Authenticity

There's a famous quote about the importance of sincerity that's been attributed to everyone from Groucho Marx to Bill Clinton. It goes, "Sincerity is the most important thing. If you can fake that, you've got it made."

You may have read a similar quote with slightly different words. It resonates with people because we are surrounded every day by fakes pretending to authenticity: beer commercials featuring men with washboard abs and not beer bellies, infomercials that promise untold riches gained by doing no work, politicians who promise to fight for the common man while voting on the side of big business, etc. We are so starved for authenticity that we don't even notice that we are missing it -- until we see it in our lives, or on the internet.

Authenticity is the key to all successful viral videos. When people see a wedding party dancing for joy, or discover a neglected but talented singer, or see multiple versions of the same singer crooning Michael Jackson songs, they instinctively understand that they're seeing the authentic expression of someone's feelings. They e-mail the video or the link to their friends because it touched them. The people who made the videos didn't start out with the idea to make a viral video. They simply created something they believed in and made it available for people to find.

There are ways to increase the opportunities for people to find you online. But if they find you and you're not authentic viewers will dismiss your creation. How do you make your work authentic? Make sure you are working on a subject you're passionate about. If you don't care about your characters or their situation, the audience won't either. If you care --- if you infuse your work with the power of your passion -- you at least give yourself a chance.