What is 'Going Viral'? I recently heard someone describe the phrase 'going viral' as a term used by internet marketers when they 'don't actually know what happened'.  By that, he means, when a piece of content does 'go viral' on the web, it's difficult to identify the exact circumstances that made that piece of content so shareable, or so linkworthy. There are a number of different factors that could be influential in whether a piece of content does 'go viral' or not: 1. What was the format of the content, was it a video? A textual blog? An infographic? Research? An image you have created or a photo you have taken? 2. What made the content special, Did it demand extra research? Did it take an extra-long time to write or construct? 3. What was the subject matter of the content, did it have a particular human-interest angle? Was it relevant to a breaking piece of industry news? Was it written with an anti-establishment perspective? Was it controversial? 4. Where did you share it, Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? Google Plus? Social bookmarking sites, such as Delicious? Digg? Reddit? YouTube? Did you email it to friends, family or industry influencers before you shared it on social networks? Did they also share it? 5. What time did you share it, Twitter sees the most activity between Thursday night and Friday morning. Facebook is most active at the weekends. LinkedIn is best for sharing B2B relevant content between Monday and Thursday. 6. Were industry