This is something of a public service announcement. I can't tell you how many times I've heard clients/companies say "we'd like you to make a viral video for us." As Greg Verdino would say, "I think I just threw up in my mouth a little."
People, people. It just doesn't work that way. You can't will something to be viral, any more than you can tell an author to go write a bestseller, a director to direct a blockbuster, or an 8 year-old to be a major-league ballplayer.
Virality (if there is such a term) lies in results. It means that if you've created something worthy of passing along and comment, it will be more likely to reach epic heights on YouTube or whatever other way you're choosing to measure it.
For companies looking to create the next viral video sensation, David Meerman Scott recommends creating 10-20 videos in the hopes that maybe one of them will work. If you look at the how many videos actually reach viral status, he's probably right - if not even a little conservative.
I hate to tell you, but you're probably not going to have a viral sensation on your hands. The best you can do is to create content that matters to your customers and prospects and give them the ability to share that content around.
Oh, and the image above? It's taken from the January 1973 issue of National Lampoon magazine. The original caption was "If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog."
Related posts:
"A Mind-Blowing New Advertising Model"
If You're Going to Do Viral, Do It Right
Research + Entertainment = Wildly Successful Campaign
Psst! Want the Secret to Viral Marketing?
Update (7/16 at 2:45 p.m.):
This video was released by the guys at JibJab just 6 hours ago, and currently has bout 2,200 views on YouTube. I think it has qualities that will make it go viral - it's universally funny, it's topical, and you can pass it along. Let's track the numbers and see how they do over the course of the next week.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Why I Won't Make A Viral Video for You
Monday, June 23, 2008
Think Banner Ads Are Effective?
While many marketing executives may tout banner ads because they're so easy to track, that doesn't necessarily take into account how annoying they can be.
Well, to be fair, banner ads that are targeted and relevant to the content you're reading may be a little more palatable. But in most cases, it's you vs. them. You take your life into your own hands when you click on some enticing offer.
Here's a little gem from Current.tv's "infomania" show:
Monday, June 02, 2008
Social Media in Plain English
I've been writing about social media for almost two years. But I still have to explain what social media is to people who aren't familiar with marketing and communications. Well, maybe even to some who are familiar with the marketing and communications...
Anyway, leave it to the good folks at Common Craft to give us Social Media in Plain English. As usual, they do a fine job of taking the complex and making it understandable.
Streaming Media East Footage
As you may know, I was on a panel at Streaming Media East a couple of weeks ago. The panel, which had a few last minute changes in personnel, was well received and well attended.
In case you'd like to see what Jose Castillo, Steve Garfield, Sarah Austin and Sarig Reichert and I had to say, here's the session. And if you don't have an hour to kill, just fast-forward to the 57:00 mark to hear our closing remarks. It's well worth it!
If you'd like to see all of the videos from the show, you can check them out here.
Do you have any thoughts on the future of lifestreaming? Please share them here.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
What I Saw at Streaming Media East
I was lucky enough to be invited to speak on a panel at today's session of Streaming Media East by Chris Brogan. The topic was "Lifecasting: The New Broadcasting Platform," and I was seemingly the odd man out, as I was joined by the likes of Sarah Austin of Pop17.com, Steve Garfield of SteveGarfield.com and Sariq Reichert of Flixwagon. I was the only one on the panel who wasn't livestreaming from a Nokia N95, so I felt a little bit out of my league.
But I like to think that I added a bit of reality and business sense to the proceedings, as there were quite a few people there who, in addition to wanting to learn about lifecasting, also wanted to understand how it applies to businesses. I had a few key takeaways about lifecasting that I'd like to share with you here.
Trust
A question out of the gate was, "Why would advertisers be interested in this?" It's a good question that plagues a lot of social media tools. Invariably when customers are asked whom they trust most, the answer is "Someone like me." The 2008 Edelman Trust Barometer Bears this out (visual below). When citizen journalists take to the airwaves with their videos, it's inherently more credible than any scripted, edited piece by a company.
Engagement
The next (predictable) challenge was when some audience members seemed to be dismayed at the number of viewers for some livecasting shows. Numbers in the low thousands were quoted, for frame of reference. But they were missing the point that all of the viewers watch these shows because they want to; they're actively seeking out the content.
My take is that, as a marketer, I'd rather have 100% engagement from 1,000 people than 1% engagement from 1 million people.
Measurement
I'm sure you're following the progression here. The next issue up was: "How can you tell if your viewers are engaged?" I think we all admitted that the jury's still out on this, but that the real innovators would be able to develop metrics for length of views, which content in videos is most compelling (including using embedded comments), etc. There's a lot of room for growth in this area.
Content vs. personality
One of the problems that I noticed is that there seems to be an abundance of data/information out there, much of which is just not that interesting. How often do I need to see someone sitting around their living room, or doing a talking head video? Puh-lease.
The truly compelling content - and I'd argue verticals are key here - is what's going to be of the most interest to advertisers. This means consistency and quality.
Final note
When asked for our final thoughts on the future of lifecasting, I closed with what is a sneak preview of my chapter in the Age of Conversation 2:When you think about it, the human race can be divided into two camps: exhibitionists and voyeurs. Between these two groups, there'll be enough fuel to keep lifecasting going for some time. Taking Andy Warhol's famous phrase and turning it on its head, "In the future, we'll all have 15 minutes of privacy."
Do you have any thoughts on the prevalence of lifecasting/livecasting? I'd love to hear what you have to say on the future of this nascent activity.
Friday, April 18, 2008
From Mundane to Engaging: How One Man Does It
A couple of weeks ago, I said that conversation was like the weather. It's ubiquitous, and marketers seem to be the only ones interested in talking or doing anything about it (while everyone else just HAS conversations).
But it got me to thinking about something we probably all take for granted, but rarely have a reason to talk about: the weather forecast itself. You probably can't count the number of times you turned on the TV in the morning to catch a glimpse of the 5-day forecast, or dialed TellMe (1-800-555-TELL) and asked for "weather," or clicked on Accuweather.com or Weather.com for your local forecast.
Local matters
In weather and in social media, local content and connections are part of what make them relevant to us. People care about the communities in which they live and invest a great deal of time, energy and money there. To wit: the Newspaper Association of America just announced that over $2 billion was spent last year on local advertising on newspaper web sites. Why? Because it's targeted, it's relevant, and it connects people to the world immediately around them. If content is king, local content is the emperor.
Now think about how you interact with some social media connections. You're likely to have a network from around the globe - whether you're an individual or a business. But the relationships that you build based on repeated interactions and sharing of content, information and insights - those are brought to the next level when you meet face to face. A sales call, a Tweetup, or a social event in your locality make the interaction even more relevant and create the opportunity for deepening the relationship.
What's the weather got to do with it?
When it comes to the weather, you're really only interested in the conditions where you live or where you're traveling. And you generally don't care how you get your information, as long as it's accurate. Sure, you may develop a one-sided "trusted" relationship with a particular weatherman, but I'll wager you don't think much about the actual presentation of the forecast - seemingly a commodity.
Well, I've got to tell you that every day in various markets on Accuweather.com, there is a remarkable weather forecast. If you haven't had the chance to see Jim Kosek in action, here's your chance. He's bringing passion and creativity to his job and in the process is taking something the boring and making it truly engaging.
What I like the most about this story is that Jim's employers have given him the license to be as crazy as he wants to be. He still does the basics of his job, but he incites viewers - for good or bad - which in turn gives Accuweather a sense of its viewership. More companies should embrace this kind of creativity - not as a gimmick, but as a natural extension of their employees' personalities - to boost morale, productivity, and marketing gold.
Have you got a story about how something mundane and ordinary has sprung to life because of a different approach? I'd love to hear about it in the comments section below.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Do Taxes and Social Media Mix?
April 15, a date that Americans typically dread - because income taxes are due - seems like a perfect time to write about the intersection of social media and taxes. But not from the angle you'd expect.
I'd like to share a story with you about impatience. I know, I can hear you asking, "But what does that have to do with social media and taxes?" I'll get to it. Just bear with me.
Like many marketing bloggers, I receive my fair share of bad pitches. I suppose that makes me hypersensitive to emails in which writers indicate that they've been reading my blog and think there's a fit for their pitch. Usually the fact that they haven't commented or that they only make reference to the last two or three posts is what tips me off to their insincerity.
But let's be honest. Blogger outreach is a hard job. Unless you're already embedded in the community, you have to get up to speed with your target audience very quickly - and usually with many of them. It's incredibly labor-intensive. I really empathize with the people that are doing this, especially with experienced marketing bloggers on the receiving end. We can be harsh critics, maybe simply because we're pressed for time. Impatient, one might say.
And I can be pretty harsh. Most of the time, with good reason. But recently, I let a pitch slip by that I should have spent a longer time considering.
I received an email titled "Do Taxes and Social Media Mix?" I thought it was an odd combination, and when I looked at the body of the email, I noted that the author of the note referenced some recent posts I had made on the blog here. Rather than being encouraged that she was taking an interest in my work, I assumed it was a form email with recent topics plugged in and "social media" as the topic of my blog simply inserted into the title "Do Taxes and _____ Mix?" I immediately hit the Delete key as I thought it was a contrived effort.
I made a mistake.
It turns out that it was part of a pretty well thought out campaign for H&R Block from 360i, the agency where my fellow author David Berkowitz works. Evidently, H&R Block has a pretty sharp VP of marketing for their digital tax solutions, and she's really savvy about social media.
The campaign was pretty comprehensive, including:
If you'd like to read a couple of summaries and professional opinions of the campaign, check out Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer and Jake McKee at Community Guy. Both are positive but fair assessments of H&R Block's efforts.
The bottom line is, had I taken the time to learn about the effort a little more and been less judgmental on the opening salvo, I would have been more likely to pay attention to the campaign.
I probably would have been even more likely to pay attention to it had the author been participating in my community, used a different subject line or been a little less scripted in her email.
Then again, if I had a little more patience, these points would have been moot. Suffice it to say that patience was just a little too (dare I say it?) taxing for me last month.
Update (5/15/05): H&R Block gave a presentation this week at AdAge's Digital Bites breakfast in which they shared what they learned.
Photo courtesy of PPDIGITAL
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
I Owe You. Big Time.
You're busy. You have many demands on your schedule. Which means that the time you spend glancing over my mutterings and thoughts is valuable time indeed.
Thank you for choosing to spend some of your day with me. Your participation here and in other forums where you link to my posts or talk about a concept I've brought up means a great deal to me.
A few months ago, I was seriously injured and in dire need of help. I asked for your assistance - one of the hardest and most humbling things I've ever had to do. I was embarrassed to ask anything of you, but I was in an incredible amount of pain with no end in sight. But you were very supportive, both emotionally and financially, in my effort to raise money for a snowblower. In the end, you came through remarkably well and donated a remarkable $1,065.
I can't tell you how much your collective concern and gratitude helped me get through a tough time. You made it possible for me to make it through the rest of the winter so that I could recover. As of the end of February, my back and ribs were nearly back to normal. There's still some residual pain, but I was able to literally weather the storms for the rest of the season.
Here's a Seesmic video that I recorded in direct response to your kindness:
And as I said in the video, I'd like to continue to pay back the kindness. I've done so in a variety of ways, supporting other charitable causes that my Twitter network has notified me of, suggesting the Frozen Pea Fund as the charity of choice for My ooVoo Day With, and trying to be helpful and responsive as my community has asked for it (yes, I do owe a couple of colleagues some blog posts - stay tuned).
Also, some time in the next week or so, I'll be posting about a way that I'm planning to give to my community on an ongoing basis. I think it's a method that you'll want to read about, as you may be able to do the same thing yourself. Stay tuned.
Finally, here's some evidence that I didn't run off to Vegas or something:
Thank you.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Using New Media to Respond to Customer Feedback
Here's a video that captures the essence of why companies should be thinking about social media with regard to customer issues. And it's from no less an old media bastion than the Wall Street Journal.
Interestingly, they advocate for blogging to come from all levels of the organization, citing the oft-quoted fact that people like to hear "from people like them." So, it's not just for the CEO to blog anymore. And it doesn't just end with customer relations, it's also can help with employee relations.
For the full scoop, click on the video:
Via Shel Holtz.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Drive Attention with Context & Relevance
A couple of weeks ago, I was introduced to a new web app that I think is going to be a major force in the digital/social media/web video space this year. It leverages web video and consumer-generated content, but in a new and different way that doesn't require much in the way of new content development. They call it Overlay.tv. I call it fully interactive and annotated video that has the power to change the way advertisers think about online video.
You're probably familiar with Viddler, where you can make comments in the flow/context of a video. But that's only text and it only works if the original video appears on Viddler.
The beauty of Overlay is that you can comment, call out products, make video & iconographic comments, link to other sites, and more (these are called "overlays") that work directly on top of videos from pretty much any video sharing site. Because Overlay.tv allows viewers to rate overlays, the creator can see what works and what doesn't. Bottom line: using existing videos, overlayers can call out what matters to them. Overlay.tv puts the power of context & relevance into the hands of its users, which will drive attention to things they want to highlight.
But simply telling you about it isn't going to convince you of how cool this app is; take a look at a video that my friend Mitch Joel created (which at last count was closing in on 4,000 views on YouTube since Wednesday). Take I look at how I added to it:
(If the video isn't running, here's the direct link.)
While I was watching the demo of the product by Rob Lane, CEO of Overlay.tv, I jotted down a note:
Advertising that's contextually relevant AND part of the content.This may very well be the solution to the pre-roll spots that advertisers have been looking for when it comes to online video. We all know that it's a pain to sit through a 15-second spot (let alone a 30-second spot) before a 2-minute video. But what's an advertiser to do? Answer: go where the people want you to go.
I understand that there are opportunities for brands to work with Overlay.tv, to offer their products or custom-made fun items to be used in overlays, skin videos and more. And in addition, they may be privy to statistics around views, ratings, click-throughs, purchases and other interactions with overlays. I could even envision brands or agencies offering content that people can experiment with.
While Firebrand positions itself as a repository of great ads, Overlay is more of a portable play that lets people make the content their own. And when you consider the ability to bake in affiliate programs to the program, it could be a huge win for Overlay members as well.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Can I Share Something with You?
I've been a little distracted lately. Not because of Twitter, not because of my other interests, but because of a very complex and detailed project I've been working on at crayon. I'm very excited about it and happy to tell you about it now that it has launched.
To say that this project has been my life lately is an understatement. My colleagues know it. My friends sense it. And my family feels it - and I thank them for their amazing patience and support. But in the end, I think we've got the makings of a fairly unique project that's bringing together bloggers/podcasters/authors and their respective communities like never before - all in the name of Conversation 
Let me explain.
The project I've been working on is for ooVoo , a crayon client that
does video chat - but more than just any video chat. As you can see, it allows up to 6 people to talk at once. Plus with the latest version, you can actually record video conversations. I won't get into all of the details here. If you want to know more, just check out some tutorials & stuff on ooVoo's site.
Our goal with ooVoo is to help build awareness - they're a fairly young startup - and introduce people to what they can do. So we came up with a pretty interesting way for bloggers & podcasters to connect with their communities, face to face. We're calling it "My ooVoo Day With..." and we've got 23 bloggers participating - the list includes:
As you can imagine, these are busy people who have little time in general. Well, ooVoo is thanking them by primarily sponsoring the the Frozen Pea Fund, a fund established to support the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign, in honor of blogger, Twitterer and cancer patient Susan Reynolds. A handful of the hosts have selected their own charities for ooVoo to support as well.
But in the end, this is all about conversation - not about ooVoo, mind you, but about whatever these bloggers and their communities want to discuss. ooVoo is just the enabler. In fact, we're determined to see ooVoo become the "unooficial" sponsor of conversation.
So, how does this work? Check it out:
So, all you have to do is go over to My ooVoo Day With..., download the software (for Mac or PC - both are still in beta), and pick the blogger of your choice. You can sign up for a single session with any of them and chat with them about whatever they've got scheduled.
If you'd like to tell anyone else about it, you can grab some multimedia elements from the social media news release that our partners over at Abraham & Harrison created.
What are you waiting for? ooVoo someone today?
(That was a mouthful just to explain - can you imagine trying to coordinate all of it?)
Friday, February 01, 2008
One More Thought About YahSoSoft
Or MicroHoo. Whatever. It's not long before we see Googlezon, I'm sure.
Anyway, it occurred to me that Steve Ballmer's song & dance performance from his Microsoft keynote address left a vague recollection in my mind. I wondered where I had seen that kind of enthusiasm, that kind of stage presence, that kind of heavy brow.
Then, it came to me...
MicroHoo?
Breaking news this morning is that Microsoft has made a $44 billion offer to buy Yahoo. There's a lot of shock & surprise out there, but I think it makes a lot of sense. Here's why:
- MSFT has been lagging behind Google in many areas, and this is a way to shore up the gap
- YHOO owns some pretty attractive social media sites: Flickr, del.icio.us, Upcoming, to name a few - this is a great way for MSFT to get in the game
- The combined search capabilities of the two would be something
- And the online advertising opportunities would abound
Happy Friday.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Going Truly Digital This Holiday Season
I don't know if you've heard, but Queen Elizabeth II is going digital, as she releases her annual Christmas message on YouTube. What's more, the Royal Family has even established its own channel on YouTube. Not bad for an institution that 10 years ago was being thought of as potentially irrelevant and extinct.
I addressed my share of holiday cards this year (well, truthfully, I used mail merge and address labels, but there was manual labor involved), but I thought what a great time to start integrating some digital messaging as well. Here's one for you:
While I recognize that not everyone on my list is able to send/receive electronic messages, odds are the percentage will grow higher each year. Which is why it's cool that I can record a message like this with ooVoo, Seesmic, or any number of applications. If I really get my act together, I can do the ultimate cool thing: connect with up to 5 people at a time on a video chat via ooVoo, which could make for some fun holiday interaction.
Whatever you're doing for the holidays, be safe and enjoy. And I look forward to hearing from you in whatever manner you choose to communicate.
Disclosure: ooVoo is a client of my company, crayon, LLC.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Can a Commodity Be Entertaining?
It had sure as hell try to be, if it needs your attention to succeed.
We're tired of interruptions. We want entertainment. But how do you provide entertainment when you're dealing with a commodity? How do you make people thing a little differently about something they know as if it's a part of them? How you you make them care enough about your product that they'll want to share it with others?
The guys of Straight No Chaser came up with the perfect solution. Or so thought 3.3 million (and counting) viewers on YouTube (click through if you can't see this in a feedreader).
While a capella singing may not be your thing, you have to admit that these guys really got your attention. They took the expected and made it unexpected. They transformed the familiar and mundane to humorous.
Is this effective? What are you doing to stand out from the crowd? Let me know your thoughts.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
The Best Pitch I've Received
You've probably heard me rant over some bad pitches from time to time. As a matter of fact, they inspired me to create the section in my sidebar titled "Before You Pitch Me," which contains posts from a number of PR, marketing and social media colleagues, as well as from me.
So it was with great relief that I opened a pitch email this morning and was greeted with a comparative ray of sunshine. The message, from Julie Szabo, was simple:
Subject: We made this 2-minute video for youOkay, good. I know I'm dealing with a video, and I know it'll only eat up 2 minutes of my time.
And then the body of the email:
Hi Scott,That was it. Plain & simple. Naturally, curiosity got the better of me and I clicked through to the video to see this:
Our video says it all. It's on this page that we made just for you.
[Link to the video]
You'll note that in the video, Julie & Darren:
- Addressed me by name
- Made a note of where I'm from
- Acknowledged that they read the section of my blog about how I like to be pitched
Friday, November 09, 2007
How to Teach Marketers to Be Authentic
Did you ever take the time to step back and wonder about the various personas you meet online? They could be long-lost friends, bloggers that you admire, or people in your Facebook network whom you may have never met before. But what do you really know about them?
How many of these folks are truly themselves when they're online? I mean, how many are perhaps bolder in their assertions or less cautious with the language they use because of the less personal nature of the medium?
We spend a lot of time talking about authenticity as one of the tenets of social media - how businesses, brands and the people behind them need to be seen as real. There's no doubt that the masses will sniff out a fraud. But how do we guarantee them authenticity?
While you ponder that, take a look at Brad Paisley's take on it:
As recently as this week, someone in my LinkedIn network posed the following question: What disciplines should marketers be training within to ensure authenticity? My first thought, was, "You've got to be kidding, right? You want to teach authenticity?"
It reminded me of the old George Burns quote:
"Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made."That one-liner often sums up all that is seen as wrong with and disliked about advertising, marketing and public relations - mouthing the words without actually believing what you're saying. Can you blame the public for distrusting advertisers or for thinking of public relations professionals as "spin doctors"?
Many of the other respondents to the LinkedIn question also noted that authenticity is more of a state of being rather than a skill - it's something that has to be imbued throughout one's life rather than taught as a course. Authenticity represents who we are, not what we do. And when we use marketing speak to address our audience, are we being truly authentic, or simply following a corporate protocol out of some antiquated tradition?
I say it's time to step out of those corporate roles and leave behind those traditional templates and speak to our customers as if we're real people talking to other real people. As David Ogilvy once famously said,
"The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife."How do you learn how to be authentic with your wife? You don't learn it; you simply be yourself - that's why she picked you, right?
Ultimately, it's worth asking how do your customers or your community view you? I hope you're prepared for the answer, because we live in an age where they'll tell you and expect to be heard.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Unkommonly Good
Last week, my post New Media Douchebag: Are You One? was a surprise hit. I'd like to think it's thanks to my wise choice of a headline, but I think everyone would agree that it was the entertaining nature of the video itself.
Well, not one to rest on my laurels, I've got another entry in the series. Before I queue it up though, I'd like to acknowledge Kommon Kraft, the creators of these amazingly funny and too-close-to-the-truth videos.
This series is a send-up of Lee LeFever's very successful Common Craft videos - particularly the "Plain English" series. But Kommon Kraft - with a logo suspiciously similar to Krispy Kreme (mmm....hot donuts now...) - is a creation of Kelly Stewart, who clearly is a very talented individual.
In this case, KK has hijacked the conversation and skewers my crayon colleague Joseph Jaffe (among others) in another hilarious video.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
New Media Douchebag: Are You One?
If you haven't seen this video yet, you need to watch it. While it may be a little too close to the truth for some, I had a good laugh.
I guess the question is: does this really apply to you (or me)? I view my online activities as part research, part education, part self-marketing - all of which lead me to new discoveries, realizations and insights that I can then share with clients.
So while the online busy work may seem (and feel) like it's so much fluff, it's what you do with those findings, how you share them and how you impart your unique perspective that makes it time well spent.