Viral Marketing

Viral Video Encourages Publishers (And Marketers)

One of the greatest parts about my job is how I get to always keep up with the latest viral videos.  I don’t often write an aritcle about certain viral video, although I have been showcasing at least one viral video a week in iePlexus’ Social Media News Briefs for the past few weeks.  But this viral video, I think deserves it own article.

Posted on March 9, “The Future of Publishing” has had more than 125,000 views at the time of this posting.  While the video is intended for book publishers, I think the video is a good marketing as well.  The video is sort of like a palindrome, something you can read forwards as well as read it backwards. (more…)

Consumers Favor Brands With Social Network Profiles

We often here of studies that find consumers who follow or fan companies or brands on a social networking site, like Facebook or Twitter are more likely to purchase products or services from them.  Once again, the latest study from Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies confirms that.

Amazingly, the study found that consumers who follow companies or brands on Twitter are 67% more likely to buy from them, while 51% are more likely to buy from a brand that they follow on Facebook. And when it comes to recommending companies and brands to friends, 79% said they were more likely to recommend them if they were on Twitter and 60% if they were on Facebook.  (more…)

Business Doubles Profit With FourSquare

AJ Bombers, is a popular burger place in Milwaukee owned by Joe Sorge.  On Sunday, Sorge’s sales were up 110% thanks to the new social media  application FourSquare.  161 FourSquare users checked into the restaurant at the same time, that’s between 25-35% of Milwakkee’s FourSquare user population.

So what brought 161 FourSquare users to this already popular burger joint?  Sorge decided to promote the restaurant with the idea that customers could unlock a Swarm badge, which is awarded to those who check in at a location with at least 50 other users at the same time.  (more…)

Your Own iPhone App: There’s An App For That

It seems that there’s an app for just about everything.  Whether you are looking to play a game, trying to keep track of your finances, search the latest trends in the social media world, or even make new friends, there’s an app for it.   And with several apps profiting in the 7 digit range, everyone is trying to create an app for something or another. But actually building an app takes time and money, unless you have the skills of an advanced developer.  But now anyone can create an app for a pretty affordable option.

A service known as AppMakr launched this week, and promises to help you create an application for iTunes.  That means parts of your website could be turned into an application for iPods & iPhones alike.  Sharing news, your Twitter feed, video blogs, and just about anything else you can think of could now be part of your very own app. (more…)

20 Favorite Viral Videos From 2009

As we approach a new year, it’s always fun to take a look back at what happened over the past year.  I thought it might be fun to take a look back at some of our favorite viral videos from 2009.

As I began looking into some of top viral videos from the year, I discovered that Visible Measures, a video tracking site, created a list of the top 10 most watched viral videos for 2009.  I was a little heart broken to learn that 8 out of the 10 were music videos.  While music videos are a major part of the American culture, I think the videos below, are the ones that really make 2009 complete. (more…)

Bit.ly Fights Back Against fb.me & goo.gl

Yesterday was a big day for Facebook & Google, as they both announced they were releasing their own shortening services.  As I mentioned in yesterday’s post this creates some major competition for exclusive shortening service websites like bit.ly and tinyurl.com.  While that remains true, bit.ly is fighting back in a major way.

In a blog post released Monday evening, the company announced bit.ly Pro account.  While it may not seem like such a big deal, it’s what the account offers which is going to attract a lot of businesses and bloggers.  (more…)

YouTube Video Targeting Launches

Advertising on YouTube is becoming a common marketing strategy.  And why shouldn’t it?  With a billion video views a day, it’s a great way to connect with millions of people world wide.

This year YouTube has had some pretty amazing viral video.  From 7 year old David wondering if he was in “real life” after a trip to the dentists office, to the JK Wedding Entrance, and even helping the worldwide sensation of Susan Boyleafter her audition on Britain’s Got Talent.  Just the three videos above have more than 150 million views together.  While those were some of the most watched videos of 2009, viral marketing will be making a larger impact in 2010. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get your advertisements on those videos reaching millions of people? (more…)

Social Media Turns #Red

December 1 marks World AIDS Day, a one-day campaign to bring awareness to the AIDS epidemic in Africa.  Known as (RED), Nike, along with Internet powerhouses Facebook, Twitter & Google are all trying to bring awareness to the campaign which was started by Bono & Bobby Shriver in 2006. 

Facebook has an entire (RED) fan page, which includes a video explaining more about the campaign.  One of the neatest features you can do through the site is make a contribution.  It’s not just a donation though, it’s an entire store full of items, ranging from Starbucks gift cards, t-shirts, and even a red Dell laptop.  100% of the proceeds go towards the campaign.  Just by shopping, you could help someone with HIV/AIDS in Africa. (more…)

Facebook Ranked Third Most Popular Video Site

When you think of watching a video online, you most likely think of YouTube. And why wouldn’t you, considering the multitude of videos to be found on that site.

In fact, there are so many videos on YouTube, some say that  it would take over 600 years watch all the videos on the site today– and that’s without a bathroom break.  Hulu also might come to mind.  Launched in 2008, Hulu offers viewers over 10,000 hours of content from several American television networks, including NBC, ABC, and FOX along with several cable networks.

But what about Facebook?  Facebook for video!? According to some recent results from Nielsen, Facebook has rapidly climbed the charts by assuming the No. 3 spot for an online video website.  The popular social-networking site had streamed a total of 217.7 million views in the month of October.  That’s nearly double the total from September, when Facebook had just reached the top 10 mark with 110 million views.  (more…)

Can You Tell Me How To Get To… Twitter Street?

Traveling through a foreign country where you can’t really speak the language,  and looking at street names that you can’t even begin to pronounce can be quite challenging.  I know this from previous experience, traveling all over Europe and South America. 

I remember most specifically in Berlin, Germany, the streets of Kurfürstendamm and Dimitroffstraße.  Trying to ask for directions to these streets was near impossible.  I later learned that locals can’t even pronounce these streets, and that they resort to nicknames.

When I was little, I remember thinking how cool it would be if I could name all the streets in my town.  I’d name a street for every member of my family, and then have meaningful words become street names as well.  While I’ve been able to do this virtually in games like The Sims for some time now, being able to actually name a street  is finally possible. (more…)