Spreading like Viral Content

The thing about viral content… is that its all about the timing. You never know what piece of content you create is going to strike a chord with the internet. Seriously, the thing about a virus an how it spreads is predictable in its unpredictability. Hello Gangnam Style and the Harlem Shake…

There are somethings that you can do more then others to make sure that your content spreads.

Positivity. One of the keys to viral marketing and ad campaigns. If it tugs on your heartstrings, its probably going to go viral. Creating Viral Content? The secret is get contagious…, “Positive uplifting content always gets shared. Remember, there’s a lot of unhappy people in the world, and while there are different reasons for being unhappy, content that is uplifting and inspirational helps people get out of their rut… even if it’s only for a few seconds”. Enter the Dove Real Beauty Campaign. Dove has been working tirelessly to show women they are beautiful. This year their “Real Beauty Sketches” took the internet by storm. What helped the cause and The secret recipe to Viral Content Marketing success was that women were emotional engaged and identified with the content. Women wanted to inform, inspire and engage with a company and campaign that made them feel valued.

Why do memes an videos spread like wildfire across the internet, because there funny. Online marketers are trying to tap into the potential of viral marketing. Why content goes viral explains that 60% of ads that become viral usually are humorous in nature. I think an addendum to this is that people find the ads funny and then they spoof the ads. Which draws viewers back to the original ad.

People also like content that they can quickly consume. 5 Key elements of Viral Content  skimming the content quickly and accessibility of share buttons also adds to contents ability to go viral.

Questions:

When you share viral content why do you share it?

What was your favorite viral content from the year?

A picture is worth a Thousand Words

I will be honest with you. I feel very uninspired as I write this post, I think it’s because the weather is changing in Seattle. I feel the little tickle in the back of my throat that is usually the clue I’m about to get sick. What’s even worse about being uninspired is that I’m discussing some of my favorite social media platforms! I love Pinterest! Ever since I heard 2 girlfriends discussing how many hours they spent on Pinterest I new I’d be hooked. Seriously, I joined the site back when you still had to get and invitation to join.  This was me when I first joined… maybe still is a little bit

People (women especially) were not the only ones to recognize that Pinterest could be used to drive consumers and unique views to your site. There are 10x more clicks of than the Tweet this button. Interesting fact considering that the tweet this button is in a lot more places then the Pin-it button. I’ve noticed because there are times I want to add something to my pinterest and I look for the button and it’s not there. Usually people are pinning things they want to buy, stuff that inspires them, places to visit, recipes to remember. The options are limitless when it comes to pin boards.  See examples from my own personal pinterest

People use pin boards to post Youtube videos which is interesting considering that Youtube beats Facebook with consumers The consumers are using youtube to consider if they want to buy a product by watching the videos online. Including Youtube as part of your Social Media , is integral to any person just getting started in the online market. The important fact to remember is that like any social media you have to keep it updated and even schedule your posts.

Facebook has already realized that videos and pictures are important parts of peoples interactions with social media. Facebook has adjusted their edge rank algorithm to account for this fact. Now other people are getting in on the photo sharing game. Instagram which is owned by facebook it the primary name in the photo sharing game. Most people can recognize and photo posted through Instagram by the fact that it’s the shaped like a polaroid and usually has a filter applied. Insert obligatory puppy photo here. Seriously… my Instagram is full of my dog. 🙂

Instagram is not the only kid in the social media image sharing game. Vine is the twitter equivalent of videos. The length of videos is 7 seconds just like Twitter’s limited tweet of 140 characters. 5 vines are tweeted every second. People will watch endless number of vines. What you can share online is becoming limitless.

Questions:

1) Which of these three image sharing sites do you like best and why?

 

2) Though Pinterest is mainly used by women, in what ways can you see men using the site?

See below for my favorite from comedian Bo Burnham 🙂

 

The War of Words… Google+ vs. Facebook

I’ll admit it. I excitedly joined Google+ last year when it first came out, when no one else I knew had joined. I had 2 circles outside the normal ones and one person in each circle. It just sat there, and sat there, and sat there.  NOTHING HAPPENED! You know why, because I thought that Google+ was going to be like Facebook. Surprise, surprise, It’s not.

Facebook, for me has always had its ups and downs. When the news feed first came out, I thought my world had ended. I don’t want to see all of this useless information, from these useless people I friended because we were in one picture together or we met at that party one time. WHY do I care about their LIFE?!? I don’t. All the sudden my facebook was full of clutter and then something magical happened. Facebook introduce “the algorithim.” The clouds parted, the heaven sang and my news feed was magically clear.

What those geniuses at facebook did was engaged the users with the end result being you get your own personalized facebook friends newspaper on a daily basis. In Facebook: Here’s How Your Newsfeed Works Mashable  explains “This new strategy has created an uptick in user engagement, he adds. A recent study by Facebook found that this new ranking system led to a 13% increase in stories read, and a 5% increase in interactions (Likes, shares, comments)” Engagement is important for any business looking to use the social media giant for its own purposes. Five Facebook Posts that Spark Massive Engagement  the biggest ways to get social media engagement from followers is to ask for it.

Getting people to engage with your brand is as easy as pushing a like button. What small businesses fail to realize is that by focusing only on facebook for engagement with their clients. They are missing out on the opportunities that Google+ has to offer.

Google+ can really be a savvy business persons best friend. No joke though. The number one reason is that Google+ drives up your SEO. If you’re a small business and on the web, then you should care about your SEO. Check out this article if you don’t believe me, 10 Ways Google+ Will Improve your SEO Honestly, I didn’t believe it myself at first. Then I started blogging and utilizing my long forgotten Goggle+ account. Voila! I’m ranking higher then my former nemesis of SEO, the Helena, Montana Peace Seekers Association! You might ask, why this sudden change and my nemesis’ sudden decline because Google is rewarding you for using its social media platform. Which makes it very easy to begin to except Why Google+ is an Inevitable Part of Your Content Marketing Strategy. You can’t ignore Google+, as I did for so long, because guess what Google and facebook can’t play nice. Whereas, when you use Google+ it only helps you. Hello, SEO boost!

Facebook is beginning to peak out from behind its self imposed wall, with the new graph search. Is this too little to late to match what is happening on Google+? Time will tell, as it always has on the internet. As for me, I’ve dusted off my sad Google+ account and am happily +1ing away!

Questions:

Would you use Google+ merely for the SEO boost or do you see the usefulness of Google+ for business in relation to facebook?

What do you think is the least cheesy way to drive engagement on Facebook?

 

Twitter: A Life Lived in 140 Characters or Less #TwitterRules

Although I have long understood the principles of twitter, I have not always been a proponent of the social media giant that has taken the news world by storm. Would you have ever thought, in your wildest imaginings, that twitter would break news faster then, well the news.

Remember the guy who tweeted the Osama bin Ladin raid? He was just online late at night. He inadvertently broke the news of a secret military operation, from Abbottabad. Twitter is global, and its not going away. People need to learn to leverage Twitter in all its magnificence for there own purposes.

In using twitter for business and self-promotion. Here are some of the three ways to use twitter effectively to build a personal brand.

Be Prepared:

Twitter is more effective for a business when you go into the twittersphere with a plan. Aaron Lee addresses this exact issue in his blog post, “If I could start Twitter over again, what I would have done differently.” I may not agree with all of Lee’s conclusions, but I don’t have the cadre of followers he has. I do think his tweet cheat sheet is useful. Its a list of basic twitterquette for effective tweeters

Be Responsive:

Every article and blog post says the same thing. Twitter is all about engagement. It’s about how you engage, who you engage with, and what you say when you engage with them. Some brands are totally doing twitter right. They’ve got the right amount of tweets balanced with the right amount of follower engagement. Interestingly, three of my favorite twitter feeds makes the Top 25 Most Engaged Brands on Twitter list: ESPN, CNN and Funny or Die. Because I personally follow all of these brands, I can definitely understand the fact that they make the list. CNN and ESPN are where I go to get my quick fix of news and NCAA Football. Funny or Die is entirely different. The site is driven by user engagement. People vote whether a video posted to the site is funny or must die. Who can ever forget this Pearl of a video posted to the site…

Be yourself:

If I have learned anything, Its that you need to need to be yourself when it comes to social media. People recognize authenticity and are drawn to you for a reason. Currently, I only use twitter for my own personal enjoyment. If I have learned anything, its that I’m a brand, I’m unique. I need to use social media to showcase myself and build my personal brand. Become apart of conversations that are happening online. One of the fastest and easiest ways to do this is through hashtags.

I love #hashtags! I usually use them as an emphasis of an over arcing theme of a tweet rather then to engage in conversation. Hey, I’m #weird. Seriously though, hashtags are everywhere. You can’t see a movie trailer, tv show, or music video even without a hashtag. So, get involved and start tagging.

Social media has enmeshed itself in our culture. It’s our responsibility to recognize where the boundaries between our true self and our online self cross and diverge. It’s important to be yourself online, but you needs to keep somethings personal. Over sharing happens quite frequently. It’s important to find a balance between self and the

Fuel for my Fire!

Inspire-Connect-Achieve

These are three tenets to live by when beginning any foray into social media. It’s a personal mantra of mine to only post things on my facebook and timeline that I would be proud to support or for my grandma to see (I ❤ my Yia yia). I think the same can be said as a brand advocate for my company’s social media. Many people who have grown along with the evolution of facebook probably understand this as well.

Pam Moore give people 50 rules to get people engaged. Some of these rules are pretty self explanatory. The first 5 especially. 1. Inspire them. 2. Connect with them in an authentic, human way. 3. Entertain them. 4. Educate them. 5. Empower them.

My favorite from the list: 15. Make them feel emotion of any kind. Make them belly laugh or do the happy cry. (I’m going to try and achieve this from one of you this week!)

Helena’s Social Media Rules:

I realized a long time ago there are some things you say online, and some things you don’t. Here are some of the personal social media rules that I live by. I think its important to know what your social media personality is…

• Keep it clean (Well I try anyway)
• Keep people engaged. If I think it’s interesting, someone else might agree. If not, resort to cats, baby animals, or a meme (Grumpy Cat =’s trifecta)
• Know what people like.
• If you didn’t share it first, share it second. You have followers that they don’t; people still might want to see it, a re-share is a great ego booster.
• Engage directly with people. Make sure you respond! People like it when other people pay attention. It’s good to reciprocate.

A lot of my rules are very similar to Guy Kawasaki Apple’s former chief evangelist’s 10 tips to build Social Media influence…

Ten rules for JWA to live by:

Seriously, I’m taking them to my boss tomorrow. This is how JWA will apply the 10 tip according to me:

1. Start Yesterday! (Yup. We’re already playing catch up)
2. Find the right social network for you (LinkedIn, possibly Google+)
3. Make a great profile (We need to invest in some stock photos)
4. Curate and link (Know where content comes from)
5. Cheat (The term is “leverage” 🙂 )
6. Restrain yourself (Truth)
7. Add bling (People like pretty things)
8. Respond (but keep it simple)
9. Stay positive or stay silent (Make sure you respond to the critics, but don’t be Amy’s Baking Company)
10. Repeat good stuff (Even if it’s from a competitor)

QUESTIONS:

1. What are your personal social media rules? Do you have any? How has class changed your ideas about that?

2. What Rule from the 50 rules stuck out to you? Comment and tell me what was your favorite. Tweet me and see if you can achieve your goal! (See my goal above to achieve #15)