We’re continuing our discussion on the value of incorporating YouTube into political campaigns. Today we’re looking at the elusive “it” quality that all YouTube users covet when they upload new videos: the irresistible essence of viral videos. Here is an interesting article from Kevin Wallsten in Politics Magazine on a YouTube video from the 2008 election that elevated the “going viral” concept for campaigners into the stratosphere:

The “Yes We Can” music video was the most popular online political video of the 2008 election season. This “supporter-generated” video, which included cameo appearances by celebrities such as Herbie Hancock, Scarlett Johansson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, featured black-and-white clips of Barack Obama’s concession speech following the New Hampshire primary set to music written by hip-hop artist will.i.am. Initially posted on YouTube on February 2, 2008, “Yes We Can” quickly spread across the Internet and, by the time Obama secured the nomination, the video had been viewed over 20 million times.

It is easy to assume that the video’s popularity was preordained by its combination of celebrity cameos, emotive imagery and a memorable refrain. A careful analysis of the dynamic relationship between online viewership, mainstream media coverage, blog discussion and campaign statements about the video, however, reveals that the video’s success was driven, in large measure, by the active support of the Obama campaign and by the eager enthusiasm of bloggers.

While “Yes We Can” was undoubtedly unique, it is possible to distill two general lessons about “going viral” from analyzing it.

Campaigns should follow their presence on YouTube closely and act quickly if their supporters upload content. When campaigns send emails and post messages on their official blogs about a supporter-generated video, Internet users, bloggers and journalists are likely to take this as a cue that the video is something worth paying attention to. Politicians seeking to make a big splash online, therefore, can do much more than keep their fingers crossed and hope that their rhetoric will inspire will.i.am et al to record a song in support of their candidacy. They can serve as effective midwives for viral videos by promoting them with their existing online tools.

Online political video makers should cater to the interests of bloggers. If you want to attract a large audience in both the online and offline political worlds, look to bloggers. Journalists, who use blog discussion as a heuristic for determining which events deserve coverage, are likely to report on videos receiving widespread attention in the blogosphere, and the links provided in blog posts can drive up viewership statistics by making it easy for interested readers to locate and watch a video online. Put simply, without the support of bloggers, online political videos are more likely to die in obscurity than to go viral.

To recap the two concepts in the article above, plus a few other necessary pieces, here are Five Ways to “Go Viral” on YouTube:

1. Follow your presence on YouTube closes and act quickly if supporters upload content. As Kevin Wallsten illustrates, the Obama campaign did a great job promoting supporter-generated content.
2. Produce or promote compelling content. Whether your campaign produces videos, promotes supporter-generated videos, or both, the content of the videos has to be compelling. What is compelling on YouTube? Authenticity (unscripted, raw, real). Relevance (pertaining to today’s issues, today’s culture). Pull (something that grabs the views attention within the first 10 seconds). Videos no longer than five minutes (for the most part). Humor. Humor. And humor.
3. Activate influential networks online. Wallsten also discusses this in the point on catering to the interests of bloggers, but I would take this a step further: reach out to bloggers plus other efficacious web surfers — your email list, Facebook users (especially people linked to your campaign through a Facebook page or group), the Twittersphere, even the local media. When local television reports on your clever little YouTube video, then viewership really takes off!
4. Don’t neglect the technical features that make videos findable, embeddable, and resendable. Tag videos with the proper keywords. Ask yourself what would you “google” to find this video; then ensure these tags are used. Allow comments. Promote them even. Create a YouTube channel, a central hub for all campaign videos.
5. Ask. This is a simple one, but people rarely do it. Simply ask your supporters to tell their friends about your YouTube video. Then give them the tools to do it. If you’re using Twitter to promote the video, create a “retweet link” to make it as simple as possible. (Tweet Smarter has a great tool for this.) If you post the video to Facebook, MySpace, or anywhere else, include a note asking people to pass the video along to others.

If you have any other tips for going viral on YouTube, please share! Tomorrow we’ll wrap-up “YouTube Week” with a look at YouTube’s reporting and analytics tool.

Tags: Campaign Tips, eCampaigning, online campaign video, online video, YouTube

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Campaign Tips, eCampaigning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.