Viral Video for Republicans.

A great read for people who are serious about an online strategy for their campaign. As usual, Tech Republican is ahead of the curve and has useful tips on how to implement.

"MESSAGE/TIMINGThe recipe for a viral video involves perfectly defining the narrative of a candidate which everyone is thinking but no one is saying through moving images and a message. The message must be perfect in every way, or it will die. It must be timed perfectly to get carried in the stream.

SKILL/CLEVERNESSViral videos aren't always *perfectly* edited, but they are. They may look amateurish, but they're not. There's something about most viral videos that when you watch them, you say both, "I could do that... but I could never do that." We assume that it's simple when really it's complex. That's the beauty of a viral video.
It's seemingly a video that we could have produced, but in reality, someone else did (and we're OK with that). Video editors are artists. They take pride in their work and spend hours refining their masterpiece. Of course, it's also important not to be too clever. Always a delicate balance.

EFFECTIVE DISTRIBUTION/LUCKPhil de Vellis emailed his video to a "few bloggers." From there it spread like wildfire on its own merits. The point is that you need eyeballs and to get those you need the right influential folks to see the video, find it interesting, and then send it along to their network or post it on their blog. Of course, some of those influencers are people like Matt Drudge at the Drudge Report, but Drudge isn't exactly looking to promote your video. And even if he did, it's not always a guaranteed hit. Throw one big handful of spaghetti at the wall and keep throwing."