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YouTube - SEO & Social Media Marketing

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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YouTube Creator Playbook – Get it!

YouTube wants to help you create better videos

key puzzle piece YouTube Creator Playbook Get it!Okay, you’ve read my blog posts (and hopefully my book) so you know that I recommend video as an important piece of your marketing strategy. If you missed it, understand that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the universe and throws off the best Google juice of any ‘authority’ site. Two very good reasons to have a video on YouTube.

There are dozens of other reasons to use video such as it helps keep people on your site longer (a metric that Google uses to judge the value of your website), and video does more to sell your story than any amount of text and pretty pictures.

YouTube wants to help you create better videos. They are offering the YouTube Creator Playbook that offers suggestions on how to create better, more compelling videos.  The playbook also includes new strategies, tips, and optimizations.

This isn’t a fluff piece or a hype-driven con to get you to buy something. This is good stuff and I recommend that you download this free ‘how to’ guide.  Check out the YouTube Creator Playbook.

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Facebook, be very careful…

Back in March I posted an article, “Facebook Internet Coup d’état?”, in which I gave my opinion about using Facebook as a company’s primary website.  The upshot was that I didn’t think it was prudent to permit Facebook (or any other 3rd. party) to have control of my public online presence.  Remember Google’s famous tagline…“Do no evil”?

hear see speak no evil Facebook, be very careful...

Anyone who has ever tried to contact Facebook will tell you that they offer virtually no customer support.  You’re on your own if you have questions.  This is bad enough for those who have basic questions about using the service, but it becomes a serious problem if you wake up one morning and discover that Facebook whacked your account.  Presto!  Your ‘Page’ has disappeared, your friends get an error message and you can’t login.  What can you do?

Unless you know somebody who knows somebody, you could be out of luck (SOL).  There is no support line or email address where you can go for help. David Fagin, an AOL News Writer, discovered this when he was identified as a ‘Spammer’ by Facebook for soliciting new friends and his account was closed.  He is now suing Facebook for $1 to bring this issue to public attention.

Facebook recently took down pages from Ars Technica, a highly regarded tech company.  According to WebProNews.com, this action was taken because one person complained that they were violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Can you imagine what it could mean to your business if a disgruntled customer or employee, or worse yet, a competitor of yours complained to Facebook about your company?  Imagine your Facebook presence disappearing because of one malicious prank?

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not anti-Facebook and I don’t think the sky is falling.  However, as a business you need to be aware that Facebook is still an infant company and is in spite of their meteoric growth, they are still shaping their policies and stumbling around defining their services (or in the case of customer service – the lack of it).

Can you imagine what it could mean to your business if a disgruntled customer or employee, or worse yet, a competitor of yours complained to Facebook about your company?  Imagine your Facebook presence disappearing because of one malicious prank?

Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not anti-Facebook and I don’t think the sky is falling.  However, as a business you need to be aware that Facebook is still an infant company and is in spite of their meteoric growth, they are still shaping their policies and stumbling around defining their service.

Facebook is one of many business tools

Facebook is a marketing tool for businesses wanting to reach customers and expand their reach. You should view it as such and not diminish the efforts you in building your brand on your primary website and blog.  Use social networking to augment your business promotion, not replace it.  I saw this description somewhere…

Linkedin is for people you know.
Facebook is for people you used to know.
Twitter is for people you want to know.
YouTube is for getting Google to know you!

Social adds SEO juice!

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