What makes something viral?

Something I've been thinking about a lot lately is what makes something viral. Not necessarily from a viral video or marketing campaign perspective - but the larger question of: where do memes come from? I was sitting around the airport a little while ago and jotted down some random notes:

What makes something viral?

• Content
• Liquidity

Content

Why do I share things?

To build social capital

• My friends will like me more, pay attention to me, respect me more

What builds social capital?

• Making things that meet people's needs

What do people want?

• To be entertained
• To discover something that blows their mind
• To discover something that validates a strongly held belief
• To be part of something others consider important
• To laugh
• To make a difference (or to be seen as making a difference)

When you make something viral:

• You are not speaking to a customer, you are speaking to a person.

So, you have to ask, what do people care about?

• It’s not about your message, it’s about the message.

Example: Evian dancing babies...often viral content that is associated with a company is only tied in the loosest, subtlest or most metaphorical way.

With this in mind, ask yourself:

• How does what you do bring something good into society at large?

• How does what you do bring something good to a person’s experience of life as a whole?

• What do you believe in that’s not part of the organization’s success?

Liquidity

What makes something liquid?


It’s easy to find

• I can Google it and it comes up right away

• It’s unique to itself

• If I look for it, I know that I can find only it.

It’s easy to share

• I can send it
• I can save it
• I can post it

It’s easy to show off

• It can be a badge
• It can be added to my profile
• It can be carried across various media

So these were my random thoughts...not sure how they stack up against the experts (Seth Godin or Dan Ackerman). What do you think? Are there other factors to take in account, when considering whether something goes viral or not?