About Viral

An Introduction to Viralism

What makes a video popular?  This daunting question is as hard to pinpoint as the line between good and evil due to the amount of variables.  The reason for this is that popularity is a social phenomena and remarkably difficult to rank with mathematics.  Fortunately for generations to come, YouTube views and “traffic” make popularity slightly more manageable and has even spawned an evolution for the meaning of the word “viral”.

Before things “went viral” people used phrases like “word of mouth” and “social epidemic” to describe the spread of various trends, commercials or videos.  If you used the word viral to describe something to someone born before 1960 they would probably think you’re referring to the plague.  The concept of web 2.0 and its implications on sharing have since evolved our notion of what is popular for the subsequent generations.

Considering this evolution in language is a social change, a movement if you will, it seems perfectly natural that a new way of understanding and tracking this phenomena is inevitable.  Hence, the introduction to the concept of viralism.

Viralism is the theory, study or doctrine as to why certain things, messages, ideas or lifestyles are popular and spread through society’s social networks in the given manner.

The popularity of anything is made up of elements that coincide with an audience’s social understanding of what is cool, funny or interesting.  These elements vary with every individual that they encounter and the greater the degree an audience can associate positively with these elements the more mainstream and popular the source will be.

Sounds like common knowledge and it is pretty simple, with the added tracking features the web has to offer the mathematics can be reduced to a simple popularity equation.

Popular Elements + Audience = X # of views/visits

For example.

    Dance Compellation               +              YouTube             =             112 million YouTube views
    & Trendy Music
  
Take a second to scan the different categories on this blog and you will notice the trends successful videos use in order to “go viral”.  Keep in mind the phenomenon of popularity is produced socially and will always be subject to new and interesting elements.  

Advertisers and marketers have used these same key elements to sell products and lifestyles for years however, cataloging the evidence has traditionally been difficult.  The concept of viralism has been enabled through the web and has brought these “popularity elements” into the public’s reach.  So enjoy and listen to FedEx because if they didn’t know about viralism they definitely knew the elements.        

To see a list of “popularity elements” and examples continue to the post “The Evolving Elements of Popularity”.  The list can by no means be decided by any one person so feel free to suggest examples and comment. 

Cheers!