These days everyone from marketers to designers, bloggers and video producers dream of “going viral.” Everyone wants to be the next Charlie Bit My Finger or Old Spice guy. But striking it viral can be difficult. There’s no exact recipe or formula and going viral requires luck (and frequently money as well), but ProBlogger has done a little research and asserts that, even if you can’t guarantee virality, understanding the key components of what makes content go viral can help you ensure that your great content gets “the attention it deserves.”
The ProBlogger research has been compiled into an awesome infographic called Understanding Viral Content Marketing. The infographic covers everything from Metcalfe’s Law of viral marketing to the types and anatomy of viral content, the reasons we share, design, execution and more.
There is tons of great food for thought in the infographic, but I think the biggest takeaway is the idea that “Viral content relies on two things. The content itself is worthy of being shared [and] the content is shared widely enough to reap the benefits of the networks they are shared on.” If your content is not worthy of being shared then your odds of going viral are slim to none. First things first, you need to put a lot of thought into coming up with content that is worth sharing. Then you can start thinking about everything else.
Source: http://socialtimes.com/infographic-reveals-how-content-goes-viral_b86062
I have to disagree with the first paragraph. Anything on the web can go viral. The word viral isn’t exactly what you’re looking for. It’s ‘popular’. Anything on the web that gets seen by someone else on the web can be considered ‘viral’. There is a formula for getting items to be popular, that’s not spamming, nor does it require money. While I do agree with the chart, it’s describing only part of the aspects needed to launch a post into popularity. You’re forgetting the behind the scenes areas that can make or break all efforts to make the post popular, and one of the backbones of what makes marketing successful
The concept of something going viral is that gets circulated very quickly because people think it’s worth sharing and pass it on. I feel this is different from something being popular, which just means that it is liked.