Tag Archives: viral

Video: Not Viral, Spreadable

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[vimeo 7585932]

If you can’t see the above video, click here, or view it directly on Vimeo.

In the vein of sharing videos over the weekend, this week I have is an exceptional presentation from Sam Ford, Joshua Green and Henry Jenkins that looks at “moving from sticky to spreadable: the antidote to viral marketing and the broadcast mentality.” (You can find out more about the guys at their blog, PepperDigital.)

I love it for a few reasons:

  1. It clarifies what “viral” really is, and what “spreadable” is. This is useful because it is hard to make a “viral video”, but it is a lot easier and more intuitive to make something “spreadable”. You’ll see what I mean as you watch.
  2. I love it because it uses language that we’ve been talking about here – spreadable, broadcast, social, reach. I’m right there!
  3. It gives me some great case studies.
  4. It helps me to not think of people as single individuals but as nodes in a network – meaning I should consider what is the best for their network, not just for them.

Your Leading Thoughts

  • I want to know what your number 1 takeaway is, and how you can use it tomorrow.

Video: Unmarketing

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[vimeo 12743658]

If you can’t see the video above, click here, or watch it on Vimeo.

I watched this video this week by Scott Stratten (regularly known as @unmarketing), which is an hour long presentation on what Social Media is really about: social – a.k.a. relationship.

You know I don’t do this often – so given that I am posting this with little more than what I think, I thoroughly recommend you watch it.

My favourite bits:

  1. The opening story that Scott tells. N0 matter how advanced we want to get with Social Media (you know, my frameworks and all), we have to remember so many businesses still are getting the most basic customer service horribly messed up.
  2. Automated tweets and other Social Media fails because it is pretending to be present - and the most important thing about Social Media is the reply – which you can’t do off an automated tweet or cross-platform status update. Very good insight here.
  3. His example of getting people to understand how powerful Social Media is (9:30 in.)
  4. “Social Media doesn’t change the fact that relationships take time.”
  5. “People still use videotapes… Holy monkey nuts.”
  6. Scott’s admission of denying digital sales of his book in order to get better New York Times Best Seller List ranking, as they only count physical sales. Authenticity is a big thing to him – which I like.
  7. Every line of information you ask for on an online form decreases the chance of someone filling it from 10% – 30%. (Wow.)
  8. His story of learning that the volume-play from the early Twitter days was just over the top and doesn’t work. (And now understands value is where it’s at.) He now regrets following everyone back.
  9. Increase people knowing you, liking you and trusting you (always good to hear again.)
  10. Create great content on Twitter. In other words, craft useful 120-character tweets, rather than just sending updates. (This is what I call being an Active Authority.)

And yes, I so liked the keynote that I pre-ordered his book (my affiliate link – commission for sharing this with you ;-)

Your Leading Thoughts

  • My question for you – what is your favourite bit, and why?

Enjoy.
Scott

Spreadability and Guidance vs Governance

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gRvtVSMB0E&feature=player_embedded

If you can’t see the above video, click here, or watch it directly.

I had a great chat with Sam Ford from MIT yesterday about spreadability. Turns out he and Henry Jenkins are writing a book about it, with the same ideas that I’ve been having over the last 6 months – and we didn’t know about each other until very recently. Funny to see how that happens.

One of the things we talked about is that for something to spreadable, it has to be guided not governed. Reason being that if a peice of content is governed, then it is so heavily guarded and restricted that it can’t be taken into new channels and filter into new areas that are beyond their reach.

This video, with Ben Huh – the maestro of spreadability who runs ICanHasCheeseburger, is excellent as Ben talks about what makes media spreadable – lower barrier to entries and the lifting of restrictions. He’d know about that.

The lesson? If you want things to spread, you have to let go.