3 ways videos can go viral on Twitter

Feeding Ryan Gosling cereal isn't the only path to social media fame

Whether it's the latest song parody or the cutest baby on Earth, viral videos are as much a part of the online news cycle as anything else. And these days, getting a clip to catch fire on Twitter all but guarantees that thousands of eyeballs will get the message. But how do videos reach the holy land of "virality"? Twitter's own U.K. research team analyzed three recent, high-profile viral clips and mapped out the different paths they took to fame. Here's what they found:

1. Attract the right kind of eyes

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Kimberly Alters

Kimberly Alters is the news editor at TheWeek.com. She is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.