If you tweet something funny, there’s a small chance it could go viral. But what if you could hire a company to make that tweet into a trending topic? Enter Social Chain, self-described as the UK’s ‘largest influencer network’. How has a virtually unknown business spawned so many online trends?

Netflix has decided to use the internet’s musings about a viral photo of Rihanna and Lupita Nyong’o as the premise for a film. With the meme community able to will content into existence, major players in the film industry are taking requests from the masses.

Though rapper Post Malone's 'Rockstar' hit number one in the US thanks to YouTube, it did so without ever being posted in full on the platform. Viral videos on social media are now creating breakout stars, and using online channels cleverly can make or break a musician.

Social media has enabled people to share content with a click, but why do certain videos and news stories spread across the web? Canvas8 spoke with Jonah Berger, author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, to understand online virality and the ways our digital spaces affect the content we consume.