Wednesday 9 April 2014

Viral Media

There is a lot of information out there on what it means for something to go viral on the internet.

I take it to mean that some sort of content that has gained over 100,000 views.

There doesn't seem to be any reason for what will make something go viral. It can be good or bad. Rebecca Black became infamous for her 'terrible' music video Friday. I presume that something similar was happening with 'Gangnam Style' but its popularity took over and meant people enjoyed the dance rather than making fun of something silly.

Usually something goes viral by accident, it will be shared between friends and from there will just keep on going. If something becomes big enough like Gangnam Style did then it can make it to international news where it gains exposure and will then garner even more views.

There are companies out there that profess to know how to make something go viral, but usually these will have money behind them so that they can sponsor posts on Twitter and Facebook and make it more likely to go viral.

It doesn't always work though. If a site produces good content then it may go viral, but as everything cannot go viral then the one good piece could be stuck between rather rubbish pieces. Because of these rubbish pieces people turn away. The bigger the company the more content and the more likely this can happen. This is why companies go for advertising campaigns where it will be a more drawn out process. As this can more or less guarantee that the piece will be seen. This obviously costs a lot more money, but is more likely to provide a return.

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