I’ve always wondered how exactly videos go viral.
Like, from the video’s starting point, to how it got picked up, and how long this all takes?
For Minnie the dancing French Bulldog, who went viral over the weekend, it was a matter of a few hours.
Amazing! https://t.co/pQxMahxmkm
— Her.ie (@Herdotie) July 10, 2016
While you probably all have seen the video (which we covered on Saturday) of Minnie rocking out to Wham!, I came upon the video in a unique way.
I was buying a car on Saturday, where I was dealing with a man called Jeff Wynne. While filling out the paperwork and parting ways with my trusty Ford Ka, Jeff said to me: “Excuse me if my phone keeps going, we’re having a bit of a crazy time at home”.
Thinking to myself it was something personal, I didn’t ask any questions and just said it was fine.
Then Jeff went on to say something about his dog’s video being shared millions of times. Being in this industry, my ears pricked up with curiosity. I asked what video he was talking about, and he explained about his French Bulldog Minnie and how she was going viral.
Only in Ireland would you be doing something as normal as buying a car when you come across someone who has gone viral worldwide.
Jeff continued to explain to me the events which led to the video’s success.
Jeff and wife Lesley had taken a video of Minnie earlier in the week and innocently uploaded it to a Facebook page they had created for the dog. At that point, Minnie had only accumulated eight likes on the page and it was just for their own amusement. Jeff also shared it to another Facebook page, which is a dedicated page for bullmastiff owners to share cute videos and photos of their dogs.
What happened next he never saw coming.
After a few hours on that page, Jeff began to get Facebook messages from news outlets all over the world. Initially, he was asked by some pages on Facebook could they upload the video, but others had ripped it and used it, and that’s when it began to gain momentum.
It was only when a friend of Jeff, who lives in Los Angeles, got in touch to say that they had seen the video on some random page that he knew this was about to get massive. From there then it began to spread even further.
It’s at this point that I entered the situation, which is 24 hours after it all blew up. Minnie’s page had grown by 1,000 likes, a few different Facebook pages had amassed millions of hits from the video, and Jeff sat in disbelief in front of me explaining what had just unfolded.
He has still been getting calls, and it looks like it will only keep growing. It’s funny to think that some people specifically go out of their way to try and go viral and cannot do it, and then Jeff and Lesley are an instant hit when they never intended to be.
You just never really know what is “viral content”. You can have some idea of what might work, but there is no sure set of rules or guidelines to do so.
The interesting and lovely part of all of this is that Minnie was destined for life in the pound until Jeff rescued her nearly two years ago. The people selling the dogs told him that one of the pups was so unruly that she was too much for anyone to handle.
Not one to give up a challenge, the big-hearted Wynne family welcomed Minnie into their home and have never looked back.
To everyone wondering and speculating about Minnie’s well-being and behaviour, she does not have worms (as some commenters online have suggested!) or some sort of disorder that is making her rock to the music. She is just a happy, hyper dog that knows a good tune when she hears it.
Minnie, Jeff, and Lesley can often be seen out and about with DSPCA helping to promote animal welfare and any misconceptions about the dogs which have been deemed “restricted breeds”.
Minnie, like many other dogs, is a beautiful, happy, and playful dog. We look forward to seeing more from her on her Facebook page.
If for some reason you haven’t seen the video, here it is again.
