http://landmarkinn.com/project/ad-astra-suite/ What makes online content go viral?
http://inklingsandyarns.com/2011/05/variation-on-a-theme/
While there is interesting discussion on engagement and new terminology created everyday on the ever changing front of social play – what makes virality happen remains a bit of a dark science. There are emerging agencies that can help with virality, but nothing works as well as great unadulterated content that is compelling and somewhat “sticky.”
Yes, you can crowd source to build interaction and explore viral loops – but this quick case study supports the unpredictability of it all. Last winter, Black Diamond received helmet cam raw footage of a skier in AK getting caught in an avalanche and buried while wearing an AvaLung. The skier is quickly rescued by his group – but the footage is powerful and when BD released it on their site, they saw solid traffic.
Scroll forward to two weeks ago, the same raw footage video went viral on vimeo – and the reach has been staggering. While the raw footage is longer to view, it lacks any attachment to commercialism. But why has the now dated, raw video propagated so much more extensively than the initial clean version unclear. In the last week alone we had calls from major networks news and leading talk shows. Either way this is likely the first documented case of a skier getting caught in a slide in AK and landing on the cnn.com homepage…