How Take Make a Viral Video

Have you ever had a video go viral?

It’s one thing to 10x your typical views and engagement numbers, but once in a while (maybe more often for some of you!) a video finds favor with the almighty algorithm and reaches more people than you ever thought possible.

Here, let’s take a look (and add a few more views) to the video I’m talking about:

I anticipated that this video might draw more engagement than usual — it’s short, potentially provocative, showcases running in a unique location, and makes the viewer do a little work to process what I’m saying.

But I did not anticipate over a million views. As I’m writing this, my 9 second video has been viewed for 100 days of total watch time.

The comments keep coming (and they’re mostly civil and good!), the engagement keeps popping up, and the views are still steadily rising. (Anyone think we’ll cross 2 million?!)

I write all of this, not as a celebration of fleeting vanity or celebrity, but because I want to ask a few questions about viral videos, this mysterious target we find ourselves coveting and aiming for. How do you make a viral video? What do you do if/when it happens? Can you repeat the magic or are you just throwing darts blindfolded?

Let’s talk about it.

It’s not easy but I did find this tutorial that breaks it down step by step.

Easy, right?

If only.

While there is no clear formula to ensure a million or more views, I do try and keep three questions in mind for anything I post online:

Is it watchable?
Is it engageable?
Is it shareable?

By “watchable” I specifically mean the video and audio. Is the image clear and easy to see? Is the audio clear and easy to hear? Have I added subtitles to make it easier for people to watch with or without audio? The burden of communication is on the one communicating. When I’m posting a video it’s my job to ensure that people can see and hear what’s being shared.

By “engageable” I am keeping in mind if/how people might comment and engage with the content. Am I simply rage baiting and drawing a stereotypical reaction from a certain crowd? Is this just a virtue signal that doesn’t have any real substance? Or does this offer something that will draw a range of engagement, inviting the possibility for actual conversation where we’re doing more than just hearing our own voice but actually listening to and engaging with another?

By “shareable” I want to keep in mind if this is the kind of content that people will want to share with their networks. It’s one thing to watch and engage but when people start sharing your content it reaches new audiences and comes from the recommendation from an actual person rather than just the unseen algorithm.

But more even more than these three questions, is it authentic? Does this content feel like me? Is it true to my voice and my experience? The best production value will feel empty without authenticity. But an authentic video with mediocre production value can still be engaging.

But even when you can clearly say “yes” to all of these questions, there is no guarantee that a video will go viral. It’s easy to become trapped in 300 view purgatory forever! While quality matters, quantity is most important. If this were baseball it wouldn’t be about how well you do with any one swing but how many times you step up to the plate to even have a chance.

It’s the story of an art teacher who divided her class and gave each a different assignment. The first half would be graded one quality: make one, incredible work of art. The second half would be graded on quality: make as many pieces of art as you can; the more you make the better your grade.

Can you guess which half produced the best creation?

The more you make, the more you learn. It’s less about a single product and more about the process of making anything. Learning to try and fail and try again will lead to insights and ideas that aren’t possible when you’re fixated on making one perfect thing.

All this to say, make lots of videos. And lots more. Evaluate after every hundred and learn from the process and the results. Notice what you notice, pay attention to the “simple” videos that “take off” and the meticulously thought through projects that end up with crickets.

You sit back and wait for Good Morning America to call, right?

(I’m still waiting over here…)

It’s worth pausing, both to celebrate the dopamine that comes with numbers this high as well as to reflect on what exactly made this content stand out in a different way.

But beyond that, I think there are two essential things to do:

First, engage! Respond to comments, participate in the conversations that your content sparked, be a real human engaging with other real humans. This is not about how many people see you and what you made but it is an opportunity to engage with people that you have never reached before.

I often find that responding to the comments can be even more meaningful than the original content itself. It allows me to model how to respond (especially if the comment is antagonizing) and offers the possibility to explore deeper nuances that the didn’t make it into the 9 seconds of the video.

Second, keep posting. One “viral” video is not the finish line but just another step along the way, a moment to pause at the unexpected view but the trail continues, waiting for you to continue on and on and on.

It’s not about a one-hit-wonder but filling the shelf with things that reflect who you are and how you see the world.

Maybe. But “going viral” should never be the goal. Yes, you should aspire to make the best possible video (or whatever it is you are making) but “best” is such a subjective label. The “best” content can hit many different targets. Ultimately if your content is authentic and has a clear and compelling “why” driving it, then it’s worth posting.

Rather than hoping that each new thing outperforms the last, focus on putting in the reps to build the muscle over time. Step up to the plate as often as you can and learn to swing better and better and better. (And sometimes ten solid doubles will bring in more runs than one epic home run!)

So can you do it again? Perhaps.

Are we just throwing darts while wearing a blindfold? Probably.

But the goal is always to be who you are and where you are, creating something that is true to you and what you can uniquely bring to life.

This video took off for me on Instagram.But I posted it on YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook as well. Facebook has a whopping 1,200 views (which isn’t nothing!), YouTube has 2,300 views (which isn’t too far from my normal reach there), and TikTok has cleared 110,000 (much higher than usual but nowhere near what Instagram pulled of for the same video).

All this to say, the same video will reach different people on different platforms. I’m not saying you need to be everywhere on the internet and have an account on every social media platform that exists, but with a little extra effort you can increase the possibility of reaching thousands (millions) more people. Because ultimately it’s not about the number of views. It’s about people connecting with people, the humanity that undergirds the internet, the invisible lines of connection we discover along the way.