{"id":15653,"date":"2023-05-16T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.powtoon.com\/blog\/?p=15653"},"modified":"2025-12-17T16:56:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T14:56:44","slug":"what-makes-a-video-viral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.powtoon.com\/blog\/what-makes-a-video-viral\/","title":{"rendered":"What Makes A Video Viral?"},"content":{"rendered":"Read Time: <\/span> 5<\/span> minutes <\/span><\/span>\n

There is no shortage of video content on the internet. Statistics indicate that on YouTube alone, users upload 500 hours of video content<\/a> every minute<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Video content should play a critical role in your approach to marketing<\/a>. However, because there’s plenty of competition, it’s important to identify what makes a video stand out among an increasingly large crowd. You need to ask yourself, “What makes a video viral?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This overview will help. Factors that may result in a video going viral include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making an Emotional Connection With an Audience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are many reasons video marketing is an effective way to reach an audience and spread the word about your brand. One of the most significant is the fact that, when video content is strong, it has the potential to yield an emotional reaction in a viewer. The combination of images, music, and other such elements results in an emotional reaction much stronger than the one a mere blog post might generate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s important to keep in mind if your goal is to create and release a viral video. A viewer is simply more likely to share a video with friends and family if the video inspires strong emotion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just remember, the emotions your content triggers should be brand-appropriate. For example, if you’re using a video maker<\/a> to generate video content for a nonprofit, your goal may be to trigger emotions like optimism. On the other hand, if you’re trying to let customers know about new snack food, a video that makes your audience laugh might be more effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keeping it Simple<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When considering what makes a video viral, it’s wise to reflect on past examples. By doing so, you may find that many of the most surprisingly successful viral videos share a common quality: their concepts or messages are clear and easy to grasp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is tied to the abundance of content available online. When finding entertaining or informative content only takes a few seconds, it’s easy to get distracted. Thus, a video that requires a viewer to focus on it for an extended length of time is unlikely to go viral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This highlights an important point about generating video content for social media. Experts recommend that social media videos should not be longer than one minute<\/a> if the goal is for a video to go viral. While there are exceptions, generally, this is a good rule of thumb to adhere to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprising an Audience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What makes a video viral? Often, the answer is “novelty.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a sea of content, even an otherwise strong video could nevertheless fail to make an impression on viewers if it reminds them of numerous other videos they’ve already seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the core principles of content marketing is providing value to your audience. However, it’s also becoming increasingly important to surprise your audience in some way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How you go about doing so can vary depending on your brand, the focus of your video, and other such factors. The following are a few ideas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n