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Viral Video / Corn Shucking?

1 Video, 2 Million Views

You’ve probably heard it a 1000 times, that creating good unique content is the secret to writing an interesting blog post or creating a video.  This is true but sometimes we confuse creative writing with good content, and they are not necessarily the same thing.

A story can be written or told through a video, and it can be well constructed and reported in a creative fashion, but that may not make it interesting. Additionally, the topic we are writing about may be headline news or it could be as obscure as shucking corn.

How many times have you labored over a blog post or video trying to make it the best it can be hoping that it will go viral?  What makes this video so compelling that almost two million people have already watched it?

What caused this video to go viral?

Is it the elderly gentleman who is the star of the movie?  Is it do to the popularity of his topic?  Is it the lavish sound stage where this is filmed?  Is it the script?  Obviously, it is none of these things.

This video went viral because it offered a cooking tip that resonated with a lot of people.  It is probably something you have never heard before; I was not aware of this tip and the video was forwarded to me from a casual friend.

This video is the epitome of unique, interesting & believable content.

I can guarantee you that this fellow had no idea that his video would become a viral sensation across the Internet.  If you note from his channel, this is the only video he has produced. Neither his YouTube channel or this video uses any SEO. It does not appear that this gentleman has a website, Facebook, Google+ or Twitter account, for all we know he made this video with the intention of sharing a cooking tip with his kids.

Take away…

So the message here and the answer to creating a viral video is simply to make it interesting.  If two million people are interested in learning a new method of cooking and shucking corn imagine how many people might be interested in what you have to say.

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Netflix Scores a Qwikster Marketing Faux-pas

Good marketing advice?

netflixdvd Netflix Scores a Qwikster Marketing Faux pasMaybe you’ve heard that Netflix has decided to rename its DVD delivery service “Qwikster.” A catchy name and one that would be easy to brand, but there is one slight problem; the Twitter account is already owned by someone.  A whois search shows that Qwikster.com has been registered by Netflix, but www.youtube.com/qwikster is also owned by someone not related to Netflix.

qwikster twitter Netflix Scores a Qwikster Marketing Faux pasAre these insurmountable problems? Maybe not, but IMHO Netflix didn’t do their homework when researching the name they chose to do business under. When I deal with a client that is looking to brand themselves online, developing a suitable name is only part of the challenge. Making sure that you can brand that name on the social networks is paramount.

Netflix has the option of buying those accounts from their owners (lucky owners), but that could be prohibitively expensive for companies with fewer resources. Better to find a name that is available for your domain and the related social media sites. If nothing else, Netflix should have approached those owners (silently through an intermediary) and acquired the accounts prior to making their public announcement.

Whoa boys – slow down!

It seems that Netflix is moving so fast that they are making a number of faux-pas of late. They just came under a lot of heat for a pricing announcement that wasn’t received well by their customers.

Don’t misunderstand my intentions with this post, I love Netflix and was a customer of theirs for many years. I wouldn’t be so presumptuous to assume that my advice is better than what they are receiving from their marketing team. My comments are geared to businesses facing similar decisions.

When you are choosing a domain name to brand a company, service or product, do your homework and ensure that the social media sites can support the marketing effort with accounts and channels that are also available. Replicating your brand name with Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social sites will make the marketing effort easier and create more awareness with your audience.

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+1 for the Weiner story?

In my previous article I talked about Google’s new +1 button and this is a short follow up. Using the Drudge Report’s headlines, I clicked through to most of the stories on today’s page.  My purpose was to see if any of the websites were using the +1 button yet.

The funny thing was that of all the stories, I could only find one that was utilizing Google’s new voting button. In Google’s defense, this social rating system is less than a week old, but we’re used to seeing webmasters jump when Google sets a guideline. The only story I found using the +1 button was “Weiner on wife support” (New York Post)

weiner wife support google plus one +1 for the Weiner story?What I found most interesting was that as popular as this news story has become, 321 people Liked it on Facebook, 40 Tweeted about it but only 2 people clicked the Google +1 button. I would not draw conclusions at this stage, but I found it odd that most online agencies hadn’t yet launched the +1 button and the only instance of it being used was surprisingly low.

Anyway, no conclusions or conjectures…I just thought this was interesting and wanted to share it with you. I would love to hear your thoughts on this and ask if you are planning to add the +1 button to your website or blog? Leave a comment below and BTW, be sure to Like, Tweet or +1 it…(we need a new term for “plus one” – any ideas?)

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+1 Button? Buzz? Like?

Are you confused yet?

click like button +1 Button? Buzz? Like?

Facebook Like

plus one icon +1 Button? Buzz? Like?

Google

Unless you are a hard-core geek who follows the daily updates of all things web, you may not be aware that Google launched a new service this week creatively entitled +1 button (plus one).  Basically, this is Google’s answer to the Facebook ‘Like’ button.

+1?  Why should you care?

According to Google, the +1 button will influence search rankings and will be one of the signals they use to determine a page’s relevance along with social signals from other services.  I have written before that the ‘Like’ is becoming the new ‘Link’ in that social proof or approval is now a factor in establishing authority online (see 7 reasons why you need a Facebook Page).

As people see recommendations from friends, Google says publishers could see “more, and better qualified traffic coming from Google”. They see the +1 button as “shorthand for ‘this is pretty cool’ or ‘you should check this out’. Google says you should click the +1 button when you “like, agree with, or want to recommend” something to others.

google buzz +1 Button? Buzz? Like?Don’t confuse the +1 Button with the Google Buzz button, but there are many similarities. If I were a betting man I’d wager that Buzz and +1 will eventually merge in their functionality, but there is little reason to have both services competing for user involvement.

As marketing types we already have to promote our content with Likes, Tweets, and other social media updates and now +1 actions. Many website owners have already replaced the Buzz button with the +1 button. If you want to learn more about this and want the code for the button to add to your site, you can get it here.

Will +1 catch on better than ‘Buzz’?

So what’s your opinion? Is +1 just a me too catch-up, or do you think it will compete favorably with the Facebook Like?  Are you planning to add this to your website or blog?  I’d love to see what you have to say, leave a comment below…

Try this… Over in the R-hand column under the ‘Get Social’ heading I’ve added the +1 button.  Do me a favor and click it, let’s see if this gets Google’s attention over time. I’ll keep you posted, thanks.

Related post: Facebook Internet Coup d’état?

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