How To Make Viral Videos
Last week I posted a behind-the-scenes video on TikTok that shows legendary skateboard photographer Matt Price using a stick from a tree to capture an action shot of pro skater Louie Lopez. Matt placed the camera inside of an empty trash can to capture Louie doing a trick over it.
In less than 24 hours, this TikTok had over 1.1 million views and because it went viral it caught the attention of Barstool Sports (25 million TikTok followers) and ESPN Sports Center (32 million IG followers) who asked for permission to repost the original clip. As of today, the original TikTok I posted on @shusterman1 has over 2.1 million views, half a million likes and has been reposted hundreds of times on both TikTok and Instagram.
It’s hard to predict when a video is going to go viral, but one thing I can say about this particular TikTok that made it appealing to so many people outside of just the skateboarding community is that it tells a compelling story with minimal explanation required. Additionally, the clip is less than 20 seconds long, contains three short lines of in-video captions and a short post description (“I still can’t believe how well this worked out!”) that hooks the viewer into wanting to see how the photo being shot turns out.
Throughout my years of helping brands create content I have found that it’s important to have a beginning, middle and end or resolution to every story you’re telling. This sounds easy enough, but it’s actually very challenging to tell a cohesive and engaging story in a short amount of time, which is why I suggest planning out potential stories in advance, especially when the environment you’ll be shooting the content at is unpredictable, like a skateboarding photo shoot.
What’s engaging about my TikTok is that a professional photographer used a stick to capture a complex skateboarding photo, which turned out so well it ended up becoming the cover of a major skateboarding publication. During the photoshoot I knew I wanted to create some behind-the-scenes content, so when I saw the photographer experimenting with the stick, I knew the moment was not only comical, but also fascinating and potentially inspiring. So, while he was setting up his shot I asked him to explain what he was doing. It’s often difficult to think about the storytelling aspect of content when you’re in the moment, but if you create a rough plan before you go capture content it will help you maximize your shoot and create more engaging content. Remember, people love seeing other people overcome challenges.
Another thing people really love is getting an insider view or going behind-the-scenes. I always loved watching the popular Food Network show, “Unwrapped,” which showed viewers how popular candy and snacks were made and people ate it up (no pun intended)! Giving viewers a glimpse into ‘the process’ is intriguing, which compels the majority of them to want to see the video to the very end. Having the majority of your viewers watch your video from beginning to end is challenging, but the “watch rate” or the average percentage a video is watched by users is a crucial metric in determining whether or not an algorithm shares your video with 10 people or 10 million people. The importance of watch time is one reason I prefer making video content (especially TikToks) that are under 30 seconds in length because if for example I had made my TikTok 3 minutes long the watch rate would have been much lower and I might not be writing this blog today.
*NOTE: Below is a video of my TikTok reposted on Barstool Sport’s TikTok account.
