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       Spontaneity: There’s a real in-the-moment feel to a viral video that captures a random and decisive moment that you could never repeat. The popular video “Charlie bit my finger — again!” and its more than 800 million clicks comes to mind.

       Be light-hearted: People love stuff that’s silly and that makes them laugh and think — or that even make them consider trying something, much like the Coke-and-Mentos video collection that has drawn hundreds of millions of views.

       Get it out on social media: Yeah, you can rely on chance that someone stumbles across your video, but that’s sort of passive, like waiting by the phone for someone to “find you” for the job. A better tack is for you to let social media know about your latest masterpiece. Just a few tweets here, a Facebook post there, and then maybe an announcement on Reddit can instantly start turning the wheels of virality.

       More than 2 billion unique users visit YouTube each month.

       Over 1 billion hours of video are watched daily on YouTube

       According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more U.S. adults ages 18 to 34 than any cable network.

       Have people find your channel. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it fall, does it make a sound? Who knows? More appropriately, if you create a YouTube channel and nobody visits it, it’s a safe bet to say that all your good work has come to nothing.Viewers have to know that your channel exists before they can visit. The main way you have of letting people know you exist is by making sure your content shows up high in the search results of both Google and YouTube itself. (Don’t forget that YouTube is the second-most-popular search engine, just behind Google.) To get those high rankings, you have titles, tags, and descriptive text to associate tons of search-engine-friendly keywords with each of your videos — doing that will bring viewers searching for content in contact with your content rather than with someone else’s content. It’s also important that viewers watch, like, comment on, and share your video — yet more indications to the search engines and YouTube’s algorithms that your content and channel are important. For good measure, use social media to prep your audience for content that’s coming down the pike — just like a movie studio creates a buzz for a big summer blockbuster by teasing you with previews and trailers weeks before release. Users often take advantage of YouTube’s personalized video recommendations, such as the home screen Recommended feed (see Figure 1-4) and the Up Next feature. If a user clicks on your video and enjoys the content, there’s a good chance they’ll visit your channel to see what else you have to offer. The more appealing your channel looks at first glance, the more likely a viewer will be to stop and spend some time exploring your channel and your other videos.

       Connect with your viewers. You definitely want to build a community of followers, and for that to happen, you need to actively communicate with them. That means everything from having them subscribe to your channel, engaging with them in your channel’s Comments section and on the Community tab, and exposing them to your other social media accounts. You can do all this directly on your channel page.

       Provide them with a clear description of your channel. When viewers know what your channel has to offer, and if it appeals to their interests, they’re more likely to visit often, and maybe even subscribe to it. But you need to get the word out.