The not-so-secret secret to Making Content "Go Viral"

I get several questions when people learn that my profession is in social media. Lately, a new one that I've been getting is "How do I make my content "go viral"? This question is funny enough to me, but is even more humorous when it comes from companies in the Oil & Gas industry pushing dull, B2B material. What these companies don't get is that the secret to making content go viral is really quite simple, you have to create content that your customers want to share. It's easier said than done, and it requires a big change from pushing material that you want your customers to see to making content that they want to see. There's some overlap to allow you to push a little bit of your own agenda, but it means you have to see your content from an outside perspective. If you get bored just writing your content and you find yourself repeating the same posts over and over again, what makes you think that your consumers will get excited about the material? Spoiler alert: they won't share this content. As egotistic beings, we have a tendency to think that everything we create is God's gift to earth, so if you can't see your content as a customer would then get someone, the new summer intern, your spouse, anyone to look at your content to see which type of post appeals to them the most.

Up until a few days ago, this was all the advice I had to get content to go viral. I could say how to do this, but in the back of my mind I didn't see how it was possible for a business to create content that anyone would want to share on their Facebook wall over that hilariously, adorable cat video. The competition was just too steep for someone to actually perpetuate some company's carefully crafted message to the masses. Or so I thought. A couple of days ago, a modest company, MyNextGig did the impossible. They created a video that went so viral that it showed up not in a Mashable article boasting the campaign's success, or even from one of my advertising oriented Facebook friends, but shared from one of my absolutely ordinary friends. So viral, even you may have heard about it: the boyfriend in his Batman underwear interrupts his type-A girlfriend as she records her "video resume". MyNextGig pushes its agenda so subtly that it's possible you watched this video and didn't even notice it wasn't just another funny video, but a commercial. And if you want to replicate this video's success you have to mimic how they created this video.

• Don't be afraid to make a fool of yourself. One thing all of these "viral" videos have in common is that someone does something outrageous. Whether it's embarrassing, unexpectedly amazing, or just a plain 'ol classic video of someone getting hurt, or totally surprising.
• Make the video relevant to the message you're trying to push, but not overbearing. MyNextGig managed to stay on topic with the entire video being about creating a video resume without boring its viewers with a sales pitch.
• Be sure that your customers remember who created the video. One of the worst case scenarios (besides no one wanting to watch your video) is that they remember the video, but not who created it. This is what makers of Super Bowl ads fear: that they wasted all of that money for an ad that people remember, but not what the ad was for. Be sure that your logo is branded at the bottom of the screen, you post your info at the end of the video and you find little ways throughout the video to slip in your name.

Now that I've talked it to death, I'll post the video. See if you think you can replicate this kind of video and if it has as much merit as I think it does.