If you work in the online video space for more than 30-seconds you’re bound to get asked this question, “How do I make a viral video?”  Spend more than 30 days in the industry and you’ll feel like Brett Wilson, CEO of TubeMogul feels about the phrase viral video:

There are a few buzzwords that irk me. First is “viral video.” A viral video is a rare and beautiful thing, but we know that only about .33 percent of videos on YouTube have over a million views, and there are a lot that are effective that have far fewer views (53 percent of videos on YouTube have less than 500 views). People throw around this term carelessly to describe any video made for the web. Let’s just use the term web video. I was cheering when Rob Davis from Ogilvy said the same thing on stage this week at the Brightcove Video Monetization Summit in NY.

He’s not the only one.  Kevin “Nalts” McNalty is currently writing a book on online video called, appropriately, Beyond Viral, which we hope comes out sooner than later.

And to add two more to the growing crowd of those with a distaste for the words viral video, check out Mike Arauz’s presentation (slides + audio) from SXSW ’10, Web Video Thunderdome, where he lobbies instead for the term “spreadable” or “shareable” videos.

Oh, and of course you can add one more name to the petition to stop praying for viral video – me.