Sarah Silverman and the Jewish Council for Education & Research use entertainment, humor and smarts with a clever, yet almost naughty marketing campaign. The Great Schlep campaign asks you to visit your grandparents in Florida. It also provides you with “tools” to use while there to convince them to vote for Obama.
Here is a guest post I wrote for Jacob Morgan’s Blog on Social Media, Marketing, Technology, and Life:
This is not a new idea. We have seen it after the deaths of celebrities, musicians, and people involved in highly publicized situations, such as the massacre at Virgina Tech. However, my first hand experience with it is something new.
Yesterday, someone I went to college with passed away very suddenly. The cause is still unknown and he was barely 25 years old. He was the type of person who could make friends with everyone, wore a smile like it would never go out of style, and had his whole life ahead of him.
As you can imagine, the news spread like wildfire throughout various online social channels from Facebook status messages wishing peace to the creation of a group in his memory.
The most touching outpouring of support is his wall. It is being bombarded with messages and photos from aquaintences, friends, and family members. Scrolling through the page and seeing the variety of sentiments from simple goodbyes, silly memories and expressions of anger is not only beautiful, but pretty amazing.
Before social portals like Facebook, people did not have such an immediate and expansive outlet for publicly dealing with a loss like this. These mediums allow people to share their feelings and comfort one another with the simple tap of a few keys. I can only imagine what this support will mean to the people who were closest to him or to others that have gone through similar experiences.
I spend a lot of time studying and discussing the uses of social media and its place in our society. How it makes our lives easier, how companies can benefit from it, which sites do it the best, and so forth. I could go on for days about any of these topics. This is the first time I have found a use for social media that has left me almost speechless. Connecting with people online takes on a whole new meaning when it connects users like this.
Businesses are created to make money. Sure they offer services and satisfy the needs or desires of clients, patrons and/or consumers, but at the end of the day…it’s all about the bottom line.
To achieve goals and hit numbers, companies have to compete–and compete well. Sometimes this evolves into a “take no prisoners” mentality where competitors become the enemy which MUST be beaten. With agencies this can equate to poaching clients and sabotaging pitches. Is there or should there be an unspoken code of conduct amongst agencies to keep the peace?
Not to sound naive, but if an agency lands a clients and has a multi-year contract with said client…haven’t they earned the right to service the account without intervention from other agencies? I can appreciate a strategic email or comment by another agency along the lines of “Hey I noticed this” or “Did you think about that,” but where should the limit be? Is there a time when pitching to a competitor’s clients is inappropriate?
Social networking has literally saved lives. Remember the man who was whisked off to prison in a foreign country and had just enough time to send out a message on twitter from his cell phone? That act of microblogging essentially saved him from an open-ended stint in a foreign prison.
This story received press coverage and acclaim on mainstream media and in the blogosphere alike.
Apparently, popular culture was not paying attention. A MediaPost Publication released this morning quotes that 58 percent of the general population does not know what social networking is. How exactly is this possible?
The article goes on to say that over one-third of those who are engaging in social networking say it is losing its luster, and they are subsequently losing interest. Most other studies, reports and predictions hail that social networking is still an up-and-coming forum that holds amazing marketing possibilities. So who should we believe? Marketers or the public?
Is social networking destined for greatness and mass adoption or join the ranks of outdated fads before it?
As mentioned yesterday, LinkedIn promised to have added features to their group functionality today….and they do. It may take a while for this to become a means for business communication, but it seems to be a good start (I have had 3 people comment on my discussion thread since the start of writing this blog…about 15 minutes).
Each group has its own homepage which has tabs on the top for different areas (similar to the New Facebook profile setup) including the new discussion area:
Currently the homepage is primarily focused on the new discussion feature, but may be an area for further tools such as a video or photo uploader.
The Discussion Section shows the most recent discussions as the focus of the page, but offers more recent discussions, recent comments, most comments, my discussions, and my comments on the side navigation:
The Members tab offers a heightened view of the members of the group. It also offers a convenient new member name search:
All in All I think LinkedIn has done a great job with the execution of these new features. It took them some time to get them implemented, but the time was well spent. The features feel right for the environment and in time should really help the purpose of the LinkedIn groups.
I recently received an email from LinkedIn that thanked me for moderating a group and went on to announce some great features that are set to launch tomorrow morning. These features include:
Are you excited for this change in LinkedIn? I will offer a full review of the functionality after the updates have been made.
The whole concept of viral marketing can be a bit vague, but when you stumble across something that has that “it’ quality, it’s obvious. One of my favorite videos on YouTube, Charlie Bit My Finger, has just shy of 46 million views. That is a lot of hits even if you are a major brand.
After watching this video for the upteinth time, I started to wonder about what makes this video made it so popular? Why do users pass it along to their friends?
Here is why I think this viral video campaign is effective:
1. Hilarious. To make a recommendation, the content needs to be worth the hype. This is worthy.
2. Genuine. You can literally see the pain on the older brother’s face
3. Quotable. After recieving sideways glances when I blurt out “That really hurt Charlie” in a British accent, I feel the need to show nonbelievers what I am referencing. Thus creating a new crop of Charlie lovers.
4. Novel. Viral videos need to be unique and something you don’t see everyday.
What are some other criteria for creating a viral online video campaign?
Any activity that can be deemed as spam or involves impersonation will likely get your twitter account shut off. Keep in mind that twitter can be used for commercial and promotion uses, but the line has now been drawn.
