28 March 2009 Sneezing And Blowing Your Nose Aren’t The Same Thing

Just because your video has a few million page views doesn't mean it's gone viral. It just means a few million people have seen it. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. Of course it depends on your objectives. So when Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend video (not available to Australians) passed Evolution of Dance for the All Time Most Viewed video on YouTube earlier this year, it's hard to argue her video had the same viral qualities because she cheated. When a campaign runs a microsite with a video on the front page, you can earn millions of pageviews. This doesn't mean the content has been spread, especially not virally. Therefore you can't measure if a video has gone viral just on hits. Instead look at how many people are talking about it and ultimately their influence on those listening....