Public Relations & Social Media Insight

The Harlem Shake viral video trend, which has sparked over 100,000 imitations and garnered nearly a billion views, has been going a month. It's been unique in the speed of its spread.

On 2 February, the Harlem Shake video meme was born. By 11 Feb, YouTube claimed there were 4,000 videos being uploaded a day.

Over 700 million people have viewed the videos, YouTube says. More than 100 versions have at least a million views. The most has nearly 40 million.

The format is simple. The soundtrack to every video is New York DJ Baauer's song Harlem Shake.

Each video lasts about 30 seconds. For the first 15 seconds, one person - often masked or in a helmet - dances in front of apparently oblivious or uninterested people....