Timing Your Facebook Posts

I thought this article had some interesting ideas on how to perfect the timing of your Facebook updates to get the most views. It seems mostly geared towards companies, but I think it could have been helpful if I had seen this before promoting our viral video.

http://mashable.com/2011/10/26/time-facebook-posts/?WT.mc_id=obnetwork

Speaking of how Obama will revamp his 2008 social media campaign….he created a Tumblr! As of three days ago, people all over the country can post pictures, stories, questions, and just about anything else on http://barackobama.tumblr.com/. The team that created it wants it to be a “huge collaborative storytelling effort.”

Going along with Zach’s post below, this is definitely one step towards fostering two-way communication/ interaction. The Tumblr also has links to a new blog called “Young Americans for Obama”

It will be interesting to see what comments the blog facilitators will allow or delete. Alsowonder if they will address deleted comments if people raise concerns about it.

After finishing the viral camp project I figured this was relevant so we can all profit off our wildly successful videos.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/technology/personaltech/cashing-in-on-your-hit-youtube-video.html?_r=2&src=tp

Cashing In on Your Hit YouTube Video

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

Katie Clem posted a video on YouTube this month of her daughter Lily’s poignant and funny reaction to her sixth birthday present, a trip to Disneyland, for her friends and family. Then it went viral.

In three weeks it has been watched more than five million times, and Lily has become a minor Internet celebrity. Of far more importance, at least to Lily’s parents, the video is poised to make enough money from advertisements to send Lily to college.

Creating a video that attracts millions of viewers and becomes a pop culture phenomenon involves an unpredictable cocktail of luck and timing. A dash of cute babies or people acting like idiots can only help. But once a video goes viral, making some cold cash depends on quick action.

Here is some advice on how to take advantage of your 15 minutes of Internet fame from people who did just that.

MAKE AN OUTSTANDING VIDEO There is no recipe for creating a viral video, but there are a few common traits.

Take the time to identify the video by writing a detailed title and description so people and search engines can find it easily, said Kevin Allocca, manager of YouTube Trends. “Surprised Kitty” (55 million viewings and counting) is far better than “Video of Tigger.”

Share it widely on social networks, he said, and let people embed the video on other Web sites. It helps if a celebrity links to it. “Double Rainbow,” a sensation last year, had only 200 views between its debut in January and July — when Jimmy Kimmel posted a link on Twitter and it took off. Current count: 31 million viewings.

It’s not as easy as it looks, Mr. Allocca said. “Make really good content,” he said. “That’s the one nobody wants to hear, but it’s the truth.”

It seems to help if the videos include funny people (especially old people and babies), animals (especially babies) and dancing (again, especially when the dancers are babies). Make a video that is universal yet original to you, recommends Randy McEntee, who posted an iPhone video, “Talking Twin Babies,” showing his twin baby boys having an animated conversation in gibberish.

“I think the reason it’s caught on around the world is there’s no language,” Mr. McEntee said.

Another common piece of advice: don’t set out to make a viral video. “We didn’t try,” said Ms. Clem, who shot her video on a Flip camera and had never posted on YouTube. “I don’t have any advice because I literally went to bed that night and woke up and our lives were completely different.”

GET MONEY FROM YOUTUBE ADS If your video is on the road to viral success, YouTube, a part of Google, is eager to make money from you. It will send you an e-mail asking if you want to become a partner. If you give your permission, the site will run ads alongside your video and share more than half the revenue with you, sending you a check each month.

Some of the people behind viral videos, like the father of the boy coming down from dental anesthesia in “David After Dentist,” have made more than $100,000 from YouTube ads. Ms. Clem has made $3,000 in three weeks and stands to make much more because Disney wants to use her video in a TV ad.

Early on, YouTube would sign people up as partners after videos had been watched more than a million times. But it has since developed an algorithm, which it calls reference rank, to predict whether a video will go viral when it has had as few as 10,000 views.

The most important element is whether influential Web sites post the video. When Reddit posted Mr. McEntee’s video, for instance, its views jumped from 1,000 to six million in three days. YouTube also analyzes other data, like the number of viewers, how many times a video is shared on social networking sites and the rate at which people comment on the video.

Protect the video with a YouTube program called Content ID, which gives video owners the right to block others from using their videos or to be paid when they do. That helps to prevent people from creating copies that might be watched instead of yours. Parodies, translations or autotuned song versions, however, tend to add to the original’s traffic.

YouTube does not offer live customer service for viral video creators. YouTube said it would be impossible to talk to millions of video creators but it has help forums for people to ask questions.

APPEAR ON TELEVISION YouTube may turn us all into TV producers, but one of the best ways to get people to watch your online video is to appear on old-fashioned TV.

Ms. Clem’s video spiked after she appeared on Fox News and Mr. McEntee’s after he was on “Good Morning America.” It rarely helps to try to contact TV shows directly — instead, wait for producers to call you, which they will in spades if your video is popular and touches a nerve, viral video veterans say.

Remember that a dip in views does not mean your 15 minutes are over. The talking twins video had almost five million viewers on its best day, dropped to 50,000 and now gets a couple hundred thousand a day. SELL MERCHANDISE When the boy in “David After Dentist” asked the camera, “Is this real life?” more than 101 million viewers could relate. David’s father took swift advantage of that, opening an online store selling T-shirts and stickers with the tagline.

“All the top creators do that,” said Shenaz Zack, product manager for YouTube partnerships.

Tracking who watches your video can suggest markets. At YouTube Insight, video creators can see detailed data about their audience, like where viewers come from and which Web sites have linked to the video.

They can also read YouTube Trends, a blog YouTube started in December to analyze what makes videos popular, whether they are about babies using iPads or scenes from the earthquake in Turkey.

MAKE A GAME PLAN FOR FAME The celebrity and money that come with viral YouTube videos are not always fun, say people who have lived through it.

The phone rings constantly with TV producers who want to show the video. Do not sign any contracts without consulting a lawyer, said Ms. Clem, because some of the contracts ask you to sign away your rights to the video.

“It’s so exciting and you want it out there, but it’s dangerous because people want to take advantage,” she said.

Set up rules early on, said Mr. McEntee. For his family, that meant no travel to be on TV, no other videos of the children and “to behave in a way that our children would be proud of,” including letting them remove the video when they are old enough to understand.

Talk to other people who have become YouTube celebrities about what they went through — the father of David wrote on his blog that at first he had worried that people were watching the video because they were making fun of his son, for instance.

“It’s actually a really lonely place because there’s no one out there that really has all the answers,” Mr. McEntee said. “It’s just such a rare thing.”

"The League" Producers Using Reddit to Personally Promote the Show

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/lpt8l/we_are_the_creators_executive_producers_of_the/

The executive producers and creators of the television show "The League" are answering fans' questions on reddit today. Here's the description they provided:


We're Jeff and Jackie Schaffer - the EPs/Creators of "The League" on FX. We'll be coming in and out throughout the day answering questions from set and maybe grabbing the cast and crew to record some video responses to our favorites. (those videos may take a day or two - hey, we are still shooting today)

1245 - OK have to jump off for a bit and shoot a scene with Jon LaJoie - if you've got a question for him post it and we'll have him answer a few. he said oh cool - but we think he meant fuck you get out of my trailer

By answering questions through Reddit, the creators are able to personally connect and interact with their fans. I'm sure that this will create a lot of positive feedback for "The League" as it makes the people behind it (especially the people making the big bucks off of it) seem like they really care about their supporters. And they are even having the actors answer questions. Fans are getting answers to questions quickly and efficiently. Before the internet and social media, fans would have had to mail their questions to the "The League" studio and then wait several weeks for a response, if any.

I'm sure that this creative way of promoting the show will lead to much positive feedback and increased fan loyalty to the show. I've never watched the "The League", but after reading this reddit, I'm definitely going to check it out.

Link Building

Hey Again,

In reference to my post below about our social media marketing internship, I got this information that I'm pasting here from our internship website's blog. It's private, otherwise I would post the link. It is about the last step of SEO, which is link building according to them. I just thought I would share the information and also just mention that I think this is something that is overlooked a lot of times but is very important after good content has been posted.

Pitching Bloggers and Journalists
Building links very much falls under the realm of PR. The key is to pitch a story, not your company. By giving the journalist an interesting story, you are helping them do their job. Mark Hendrickson categorized the common types of narratives he found on the front page of Techmeme, a popular technology news site. While these are more relevant to tech companies, they give you examples of the types of stories bloggers and journalists want to write about. The key is to research who you are pitching to and know the types of stories they are interested in.

1.Competitive or Political Drama – aka “company X releases product Y to kill company Z”
2.Gossip – “CEO of company X gets tangled up in Y”
3.Insight – “trend X will change the world because of A, B, and C”
4.Evolution & Confluence – “service Y is like X for Z, capitalizing on the recent developments of A and B”
5.Success – “company X has created super impressive technology Y, is growing fast, or has made lots of money”
6.Failure – “company X is dying or has messed something up”
Another idea to entice bloggers is to give them exclusive rights to review new products or give them free trials. Again, you are creating win-win relationships.

Start a Blog
No matter what your company does or is selling, it’s still a good idea to blog. Fresh compelling content is the best way to get long-lasting, valuable links. Also, it will keep journalists updated on new releases from your company. I will write more on the topic of starting your own blog in the next series of posts.

This ends the series on SEO. However, I hope by this time you’ve realized that SEO isn’t a small, distinct part of a website’s business. It overlaps with design, marketing, PR, and social media. Often, the return from SEO is difficult to match, and SEO should be integral to a website’s business plan.

Help us please!

Hey Everyone,

I know this doesn't relate to this blog, but Courtney Todt, Nick Shatz and I are doing a social media marketing internship for this company, and our task this week is to promote this new website called freerangechick.com. Basically, our group is in a competition with other intern groups from other schools, and we have a unique link to promote this website, hoping to get the most unique hits. PLEASE help us and just click the link, become a follower/fan if you want. You don't have to stay on the site for this- just click the link once and that's it. I guess this relates to things we are doing because we are trying to get as many initial seeds as possible, hoping you'll spread our link and we'll connect with a lot of networks and weak ties and win the competition!

http://bit.ly/oHv7Sh

Spread if you want :)

Thanks,
Jamie, Courtney, Nick

Obama's Social Media Campaign in 2012

http://mashable.com/2011/10/24/obama-social-media-campaign/

I found this article on Digg about how important social media will be for Obama this time around. The article points to the overwhelming presence of social media today, and how it's so much bigger than it was in 2008. It also discusses how, this time around, every politician will be using social media to gain votes. It pushes the idea that simply recording a video or creating a Facebook page is not enough, like we discussed in class. The article also explains that the interaction needs to be two-way, with communication between both the voters and the politicians. 

• In 2008, Facebook had 100 million users; today it has 800 million.
• In 2008, Twitter had 8 employees; today it has more than 400.
• In 2008, YouTube averaged 13 hours of video uploaded every minute; today it averages 48 hours.
• Foursquare did not yet exist.

Yuri Milner and His Disruptive Investments Into Silicon Valley

I was reading this article on wired:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/10/mf_milner/all/1

The article was about a russian investor who many of you guys may have heard of, Yuri Milner, because of his many investments into the tech companies of America. Some companies he has invested in include Facebook, Twitter, and Spotify as well as Groupon and Zynga. He is incredibly successful, yet is still considered somewhat of an oddball and outsider to the somewhat hermetic Silicon Valley.

However, I think there is something more critical to note than the worries such as "How is it that an outsider has spotted opportunities that the Valley’s best investors missed?" Instead of worrying about outsiders stealing investment opportunities, I think it is more important to understand the importance of global perspective in these new technologies and media outputs.

A good quote to sum it up: "Who would be more gobsmacked by the implications of social media—the prospect of everyone constantly talking to one another without an arbiter, mediator, or censor—than a citizen of the former Soviet Union? Likewise, who would see it as more revolutionary and valuable?"

I think investments made by people who look at social media as something besides a producer of revenue is really important to how it will be used to shape the world as we know it. I hope I can be optimistic about that.

Trends: Digital Advertising- Adweek

AdWeek revealed its list of six significant trends in digital advertising yesterday. 


They are as follows:

• The end of the click-through rate as an effective measurement of an ad's success is nigh.
• The thin line between mobile and desktop is getting even thinner as Apple has begun to incorporate iOS features into OSX, while ad servers like Google's DoubleClick begin to integrate their desktop and mobile offerings.
• "Supercookie," a file that allows websites to track users even after they delete it in their browsers. Hulu and MSN have come under fire for their use, but AdWeek does not expect the file's use, which is legal, to stop.
• Ad-tech consolidation becoming a real thing.
• The emergence of HTML5 as the heir apparent to Adobe's Flash.
• According a report from ad intelligence company SQAD, specialized content can still be valuable and make money

Read Adweek Article Here

Chime.In Launch Today!

I came across this on Huffington Post.  A new interest-based social network where they pay users in cold hard cash for their input.  The ideas is somewhat revolutionizing.  The app was already leaked but the website was launched today.  They are scrambling to get apps for android and blackberry.  The concept is that not everyone follows a link on Facebook.  The user is suppose to seek out interests and be paid for their interaction and contribution to that interest.  The site is said to police itself like digg.com  and other websites.  Gross, the CEO believe there will be a new level of seriousness  on the site.  Large brands such as E! Entertainment and Bravo have already agreed to work with Chime.in.  I think its a great concept for larger brands.  Facebook is a great interaction but hopefully with Chime.in certain brands can reach more people because there will be more selective updates Chime.in.  Instead of just having a Facebook and a website, people like the Kardashians can have constant access to their fans without be pushed out by 1,000 Facebook friends posting their newest friendships.  Its trendy like twitter but with more options for interactions.  Could be a new outlook on social media?

http://allthingsd.com/20111017/bill-gross-new-social-network-chime-in-will-pay-people-to-use-it/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/17/chimein-social-network_n_1016634.html#s416146

http://chime.in/

Dove Evolution Viral Video

Hey guys,

Because we just finished our viral videos I decided to post the “Dove Evolution” video featuring a woman of average beauty as she was transformed by hair, makeup, lighting, photography and photo editing. Dove was pushing the idea of natural beauty and it worked. Almost as soon as the video was placed online people were watching it around the world and it’s reported to have earned Dove $150,000 worth of exposure for the company.

Nevertheless, I think the most interesting aspect of this video is how it actually went viral. Dove paid $2.5 million for a 30-second advertisement spot on the 2006 Super Bowl which generated 500 million impressions before and after the big game. But, it was uploaded on Youtube days later and generated more than 1.5 million views. I think this shows how much of an impact social media plays in assisting marketing campaigns to go viral. The campaign worked on an emotional level since it appealed to the average American woman and by sharing this video with others, women felt empowered – therefore, this viral commercial became a real success.

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hibyAJOSW8U

New Social Media Search Tool Combines Sentiment Analysis & Content Discovery

I just found this article and thought it was pretty interesting. The article talks about how there is a new social media search tool called Proliphiq. I think what is neat about Proliphiq is that its goal is to connect the right users to the right content at the right time. We talked in class about how some online content is unsuccessful because it doesn't reach the right people. I think Proliphiq has a lot of great potential to really succeed!

Here is the article:

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-engagement/new-social-media-search-tool-combines-sentiment-analysis-content-discovery-012980.php

Facebook? Not Here!

I thought it would be interesting to find out in which countries Facebook is not the dominant social media network. The result of my research can be found here:

http://www.quora.com/Facebook-1/In-which-countries-is-Facebook-not-the-dominant-social-media-platform

You should really visit some of these national social networks, you will be astonished and puzzled at the same time. Most of them just look like Facebook with an exotic interface.

Interesting Deal for Gamers

This Polish game development company is promoting a game called Aftermath which they would like to sell for $1. Their stipulation, however, is that they would like 10 million gamers world-wide to pre-order this game.

This is an independent gaming company and they are trying something completely revolutionary to the industry. It seems that they are trying to go viral with this video to reach their target market. It is an interesting concept but I do not believe they will reach the magnitude that they want. However, it IS a full length game that looks very similar to Half Life (one of the highest selling game series of all time) and it would be available for only a dollar.

Some trailers and gameplay videos are in the related videos section after you click on the link above if you want to check out gameplay.

Social Tatto Project

I found this campaign on the web but what I want to discuss is the probability of been successful. The social tattoo project objective is “to make what the world empathizes with today, what you care about forever”. In the project the volunteers get tattoos about world issues that are choose by twitter followers.

For now they have 591 followers, but I see they have some points against to be successful:

If you get a tattoo choose by another person, does this really mean something for you? Is it what you really care about forever?

It is the part of your body where you get the tattoo visible to give the message to everyone?

A tattoo really helps the social causes?

These points show that there is a problem with the concept of the whole campaign and might be created misunderstood between the possible followers, and weakness for opponents to tattoos.

Just with some time we will see what happen with this social media campaign.

http://socialtattooproject.com/

Social Feedback as an Indicator of Television Ratings

Here's an interesting article I just saw that talks about the collection of tweets and facebook posts about television shows to gage how popular the shows are. It's a great example of how word of mouth mixed with social media can be used to report consumer interest and ratings to television networks. 


The article explains: Word of mouth has always been a huge factor for new TV shows, and these days, everyone is looking to Twitter and Facebook to gauge interest in TV show premieres...... Of course, social feedback doesn’t always translate to ratings, as different target audiences use social media differently, but it’s nonetheless an interesting indicator.


http://gigaom.com/video/fall-tv-social-chart/ 

Social Media & Disclosure

We've been speaking a lot about word of mouth marketing and blogs within class and the topic of disclosure has come up a few times. When a person is endorsing a product, it's useful to know whether their being paid to do so and what their relationship to the company is. The more honest people and companies are about these connections, the more validity there is to the information they're sharing; however, did you know that the Federal Trade Commission released a set of guidelines, rules, and regulations that covers testimonials and endorsements within social media?

Although the guidelines are a few years old, they had to be updated in 2009 to include the new channels that endorsers are using to spread their messages. Before that, they had not been updated for over three decades! I realize the importance of these guidelines and definitely think that the connections should be fully transparent, but I was definitely surprised to find out that the FTC has carefully outlined them for everyone. If you're just finding out about them, how do you feel about it? Check out the article that covers some of the rules and let us know about anything you find that's interesting.

Trying out BzzAgent

Class today got me thinking, what is BzzAgent all about? So, after class, I signed up to be an agent. The first steps were tedious- I spent about an hour taking surveys about my preferences- and nothing really seemed to be happening. They have to contact you for campaigns, so hopefully my answers were interesting enough to get picked! I'm curious to see what comes out of this. I'll keep you guys posted on what happens! Hopefully I'll get my first campaign soon!

Apple's iPhone 4S, iOS 5 and iPod roundup: details, specs and release dates

Yesterday, Apple announced the new iPhone4s. I found this blog, engadget, to have the most useful information in deciding whether or not to buy it. I currently have a blackberry, and am switching to the new iPhone 4s.

Apple's iPhone 4S, iOS 5 and iPod roundup: details, specs and release dates

Audience Reach and Effectiveness Measurement of Online Ads

Today, I received an e-mail from one of the partners of the ad agency that I interned for this past summer. I thought it would be interesting to share:

Two new Nielsen reports, "Reaching the Right Audiences Online" and "Beyond Clicks and Impression," have some interesting revelations about audience reach and effectiveness measurement of online ads, such as:

• Online campaigns are consistently delivered to people who are not a part of the intended audience.
• Campaigns with high impressions only manage to reach a small percentage of the intended audience.
• Online is more effective than some popular TV shows in delivering audiences.
• Click-through rates are not a strong measure of brand impact as there is almost no correlation between click-through rates and brand opinion or offline sales.
• However, brand metrics for online campaigns can predict offline sales.

Using Social Media to Predict Box Office

A 2-year old company, Fizziology, tracks social media to try to predict how much movies will make on their opening weekends. They pull information from Facebook, Twitter, and other blogs to help determine the amount of general buzz surrounding a movie, and this past summer, their predictions were closer to actual numbers than traditional box office projections. Social media uses have been expanding greatly, but I would have never thought to use them in this way. It struck me as a very inventive way to utilize social media.

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/09/30/social-media-site-predicts-box-office/

Under Armour Employs Scarcity Principle

Under Armour launched its new footwear line, for purchase online as of today. When looking at the webpage for the "UA Charge RC Running Shoes" I noticed a line stating "limited quantities available". Looks like they are trying to employ the scarcity principle to make the shoes seem more valuable.

http://www.underarmour.com/shop/us/en/footwear&cid=PS%7CGoogle%7CBrand%20+%20Keyword%7CUS%7C%7C%7Cua%20charge%20rc%7C?008=&004=2097315274&005=26939737954&006=7103583994&007=Search&002=1227021