A helpful guide to create and promote your very own viral video.

1. HOW TO CREATE & PROMOTE
A VIRAL VIDEO

2. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT
 The first step in creating a viral video is determining the
goals of the campaign.
 Each goal should be directly linked to the individual needs
of the company.
 These goals should be specific, measurable, attainable,
relevant and time-bound.
 Keep in mind your budget when deciding on these goals, a
bigger budget means covering more goals!

3. CALL TO ACTION!
What is the desired outcome of the campaign?
What action do you want people to take after they see the video?
Sign up for something Increase brand awareness
Associate your brand with an emotion
Drive traffic to your website
Increase sales
Promote a product or service Showcase a skill

4. WHO ARE YOU AFTER?
 Age
 Gender
 Race
 Geological Region
 Education
 Marital Status
 Religious Affiliation
 Businesses or Consumers

5. CREATE & PRODUCE YOUR
ONE OF A KIND VIDEO!
 Do you want the video to be entertaining, informative, shocking, amazing …
 Pick a genre that fits with your target audience and corporate goals.
 Evoke an emotional response or cause controversy.
 Details matter so choose the location, props, characters and costumes needed
to pull off your viral video.
 Decide how to best utilize your budget to achieve your goals.

6. DEVELOP YOUR ONLINE SEEDING STRATEGY.
Seeding is the process of placing a video in front of the proper audience and influencers who
will watch and pass along the video.
It is one of the most important aspects of creating a viral video targeted to a
large audience.
An effective seeding campaign will:
 Plant a large number of seeds to increase circulation.
 Place video and links where they are most likely to spread via tags, bookmarks and word of mouth.
 Plant positive seeds aimed directly at your target market.
 Use multiple networks to host your video to increase exposure.
 Eventually feed off of organic seeding – the natural process of others promoting your video!

7. HOW TO SEED YOUR VIRAL VIDEO.
Some common forms of seeding a viral video include:
 Upload your video to YouTube and other video share sites.
 Use social bookmarking websites to tag your video and other related
materials.
 Comment on a blogs and podcasts about your video where relevant (but
don’t spam).
 Join social networking sites such as Facebook & Twitter to expand your
reach.
 Reach out to blogs and other sites to promote your video.
 Join communities on social networking sites to gain attention.

8. EXECUTE THE PLAN
Now that the viral video is up and running, it’s time to make sure
everything is going as planned.
 Is the viral video moving towards the set goals in the planned
time frame?
 Is the viral video close to the predetermined budget?
 Is the video causing the desired outcomes and consumer reaction
you were hoping for?
 Is the target market being reached effectively?
 Is the seeding campaign driving enough traffic to the viral video?

9. PROBLEM SOLVING
If the answer to all of these questions is yes, your viral
video could be on its way to success!
If not, it may be time to go back and see which factors
are holding the video back from accomplishing the goals.
A good starting point to do this is making sure your goals were
specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

10. TRACK AND REPORT RESULTS
Tracking your results is an important step in understanding
how well you have achieved your goals.
Receiving accurate information in a timely manner will allow
you to make adjustments to optimize your return.
The results you collect can then be used to
determine how successful your viral video was!

11. HOW TO TRACK YOUR RESULTS.
Some ways to track how well your video is doing are:
 Monitor the number of views on social video sharing sites.
 Use http://blogsearch.google.com to see who is blogging
about your viral video.
 Keep track of how many people access your website from
links provided with the video.
 Access YouTube’s detailed backend analytics.