Going Viral

Kendra Bonnett--Getting Read #19

Do I know what it takes to go viral? Lordy no. If I did, I can assure you I wouldn't be writing about it. I'd be making videos to go viral for clients and getting rich in the process. But like Justice Potter Stewart, I do know it when I see it. In fact, here are a few viral video favorites:

We'll start with the Old Spice guy as he's one of the most recent. It's also a commercial series and deliberately created to go viral. Not all such plans succeed, but this one certainly has. These are cheeky and entertaining. The eye candy's not bad either.

Then there's the Numa Numa kid. Definitely not commercial; it's just a kid (Gary Brolsma) in his bedroom recording himself lip syncing to an Eastern European song. YouTube viewers went mad for it. Gary's been interviewed on tv and now has his own NumaNuma channel on YouTube. One way to know you've gone viral is when views surpass 1 million. Another is when people start making video responses and spin offs of your original.

One of my favorites is Judson Laipply doing his Evolution of Dance. At more than 147 million views, you bet it's viral.

And I'll end with the ever-upbeat laughing baby. With 129 million views, this kid has something to laugh about.

So while going viral is the Holy Grail of YouTube, it's something most of us will never experience. Does that mean that we shouldn't bother? Absolutely not. Take advantage of the power of YouTube to help you and your book get known. Here are a few tips:

1. For the most part, keep it short.
2. Humor helps.
3. Have a focus, theme, or message and keep on point.
4. Include your website URL in your video...in case your video gets uploaded and embedded on another site.
5. Include key words in the title of your video...use lots of tag words too. Do everything you can to help your video come up in a search.
6. Do everything you can to help it be found by Tweeting it and posting on your Facebook page.
7. The more videos the better. You never know what will make something take off. We do Writing in Five videos every week. Where one will have trouble breaking 40 views, another quickly breaks through 100. These are not huge numbers, but we are talking about writing tips...not entertainment.
8. Be persistent. And start your own YouTube channel. It's free.

Above all, remember not to be intimidated. You don't need expensive equipment or a degree in film production from USC. In fact, I selected these clips, in part, to show you that some of the most popular stuff is strictly homemade. Originality, entertainment value, feel-good...these are what YouTube viewers prize.

Every minute, some 24 HOURS of video are uploaded to YouTube. Come on in...the water's fine. And while Matilda and I have not gone viral yet, I hope you'll join me over on Women's Memoirs to watch the latest in our Writing in Five videos. I'm celebrating because I finally created a video that's only about 3 minutes long. Today's writing tip is courtesy of Ernest Hemingway.