The Science Behind Popular News: What Makes a Story Go Viral?

A key word of the digital age, spreading through social media at internet speed, is going viral. Just what it means in actual terms is a central matter of modern media. So what is viral in the age of the internet? When some piece of content – an article or a video or a meme – spreads like an epidemic of information throughout the internet, and goes on to a huge audience, it goes viral. Going viral is not an accident; it is about knowing what makes something stick. Marketers and journalists and creators are always trying to figure out how to tell stories that people will share.

In this article, well examine the science of viral news content, unpacking exactly what makes stories go viral online, and how this can be influenced by the psychology of sharing, viral content marketing, and seven simple public health interventions spelt out in an influential strategic framework called the STEPPS marketing model. Well look at what it means for something to go viral – and how many views is viral in 2024? – defining the key concepts, then go on to dig deep into how virality exactly functions.

 

Understanding the Definition of Going Viral

Before we can understand what makes a story go viral we need to be clear about what that means for a piece of content. The working definition of going viral is simply anything that spreads very quickly from one person to many people, often via social sharing. It’s the speed and scope of that sharing that can be used to differentiate viral content from older, slower forms of media distribution. Virality describes a phenomenon that shares the primary characteristic of a virus – that it can spread very quickly through a population by becoming deeply embedded within multiple hosts. While as a marketing concept viral takes on a positive valence – success might be seen as too weak a description – it’s worth remembering that not all viral content is nice or even humanity-furthering. Controversial or negative stories can go viral just as surely as positive ones.

It depends on the platform and context, but for a post on YouTube or Instagram that’s going viral, this usually refers to millions of views in a short span of time (a few seconds or minutes), whereas for a smaller, niche platform a few hundred thousand interactions might be understood as going viral. If youre creating content, this context is important because it helps you set realistic expectations and craft a strategy based on the viewers you want to attract. Second, going viral today embeds some type of metric related to users engagement such as likes, shares or comments as evidence that they didn’t just watch the content passively; they did something with it.

The Psychology Behind Sharing: Why People Spread Content

Few things are more pivotal to having a story go viral than learning why people share content in the first place. Positive articles and posts abound about how people share things because of stories or information that are useful, interesting, original, or valuable to their friends and networks – but research suggests that the best answer might be simpler than that. Evoking an emotional response is a powerful trigger to get people to share a story, especially if that response is strong, whether it’s positive or negative. Stories that inspire a strong feeling of awe elicit increased sharing, as do angry stories, exciting stories, happy stories. It makes sense – people like to share things that make them laugh or make them cry, smile or get angry. They tend to share stories that make them feel good. But stories with negative emotional triggers also spread rapidly. It’s human nature to want to share things that make us feel something strongly, whether we like it or not. People absolutely share controversial or outraged items because they care deeply about the message, either way.

Another background psychology in play is the need to seek social approval. Sharing communicate the sort of person you are, the sort of values you hold, the sort of person you aspire to be. Things we share aren’t mere content, but content expressive of the self. So as much as people strive to project a certain kind of self, so too the impulse for self-expression drives content to go viral. And crucially, the social media, by making sharing so easy, allows any random member of the public to spread the content widely. there’s an incentive to ensure that the stories people consume are linked to their identities Finally then, those big-picture, broad-brush stories of our shared condition, of how humanity has achieved, is achieving, could achieve all this – of the very best parts of humanity – are able to find their way into our consciousness. Stories that resonate with the self, with what it’s like to be this or that type of individual, with identities, communities or values, stand better chances of going viral.

The STEPPS Marketing Framework: A Guide to Virality

One of the landmark models of viral marketing is the STEPPS marketing framework, a six-point model in Jonah Bergers book Contagious: How to Build Word of Mouth in the Digital Age. It stands for Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value and Stories. These six principles provide a blueprint for creating content that’s more likely to go viral. Social Currency is the insight that people share things that make them look good or knowledgeable to others.

this includes everyday cues, or triggers, that remind people to think of certain topics and cause these tags to be used more frequently, thereby increasing the likelihood of content being passed along. An article on coffee, for example, is more likely to be passed along early in the morning, when people are thinking about their morning cup of joe. Again, emotion is important – contents that rouse feelings, whether happiness, sadness or anger, are more likely to be passed along. For Public, the idea is simply that if the content is visible, it’s more likely to be copied and then passed along. Useful, or such contents that offer a benefit (known as Practical Value), are also likely to be passed along. Finally, Stories concern the types of content that wrap contents in such a way that the content becomes more interesting and, therefore, more memorable.

How Algorithms Influence Viral Content

A major factor in virality today has nothing to do with the inherent quality of the material being published; it is the algorithmic selection process used by viral distribution platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. The specific algorithm used by any given outlet can vary, but these selection processes tend to work along similar lines. If a post on Facebook is liked, shared or commented on by lots of people, then the site will push this content further into the feeds of users the algorithm believes would be interested. An article that grabs attention immediately, and engenders instant interaction, will thus involve a process that is closer to the algorithms own preferences, which gives it more of a chance of going viral. If you want your content to go viral, then understanding how algorithms work is key.

But on their own, these algorithms are not engineered only for engagement, as they are also informed by user behaviour, content type, and timing (for instance, some platforms algorithms favour visual content such as videos over text-heavy posts, so the chances that a video will go viral are better than that of a text-based post), as well as the time the content is posted, when more users are online, so the chances that the post will have momentum are higher. For content creators and marketers, following the algorithmic changes and architecture of the platforms is the best strategy to successfully create viral content. This means that a creator that wants to go viral needs to make sure that their content is attuned to the way those mechanisms are working.

The Role of Influencers and Social Proof in Viral Content

Influencers and social proof are two of the biggest drivers of viral content. When stemming from an individual with a large following, a viral story has greater legs since it’s more likely to be seen and passed along to new people. This is why influencer marketing has been a steadfast pillar of viral content marketing strategies. People trust influencers, often seeing them as experts or spokespeople for a niche. If an influencer shares your content, their followers are more likely to interact with your content and then pass it along to new people. This further increases the chances of your content going viral

Social proof means that the more that people think your content is popular, the more likely other people are to believe that it’s worthy of spending their precious few seconds or minutes viewing it. If influencers (the first movers) like a news article or YouTube video enough to share it, the social proof created by those shares makes it much more viral. Marketers take advantage of this by creating content that’s shareworthy, and then they seed the insanity by using a handful of influencer shares or some boosted (or paid) engagement to start sharing along. People watching that content were more likely to share, and the cascade effect grew.

Ethical Considerations in Viral Content Creation

Although virality is often the goal of viral marketing, there are still many ethical issues that must be considered. Not all viral content is good content. Stories that misinform, cause excess outrage and tell stories that should have never been told can hurt people. False information spreads so quickly that it is often corrected too late to do any good. The damage is done. By the time consumers open their online accounts, the false story has already spread. And when people interact with viral content at the speed of the internet, stories that spread before correction can lead to real-life situations. Creators and marketers must be responsible in their endeavours to craft content to go viral. Virality cannot always be the goal if it lacks integrity or accuracy.

And then there’s it’s potentially nefarious use of emotional triggers: marketers had better be wary of too-tricky, manipulative or unethical uses of viral content that prey on our fears, anxieties or vulnerabilities. The goal should remain to target audiences in positive, meaningful and value-driven ways, rather than taking unfair advantage of our psychological weaknesses when it comes to following, sharing and commenting on content that lands. Ultimately, if the creators of viral content ensure that it is transparen’t, truthful and audiences-first, then it will be able to positively contribute to the reconfiguration of the digital ecosystem, rather than adding to it’s problems.

Conclusion

Understanding what makes a story go viral is both a science and an art. From the emotional triggers that inspire people to share, to frameworks like STEPPS marketing, the factors that influence virality are multifaceted. As content creators and marketers continue to explore the psychology behind viral content, they must balance the pursuit of engagement with ethical responsibility. Ultimately, viral content should not only capture attention but also provide value, contributing positively to the broader conversation while considering how many views is viral or the implications of viral content marketing strategies.