Nicholas Cifuentes

I came across a viral branding website yesterday for a popular television show on HBO, Flight of the Conchords. The TV show is about two men that live in NYC doing sketch comedy and singing their comedic folk songs inside a once a week half-hour show that looks at the everyday happenings of the two main characters, Bret and Jemaine

The idea.

Take a concept of the brand and distinguish it as a ’sensation’. I know that might sound complicated - but it’s really so easy, and I don’t understand why other companies aren’t utilizing their ‘usable’ assets for something similar.

This is exactly what the Flight of the Conchords are doing with their new micro-site - “Lip Dub Video Fansterpiece.” The concept is to learn the lyrics of one of the songs the two main characters sing, and then you are supposed to videotape yourself lip-synching the song, and then upload it to the website - where you might be added to a final “Fansterpiece” that will air on HBO. This content is being advertised only on social channels, and is completely viral - meaning this is not having any media or TV dollars spent on the campaign.

The contest was launched in mid-November, and will last until the new season of the show starts in mid-January.

Simple. Simple. Simple.

I can’t get over how simple this is, but how effective it has become. They don’t give away any lavish prizes, you don’t win a trip to any special destination or big lump sum of money - just about 10 seconds of a small amount of fame.

At the same time, they do a great job of implementing bookmarks or sometimes referred to as chicklets. These are the type of calls-to-action that include the ability to post the “contest” to Facebook, Digg, Twitter, Delicious, and you can also email to a friend. These are all tactics in “spreading” the word-of-mouth further into the social networks.

The video service they are using is YouTube, making it ‘free’, as well as very viral! This allows HBO to spread their contest through the social channels with little to zero promotion on their part, which was their full intention.

Statistics.

Since the website launched in mid-November - the main website where they utilize the videos, the YouTube channel that was created for the contest - has seen nearly 8,000 views since the project launched on Nov. 13. I know those numbers are not monumental, but you have to think about the ‘trickle’ down effect from this contest alone.

On the microsite, you also are able to access the Flight of the Conchord’s Facebook and MySpace pages. Their current Facebook page has a more than 245,000 fans, and they have a little over 25,000 friends on MySpace. These channels were setup well before the contest started…but both channels have seen an increase in activity in fans/friends since the middle of last month.

So What?

Well, I tell you this information because it’s important to consider the outreach of a ‘viral’ campaign, such as this one, and what it can do for a brand. Chances are, many people are going to submit videos to try and appear on the channel, and many more people may just watch the videos other people create. Either way, their creating a ‘buzz’ about the show and the new season, interest of not only current fans, but new fans of the show are found through the ability of allowing others to easily spread the contest into the social content networks, such as Digg, Delicious, Twitter, and so on. They attach links to the show’s page on the HBO website, as well as create easy access to the show’s MySpace and Facebook pages.

Through a viral campaign like this, you should explore your brand further to see what kind of similar outreach you may be able to do. This is social media branding 101 friends - don’t take something as small and ‘funky’ as this to be something silly - when in all honesty, they spent next to nothing to engage new fans and current fans of the show - to stay tuned to the new season, maybe buy the DVD, purchase some apparel, or some other Flight of the Conchords related materials. It’s genius.

The point is - you need to think about social media branding if you have not already. Agreed, for some brands social media might not be the way to go - but as they say so often - “don’t knock it before you try it.”

Chances are, I think it will.

For more information, and if you have any questions on viral or social media branding - feel free to contact me @ nicholas.cifuentes@gmail.com

Twitter.

What if there was a business tool that existed, which could allow companies to listen in on discussions about how people are using their products, analyze what people are saying about them, and could allow that company to respond to that “person” directly.

It’s a tool that effectively hones in on embracing the early product adopters and influencers who are then able to share with their friends, followers and other individuals related to these “key” components.

It’s is Twitter. But more importantly, it’s a Twitter built around building discussion, interest and awareness of your products and overall branding strategy.

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows a user to create short posts, or better known as “tweets” - which others then can follow, reply and respond to as they see fit.

But, you have to realize, this is much more than just telling someone what you had for dinner a last night or that you just finished your laundry. This is a tool that creates a bridge of genuine interaction with people who choose to use your products. If a company properly integrates this process - you can utilize Twitter to capture “conversation” between your company, customers, clients and colleagues.

Proper Conversation.

But you have to remember, Twitter is a conversation tool, and you have to treat it as such. People will STOP following and paying attention to you quickly if you blast them with blatant “marketing.” They don’t want to see your latest press release. Trust me…I and many other have quickly “de-followed” brands which do so. This kind of “tweeting” could leave your brand in a worse position then when it started, and leave your reputation tainted.

Get The Most Out of Twitter.

Who are you trying to reach with Twitter? Is it the key influencers in your field, or might it be the possible users who wish to engage in using your products? Choose one and stick with it.

To do this, it might be best to create an online persona for both - so think one twitter account to get the “news” out, another to harness customer complaints, and maybe a third to take part in the conversation. Just please don’t use one account for all three purposes - this will hurt you severely in the end.

Followers.

To use Twitter in the most effective way - you have to “listen” to the conversations and what others are talking about. As a brand, you do not want to go just follow 2,000 random people and hope that is going to work - think quality, not quantity.

To achieve this goal - utilize the many twitter search tools that exists in the social space. One very useful Twitter search tool is search.twitter.com to find people who are tweeting about you, your brand, competitors, and products you offer. Follow these individuals who you have identified as key constituents for your brand, and then begin to engage them back in conversation.

By following customers, clients, colleagues and leaders in your industry or field, this shows them that you want to “hear” what they have to say. These people will almost always “follow” you back.

Don’t Be Boring. Please.

Always remember to offer something of value to the conversation. It could be advice about your products, news about the company, quality information about what you do, or maybe the occasional joke - Twitter users want to be informed, entertained and kept interested at all times. Don’t constantly push self promotion with no value and consistent ad-rhetoric - this will quickly hurt your Twitter reputation.

Show interests in your users…share with them in their experiences, and ask them questions, engage them! This will quickly show them that you are interested in what they are doing, and will allow them to respond, follow, and possibly use your product.

Beyond Twitter.

Twitter has so much potential for harnessing conversation and interaction. Don’t allow the conversation to stop there. Tie Twitter to your blog and blog posts, link it to your Flickr account, Facebook & MySpace pages, and YouTube Channels…there is so much you can do with this platform and pushing it beyond the Twitter bubble will allow you to further expand your presence in the social media channels.

Utilize Those Twitter Tools.

Twitter can be a bit confusing to the newbie…but there are so many available Twitter tools to take advantage of that allow you to easily perform keyword searches, send direct messages, shorten URL’s and mark tweets as read or unread.

The Twitter website offers the advanced search tool, which allows you to enter keywords and seek out tweets. You can even subscribe to search as an RSS feed.

TweetDeck is a desktop client that allows you to run multiple searches that update in real time. It allows you to see your replies and direct messages in separate columns in the same interface. Twhirl is another client that acts in the same way, but a smaller interface.

Another tool I like to personally use is FriendFeed, a social media website that allows you to consolidate more than 45 different social media and social networking websites, including Digg, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Delicious, Flickr, Stumbleupon, MySpace, and more.

And then in the mobile space, you have three fantastic Twitter applications for the iPhone, Blackberry and Treo. Twitterific for the iPhone, and TwitterBerry & TinyTwitter for the BlackBerry and MoTwit on the Treo are great applications to utilize - who knows when the next great thought might come to you? It could be when your standing in line for a cup of coffee or in a business meeting that just doesn’t end, or maybe your waiting on the runway for the plane to take off, either way - it’s more than just a fad.

It’s Twitter.

Fin.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…