How Do You Make A K-Pop Video Go Viral On YouTube Shorts? Source Music's Marketing Leader Unveils Their Strategies

One of the latest trends in K-Pop is posting videos on YouTube Shorts. Everyone from K-Pop groups to variety show channels upload videos here that are sixty seconds or less.

Since the launch of YouTube Shorts, we’ve seen the way music fans both consume and create content on YouTube change.

— Yoon Mijeong (YouTube Music Content Partnerships Manager)

The goal of these videos is to induce virality. Considering their short-form nature, it is easier to gain new fans. Experts in K-Pop companies talked to Weverse Magazine to share their strategies in making bite-size content go viral.

Check them out below.

1. The Human Side Of K-Pop

First up, most K-Pop shorts are cut from longer videos posted on the same channel. It is up to editors to choose which scenes would be most interesting when given the spotlight.

According to Source Music‘s marketing team leader Jung Jihea, this often means focusing on the more human side of the K-Pop idols being filmed.

Because many people watching Shorts are watching recommended videos, they frequently reach people outside of fandoms. That’s why we try to make content that even people who aren’t fans will enjoy watching.

— Jung Jihea

Using LE SSERAFIM as an example, the company made sure to focus on a topic that even non-fans would find interesting. As MBTI is a trendy one in South Korea, this is the part of the group’s “DAY OFF” video that they made into a Short.

A scene like this where the members casually talk about the difference between N and S in MBTIs while eating helped people develop a sense of kinship with them and made them more interested and led to them sharing the video because it shows them in everyday life and is something everyone can relate to.

— Jung Jihea

2. Pick The Highlights

Sometimes the decision to choose a certain scene is straight-forward to the editors with years of experience. A dance video, for instance, will have a highlight choreography—often in the chorus or bridge—that translates to short-form videos easily.

3. Watching Through Fans’ Eyes

Last but certainly not the least, companies make sure to take a step back and put on their fandom lenses when editing. They put themselves in the shoes of their target audience in order to predict what they would like.

When it comes to K-pop content, understanding the genre is important, too, but it’s even more important to understand how fans feel. [We make] Shorts from things fans tend to talk about in real life.

— Jung Jihea

For Source Music, this is not a difficult hurdle to surpass. They assign employees who are already fans of a specific group to make the videos for them.