What Makes Content Go Viral?

I saw a forum thread the other day, in which a new marketer wanted to know what viral content was, and how to make something go viral.

The first half of the question is easy: Viral content is content that gets shared a LOT.

But what makes content go viral? There were a lot of answers, none of which really added that much clarity.

“You’ve got to have the “WOW!” factor.”

“It’s got to evoke a lot of EMOTION.”

“It’s got to be something that people feel good about sharing.”

And so forth.

My favorite answer by far, went something like this:

“A video of the family at Thanksgiving dinner will not go viral. But a video of that same family at Thanksgiving dinner, in which Aunt Abby’s chihuahua Chuck jumps up on the table and humps the turkey, will go viral.”

It’s a shame we can’t simply add humping chihuahuas to our content.

We can monitor what does go viral, and try to dissect why it went viral, looking for the ‘magic’ formula.

If you find one, please let me know.

In the meantime, I suggest putting as much passion and love into your content as possible, and then seeing what happens.

And if you can occasionally throw in a figurative humping chihuahua (not a real one) so much the better.