Social Media: How Can I Infect You with My Virus if you’re Not Even Here?
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Written By Noah Mallin | June 10, 2009 | Share This
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Typhoid Mary (not to be confused with Mustang Sally) was a turn-of-the-century cook who managed to spread illness and death over a period of many years simply by making meals for lots of people. Oh yeah, and her aversion to hand-washing helped. So when clients ask about Viral Videos, it’s helpful to remember Typhoid Mary who, after all, was a very successful virus spreader. There were 3 conditions that allowed her to be so prolific:
1) Constant repeated contact with sizable groups of people
2) Her role as a food source for these people
3) The unhindered presence of the Typhus infection
In social media, there is a tendency to dwell on the food without paying attention to the infection or the people. Or, to put it another way, serving up a piping hot video won’t get you anywhere if there aren’t people there to watch it (waiting for the meal as it were) or the presence of that wonderful germ of an idea or a hook that makes them want to spread it around.
I’m not going to delve into what makes a video compelling from a creative standpoint – there are plenty of others out there who have tried to tackle this. I’ll simply say that the element of surprise has always seemed to do it for me whether it’s that voice coming out of Susan Boyle, the eyebrows on the Cadbury kids (or is it the balloon?), or the raunch of Gilette’s guide to shaving one’s nether regions.
What I can do is reach for yet another analogy, that of the tree falling in the forest. Susan Boyle was one of reams of videos posted every season and lapped up by fans of the show Britain’s Got Talent. Gillette has several videos in the series (though who cares about armpit shaving) that includes their own tree metaphor. The Cadbury spot also had the benefit of TV exposure in several world markets to drive interest and send folks scrambling to YouTube to find that it had been helpfully uploaded.
For a brand that hopes to make an impact with videos online it won’t do you any good to have a great video but no-one to push it out to. Even if you use television as your medium, without dedicated, branded profiles it’s hard to track the response from people (a problem I would imagine Cadbury is suffering from right now as they lack a dedicated channel on YouTube).
Give your brand’s fans a steady meal of video assets and other goodies and a place to talk to likeminded people and you will set the stage for that full scale viral video outbreak. Even if what goes out there is less-than viral in impact, it will help cement a relationship with fans and give insight into what they think and expect from your brand.
Then, once you serve up the piece de resistance, a video practically infested with viral goodness, you will have a built-in audience already willing to get infected and to infect others too. If you really want to do it right, franchise by setting up profiles on MySpace, Facebook, and other relevant social sites and crosslink everything so the sickness spreads faster and to more people.
Questions or comments? Feel free to leave them here or check out Reprise Media folks on Twitter.
Topics: Search: Video, Social Media, YouTube |
Sohbet ve arkadaşlik portali.
I’m not going to delve into what makes a video compelling from a creative standpoint – there are plenty of others out there who have tried to tackle this. I’ll simply say that the element of surprise has always seemed to do it for me whether it’s that voice coming out of Susan Boyle, the eyebrows on the Cadbury kids (or is it the balloon?), or the raunch of Gilette’s guide to shaving one’s nether regions.
Perfect.