet?

Okay, this is the carrot at the end of the stick – get on the most view page of Youtube (50,000). Here are the deets:

1. Almost 80,000,000 videos viewed per day
2. Majority come from the ‘Most Viewed’ Tab
3. 20 spots available

Therefore – if we get on that page we get 5% of clicks, in theory – but I like those chances! So how do we get 50K in views?

1. Blogs – Take out your checkbook and pay to embed videos on popular blogs. It is a worth while investment and by no means against the rules
2. Facebook – By continually developing your brand on FB, you put yourself in a position to reach the general population quickly. Share, becomes your middle name – teach people to share like they are in grade 1.
3. Twitter – Use twitter best practices to engage your followers, develop a trend, and get a few powerful tweeters to share your video – checkbook may come into play again.
4. Friends – Every person you know should watch the video and pass it on to one other person, at least!
5. Controversy – Create heated conversations, comments, and arguments using multiple accounts – everybody likes a good old fashioned chicken fight.

Now that you understand the importance of the Most Viewed page, you have 48 hours before it is moved to Most Viewed of the Week…so get going

#3 – T n T

Title and Thumbnail optimization are essential to the success of your video. To build on the momentum developed by reaching the ‘Most Viewed’ Page you, as the publisher, should take advantage of simple and effective tools. On youtube you are allowed to change the title of your video infinitely, which lends itself to using slightly misleading titles. This is fine to generate interest – then change back to a more brand appropriate title. 

Thumbnails follow the same guidelines – using a clear image, to portray video quality, as well as a catchy image – your conversion rates will sky-rocket. Youtube takes three thumbnail images and one of those is from the exact halfway mark. If you can help it – get an image halfway through that will allow your potential viewers to become fans. A few tips – use images with people, a face, and whenever possible a girl.

By switching the thumbnail often, you can keep the video fresh and engaging – this follows the same principle as changing the title. 

Digital Butter wants to know what you think – post a quick tip you have for helping viral become reality.

The Suit

 

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Who's there?
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