YouTube has opened the door for any exercise trainer to project his philosophy and workouts to a network of millions of fitness enthusiasts. Trainer John Doe can easily become a worldwide phenomena by the power of the YouTube Social Network. YouTube exercise videos have become increasingly popular.
Several reasons make a video successful. In order to create this post, I spent a bit of time on YouTube looking for the most watched exercise/fitness videos. The intent was to try to find the factors of how the video became so popular. I believe I have discovered some interesting traits about that nature of each video, and why it has become so popular.
The descriptions below show the view count and many other stats as of Sept 10th, 2011. The more popular the video the more quickly the stats changes so if you read this even a day later, it could be vastly different. I put this in just to showcase that in fact the exercise video did go totally viral on YouTube.
YouTube Exercise Videos and How They Became Viral
YouTube Exercise Trait 1:
Must Have Sex Appeal
Zuzana, the woman that created this exercise video, is one of the most popular fitness instructors online today. And other than creating very difficult workouts (they are pretty intense, I pulled a bunch of exercises from them for my workouts…), she uses sex appeal to make the videos viral. My marketing mind might like to say her target market is female, since she is a woman…though my brain contradicts any belief that this is true. I would bet that the majority of her views are men staring at her from behind their computers. Kind of sad if you think about it since many of them are probably overweight, but you can’t argue the fact that “sex sells”. And in this case, sex appeal adds to virility.
View Count: 16,798,957
Likes: 16,331
Dislikes: 3,463
Date Uploaded: January 16th, 2010
Username: charliejames1975
Actual Website: https://www.bodyrock.tv
YouTube Exercise Trait 2:
Must Be Weird or Bizarre
This videos shows bodybuilder Amin Shahry demonstrating how to flex and pose abdominal muscles. This video is not necessarily an exercise or how to exercise but it hits on an important concept in making a video viral. It’s strange. Very few people on earth have a developed abdominal region like Amin. And even fewer can control each ab muscle in the way he can. And anything that is unusual or strange, people are likely to “like”, “share” or email to their friends.
View Count: 22,166,469
Likes: 15,849
Dislikes: 7,768
Date Uploaded: August 18th, 2007
Username: tobydog22
YouTube Exercise Trait 3:
Must Have Sound Advice
The below workout has received an unbelievable 38,157,882 views. I have been following Scooby for awhile now. His advice is rooted in exercise science. Part of the reason this video has become viral (other than that Scooby is amazing and proclaims true exercise advice) is that the video has been around for about 5 years. This is very helpful in building up momentum in your followers/view count on YouTube. Way to go Scooby! You are the man!
View Count: 38,157,882
Likes: 20,260
Dislikes: 3,859
Username: scooby1961
Actual Website: Scooby’s Fitness Workshop
YouTube Exercise Trait 4:
Must Be a Worldwide Phenomena
Zumba is a national phenomena. It was started in Colombia by Alberto “Beto” Perez in the 1990s. The exercise workouts involve both dance and aerobic movements. The choreography incorporates hip-hop, samba, salsa, meringue, mambo, martial arts and some belly dance. Here’s the kicker. There are over 20,000 Zumba instructors in 35 countries. It’s no joke that this style of exercise is popular. I did a little research and there are exactly 5,000,000 people that search the keyword “Zumba” globally each month on Google. It’s no wonder why this video has become so popular. Especially when you look at the fact that it shows up as the first video in the search results on Google.
View Count: 17,778,033
Likes: 11,348
Dislikes: 547
Date Uploaded: November 17th, 2006
Username: napapana
Actual Website: https://www.zumba.com/
YouTube Exercise Trait 5:
Must Be Heavily Promoted
This video is created by Sixpackshortcuts and at 4,585,730 views isn’t necessarily the most watched video on YouTube, but I added it to show a point of how YouTube’s search works. This gentleman and his partners totally advertise the crap out of this video and his other videos throughout YouTube and on the internet. He pays for clicks to get his viewership high. Then, since his views are so high, when people on YouTube searched “exercise videos” or “6 Pack Abs”, his video shows up as one of the most popular. It’s not totally organic in how typical viral videos spread but it is an effective technique in order to rise to the top of search results. He builds his own momentum and hits a critical mass point. When people see this they are more likely to “share”, “comment” and “like” it.
View Count: 4,585,730
Likes: 9,462
Dislikes: 732
Date Uploaded: March 17, 2011
Username: sixpackshortcuts
Actual Website: https://www.sixpackshortcuts.com/
YouTube Exercise Videos are awesome! If you have any more feel free to share them below!
0 Comments