How to make a viral video...
Here’s the short answer. You can’t. Individuals don’t create viral videos. Individuals create videos. It’s the audience that gets the video noticed and lifts it to “viral” status. Very few creative projects get noticed without the artist having some sort of previously established platform. In the days of old, aka pre-Internet, it was the artist or brand with the most fans that was most visible. The bigger the audience, the further the reach and the bigger the impact.
In today’s world, things are very different. In a time when the Internet drives everything, the size of the audience doesn’t really matter as much anymore. What matters is level of engagement that leads to share-ability.
Gone are the days where the content with the biggest marketing budget is the automatic winner. Now, people don’t care what big business is pushing to them on the Internet. In fact, they’re kind of annoyed by it. They’re much more interested in what their friends are sharing. Why? Because we trust our friends more than we trust The Man. In the connection economy everybody has a voice, and people are much more likely to listen to their friends than some big, impersonal brand. In the connection economy, the power is in the share. One hundred friends who share everything you post is a lot more powerful than a hundred thousand “fans” that only engage with thirty percent of your content and then move on to watch another Grumpy Cat video their cousin shared with them.
What does the connection economy mean for artists? It means that it’s no longer enough to just be a creator of great content, now we must also build relationships with our audience by building trust. In short, we have to be human. The minute you stop feeling like a friend and start feeling like a corporation, your audience won’t even view your content, much less share it. If you can stay personal and vulnerable with your audience though, this will intensify the emotional connection to your personal brand. From this point, the shares will ignite and you can sit and watch as engagement with your content increases exponentially.
The formula for successful creative content is no longer funneled from the top down by those who have the biggest bank account. It is now spread from the inside out, like a spider web, from those who dare to make human connections. It doesn’t matter if you’re a stay at home mom with a crafts blog or you’re freakin’ Macy’s, we all have the tools to be authentic and personal.
In the connection economy, cultivating personal relationships and trust with your audience is what unleashes the power of the share. Today, great content is not visible unless it’s shareable.
In today’s world, things are very different. In a time when the Internet drives everything, the size of the audience doesn’t really matter as much anymore. What matters is level of engagement that leads to share-ability.
Gone are the days where the content with the biggest marketing budget is the automatic winner. Now, people don’t care what big business is pushing to them on the Internet. In fact, they’re kind of annoyed by it. They’re much more interested in what their friends are sharing. Why? Because we trust our friends more than we trust The Man. In the connection economy everybody has a voice, and people are much more likely to listen to their friends than some big, impersonal brand. In the connection economy, the power is in the share. One hundred friends who share everything you post is a lot more powerful than a hundred thousand “fans” that only engage with thirty percent of your content and then move on to watch another Grumpy Cat video their cousin shared with them.
What does the connection economy mean for artists? It means that it’s no longer enough to just be a creator of great content, now we must also build relationships with our audience by building trust. In short, we have to be human. The minute you stop feeling like a friend and start feeling like a corporation, your audience won’t even view your content, much less share it. If you can stay personal and vulnerable with your audience though, this will intensify the emotional connection to your personal brand. From this point, the shares will ignite and you can sit and watch as engagement with your content increases exponentially.
The formula for successful creative content is no longer funneled from the top down by those who have the biggest bank account. It is now spread from the inside out, like a spider web, from those who dare to make human connections. It doesn’t matter if you’re a stay at home mom with a crafts blog or you’re freakin’ Macy’s, we all have the tools to be authentic and personal.
In the connection economy, cultivating personal relationships and trust with your audience is what unleashes the power of the share. Today, great content is not visible unless it’s shareable.
