Kevin Alloca, the trend manager of YouTube, has observed reasons behind the peculiar nature of viral videos. He has found three key trends he has found among certain videos that go viral that are not present in those that fall flat. The three are: tastemakers, communities of participation, and unexpectedness.
The first, "tastemakers," suggests that a person of influence or someone with a large following mentions the video at some point. For example, when Jimmy Kimmel mentioned the now famous "Double Rainbow" video in a tweet, the video's views increased dramatically, and Kimmel later featured the star on his talk show.
The second trend seen among viral videos takes a more community approach. Once the original video gains a following, the viewers often create spin-offs of the video, which creates somewhat of an "inside joke" between previously unrelated viewers. The Nyan Cat, which was spun-off to reflect several different cultures and moods, and Rebecca Black's "Friday" music video, which was reiterated in several response videos when viewers created songs for every other day of the week, are two examples Alloca explains in his TED Talk.
Unexpectedness, the third trend, is perhaps the
sole reason we found the video interesting to begin with. If not for an element of surprise, why would Jimmy Kimmel want to tweet about it? Why would we create our own iteration of a video displaying someone drinking a glass of water with their caesar salad? The surprise makes us want to share, and that is where it begins.
written by Andrea Solomon
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