October 2012

Viral Videos

content, e-Marketing, social media, twitter, youtube Leave a comment

Last lecture we spoke about viral videos and the use of social media. Since then, a celebrity sensation has created the latest viral video.

Of all celebrities, Justin Bieber easily takes the title of Twitter king. With 29 million follows/fans/”Beliebers” there doesn’t seem to be anything they can’t achieve together. Most recently, Justin leveraged his influential status to promote his new music video “Beauty and a Beat” featuring Nicki Minaj. With such a large number of followers, Justin could simply have tweeted the link to his new video and it would have achieved millions of hits within the day. However, he decided to take a different approach..

On October 10th, Justin Bieber sent these tweets:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later in the day, someone using the name “gexwy” tweeted Justin the following messages:

And so the speculation began.. countless media articles were posted speculating everything from sex tapes and naked photographs to drug use and violence. Little did they know that Justin was in the middle of a prank..

After days of speculation and publicity, at noon on October 12th, Justin Bieber released his new music video “Beauty and a Beat.” The music video received the most hits in 24 hours of any Vevo music videos on YouTube – 10.6 million and growing.

So what made the launch of this video so successful?

  1. Justin Bieber’s influential celebrity status
  2. The online community of “Beliebers” he has established and nurtured on his rise to fame
  3. The “buzz” he created over 2 days with a fake Twitter account
  4. The video serves as an outlet for Justin to share his story with fans
  5. Production of the video is original, relateable and funny

This story is a prime example of the power of social media and its impact on the world when used to its full potential.

Tumblr

content, e-Marketing, social media, tumblr Leave a comment

Tumblr is a social network that allows users to create blogs to share anything: text, photos, quotes, links, music and videos. A successful Tumblr blog that has many UBC students talking is:

 www.whatweshouldcallubc.tumblr.com

 

This blog and similar “what we should call me” blogs capitalize on the humor of everyday situations. The UBC version takes situations, places, annoyances etc. around UBC that most students encounter on a daily basis and finds the humor in them and expresses it using GIF’s. Often UBC is criticized by students for being cliquey within faculties and for getting limited opportunities to interact with students beyond their faculty. The success of this blog has sparked the beginning of a campus wide community, connecting students from all faculties and years through one common goal: finding humour in everyday frustrations.

This blog capitalizes on the “community” aspect of the 7 C’s of E-Marketing.  It unites a broad community of students through the simplicity of moving images. It allows users to interact and provide feedback by posting comments or questions relating to posts.

Sauderites

 

When someone asks a really stupid question with one minute left in lecture

The popularity and success of this site stems from several sources.

1. Firstly, the anonymity of the blogger creates a sense of mystery. Without knowing if the student is male or female, a Psychology major or an aspiring Marketing student, a social butterfly or a nerd allows users to create their own sense of who the blogger is and diminishes cross-faculty stereotypes.

2. Secondly, the content of the site is relateable. All UBC students have experienced fellow students asking questions just as class is supposed to end or having to detour for miles around campus just to reach their class. Students experience these frustrations daily and this blog offers a place to vent with other likeminded students.

3. Lastly, the bloggers ability to turn frustration and anger into something laughable. After a stressful day, students love to relax and laugh at something that happened to them and frustrated them just hours before.

Finding out my professors know about this blog

Sites with a cause

e-Marketing, keywords, measurable data, social media, twitter Leave a comment

www.NoHomophobes.com

On July 5th 2012, a website was launched by the University of Alberta titled: No Homophobes. As the site states:

“It is designed as a social mirror to show the prevalence of casual homophobia in our society. Words and phrases like “faggot,” “dyke,” “no homo,” and “so gay” are used casually in everyday language, despite promoting the continued alienation, isolation and — in some tragic cases — suicide of sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ) youth.”

The website searches Twitter for 4 words: Faggot, No Homo, So Gay and Dyke. With these Tweets, the site simply compiles a count of the number of times each word is used that day. Below, it posts every single Tweet from people around the world that contains one or more of these 4 words.

What interests me about this site is its ability to show these Tweets in real time. When individuals see the amount of Tweets using homophobic language the instant they happen, the impact is far greater than a simple number that happened yesterday. This impact is heightened when the Tweets are occurring so frequently that they are unable to be read before they have left the screen. In addition to daily statistics, a count is kept of how many Tweets containing each of these 4 words have been posted in the last week and since the site began 3 months ago.

Also of interest is the simplicity of the site. The design and interface is easy to read and understand within seconds of clicking the link. The clever use of colour and the lack of words allows the user to observe the facts and interpret them as they please. Searching Twitter for 4 words and plotting their use over time is such a simple concept yet so powerful. Like most people, I was absolutely shocked at the volume of homophobic remarks on such a global social platform. A site like this compiles all of these Tweets and displays them in a meaningful way that sparks a multitude of emotion. I think the success of this site lies in the volume of Tweets. When individuals see a single homophobic remark on their Twitter feed, it is unlikely to spark much emotion. However, when placed side by side and tallied throughout a day reaching numbers of over 60,000, the affect of these Tweets multiplies and demands action. This site provokes thought and demands change.