Gone Viral

[hjoseph7]

<p>Maybe I'm behind the times but what exactly does Gone Viral mean. The word Viral has been rolling off peoples tongue like there's no tomorrow. I have and idea of what it means, that somebody posted a video that is very popular for one reason or another, but what I don't understand is how that video went "Viral" in the first place ?<br>

Where exactly are these Viral videos posted ? Is there some type of Viral website. Who keeps track of these videos and decides whether they are Viral or not. Is there some type of organization that labels a video Viral ? How does the word get out that a video is Viral ?</p>

[willis]

<p>Going viral is like lemmings going over the cliff.<br>

Post something and the lemmings go crazy.<br>

Looks good but does it make any sense.</p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>Someone posts a video somewhere; a few people like it and decide to share it by way of email or social sites, followed by its recipients spreading it again, and so on. This is basically how something gets popular. </p>

<p>Whether a popular video is viral is dependent on its awesomeness. The more awesome a video is as described by majority of viewers, the higher the probability of it becoming described as viral. </p>

<p>A glaring example is Gangnam Style on YouTube which now has over 2 billion views. </p>

[Spearhead]

<p>Ignoring the snide remark in the first response...</p>

<p>Lots of stuff is interesting, funny, meaningful, etc. and gets picked up through social media. Facebook and Twitter are the most likely places for content to go viral, and YouTube is also pretty common. It just means that a lot of people "like" or "share" or "download" the same thing, that's all. If you distill it down, it means that it becomes popular without an ad or press campaign behind it. That's it. Nothing to do with lemmings or anything else that sounds old and grumpy.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>The key concept here is that it's social media or similar venue behavior that's analogous to an actual virus. Here amongst us animals, a single virus-carrying member or the herd or pack can infect a couple of others, who in turn each infect a few others, and thus the virus goes - often very quickly - far and wide through a group or culture.<br /><br />Some information, or concepts, or forwarded bits of text, or posted videos are seen ... and then the person who likes it can usually think of a couple more people who would also like it, so it gets passed along and forwarded into a wider and wider group, just like a familiar virus. Something with enough interest "goes viral" when people who encounter it pass it along to a quickly growing downstream group who do the same. It's a helpful analogy because, as Jeff says, it <em>just happens</em>. The trick, if you're looking for exposure or marketing leverage, is to study what sorts of things do and don't catch fire that way, and to produce material that pushes those same buttons, and causes others to do your marketing for you.<br /><br />So, the word doesn't get out that something is viral - it's viral by way of the material/concept/image/video getting passed along. You can tell that it's one of those more substantial viral results when - usually a couple or three days later - you see the content-hungry major media outlets showcasing the (video, usually) in a segment on their own web sites or morning gabfest shows. When it's on CNN's Daily Distraction feed, it's a pretty good bet it's already made serious rounds in a more organic fashion.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Grumpy old men can go viral too.</p>

<p>Clint Eastwood's grumpy old man character, Walt Kowalski, from <em>Gran Torino</em> made <a href="

off my lawn"</a> the rallying cry of curmudgeons everywhere.</p>

<p>That's a meme. Memes are infectious currency in pop culture. When enough people collect, duplicate and spend those units of memetic infectious currency, it's like a virus epidemic. It goes viral.</p>

<p>That's what happened when Clint Eastwood mistook the political stage for the theater stage and became Walt Kowalski talking to a chair at the 2012 Republican National Convention, spawning thousands of parodies of a curmudgeon fussing at an invisible man in an empty chair.</p>

<p>When that meme went viral it infected millions of grumpy old men everywhere who took to the internet to yell at everyone "I have no idea what 'Gone Viral' means. Get off my lawn."</p>

<p>/lawn<br /> /offit</p>

[aplumpton]

<p>I like the Oxford dictionary definition:</p>

<p>"(Of an image, video, piece of information, etc.) circulated rapidly and widely from one Internet user to another:<br>

<em >a viral ad campaign</em><br>

<em >the video <strong>went viral</strong> and was seen by millions"</em><br>

<em> </em><br>

Of course, viral refers originally to viruses. In that regard I find it amusing to see virus behaviours invoked for ad campaigns (often an analogy that is right on) and videos seen by millions.</p>

<em > </em>

 

[dave_s]

<p>>>Clint Eastwood's grumpy old man character, Walt Kowalski, from <em>Gran Torino</em> made "Get off my lawn" the rallying cry of curmudgeons everywhere.</p>

<p>It was a little forced, and it looked as though the scriptwriters had inserted that line with the express aim of creating a cultural meme, along the lines of <a href="

one from an earlier era</a>. One thing about the 'viral' spread of popular culture is that it works best when it's spontaneous, although I'm sure we're duped from time to time by ad agencies and politicians. </p>

<p><em>Gran Torino</em> was full of things that didn't ring true, but that's a subject for when we have the Off Topic forum back. It was OK as a morality play, but IMHO greatly overrated.</p>

[dan_south]

<p>Something has "gone viral" when it becomes well known or widely seen/experienced in a short amount of time, particularly when publicized primarily by word of mouth or social networking.</p>

<p>The term is often applied to videos which, when posted online, receive a large number of views (a.k.a. "hits") very quickly.</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>True, Dave. Most movie catch phrases and bon mots spouted by action heroes are lame. The writers probably pitch Oscar Wilde and Dorothy Parker witticisms - or at least Yogi Berra humor - but after the accountants, lawyers and investors finish the rewrites they get large lumpy meat puppets thumping their chests, waving guns and belching phrases constructed from <em>Mad Libs For Action Movie Heroes</em>.</p>

[mendel_leisk]

<p>Gore Vidal. Yeah, I read most of his books, a few years back..., oh, sorry ;)</p>

<p>I recall a few years back someone here posted about wanting to create a "viral video". I suppose that's actually a common wish, but publicly expressing that desire is surely going to squash it: "viral" is, almost by definition, unintentional.</p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>Viruses can spread fast. So can photos. That's the whole story.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>