An unconventional wedding video, featuring the wedding party dancing down the aisle to a popular hip hop song (Chris Brown’s “Forever”) has been getting a lot of attention on the Internet and in traditional media lately. The video itself shows the entire bridal party of the Minnesota couple’s wedding doing a choreographed routine down the aisle. The video lasts for over five minutes and is riveting from start to finish.
The Minnesota couple, Jill and Kevin Heinz, first published the video on YouTube on July 19, 2009. By the time I saw it on July 23 (a friend of mine sent it to me on Facebook), it was up to 300,000 views. Within days, it passed one million views and the couple (and their dancing friends) were featured on the Today show to talk about their famous processional dance and the explosion of the video’s popularity around the world.
As of the time of this writing, the video has racked up over 14.6 million views.
There is a specific reason that some videos on YouTube go viral – meaning that they gain widespread popularity through Internet sharing, usually through email, blogs and other media sharing websites.
That reason is JOY.
In videos – as well as in real life – People relate to other people when they are at their best – whether they’re excelling at a sport, graduating from college, snuggling a brand new baby, or dancing down the aisle on their wedding day. When someone witnesses moments of true joy seen on video, they want to spread the joy by passing the video around. Viral videos become popular simply because they are being passed around, just like a cold or flu germ, except that the passing is done via email, Facebook, blogs or Twitter. The Minnesota “Forever” wedding video is a classic example. People take this path – see joy, revel in that joy, and pass it on. Beautiful.
The lesson bloggers can take from the huge popularity of these videos is this – You will attract more bees with honey than with vinegar. When you’re writing blog posts, write about what you love, rather than what you hate. Write about someone or something that thrills you, excites you, makes you light up. If you’re passionate about something, and if you’re writing about something that’s unique (or you’re writing about it in a unique way) it will resonate with people. With any luck, people will start to pass it around and link to it, which will lead to more traffic, more loyal readers and subscribers, and a bigger potential audience.
More great examples of joyful, passionate writing and film in social media (in blogs and viral videos):
- Charter of Compassion
- Gluten Free Girl
- Fabulous video of a wonderful whole-crowd dance in the Antwerp, Belgium
- Tim Ferriss' Lifestyle Design Blog
Do you have favorite videos or blogs that come from a place of joy? I'd love to hear about them!
Wow! Your observation about joy being the common denominator in viral videos is genius! And it’s encouraging that the human race uses technology to spread happiness and humor.
You are so right about joy being what makes a video go everywhere. (I wish there were a better word than “viral,”–joy is catching but it’s not a disease.) ;-D Thanks for your insight, Beth.
Hadn’t made the ‘joy’ connection but I think you’re right. My favorite viral videos are Playing for Change (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM) and Susan Boyle on Britain’s You’ve Got Talent (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk)
Oh, Mandy – that Susan Boyle video was another one I was thinking about when I wrote this post! I think that’s actually the first social media explosion that made me start pondering this joy thesis.
Everyone really related to Susan Boyle and wanted her to do well, and I think that’s why the video touched so many people. Thanks for including that in this discussion.