Most viral videos happen accidentally — an amateur cellphone video that someone posted to share with friends with no intention of it being seen by millions becomes a sensation. Or, a band’s music video that, while made to be seen lots of people, goes viral because it’s interesting and creative, such as OK Go’s famous treadmill video. No one can really say with a certainty whether a video will go viral or not. Following these steps doesn’t guarantee a viral video, but it could certainly help.

1. Do something fresh and original. The treadmill thing has been done, so don’t do it. In the 1980s, when concept videos and MTV were young, The Replacements swore they would never make a music video. As their popularity grew and the record company demanded a video, the band responded by filming a static shot of a stereo speaker playing one of their songs. At the time, it was considered fresh and original while other bands were trying to outdo each other with over-the-top production and story lines.

2. Make it funny. When you think about the viral videos you’ve seen, chances are most of them were funny, whether the humor was intended or not (remember double rainbow guy?). If you have a funny concept and can execute it well, people will share it. Of course, the converse is true too; there have been serious viral videos, usually involving cute animals and natural phenomenon, so you could go that route as well. The trick is not having it come off as contrived and corny, unless that’s the angle you’re going for. People love to share things that aren’t supposed to be funny but are, like pictures of people with mullet hairdos.

3. Build your social network. In order for your video to gain traction, lots of people must be sharing it. Send it to people with lots of followers and get them to re-tweet it. Seek out influential people in the music business, befriend them and share the video with them.

4. Don’t place any restrictions on the video. Allow people to download it, embed it and comment on it. Use URL shortening services such as bitly.com to create short links to the video for easier sharing. Now is not the time to be overly-protective of your work or paranoid about others stealing your ideas. Just get it out there.

5. Make a call to action. Everything that you do to share the video, ask your fans to do the same thing. Send them an email blast containing a link to the video and instructions for getting it out there. You could also encourage fans create their own videos of your music, be it live footage or a concept. They may have better ideas than you.