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

When considering social media applications, and those that are effective to not only drive leads, but also generate conversions – you have to consider the magic of Flickr.

Flickr is a social photography website that allows you to upload and share your pictures with friends, family and other registered Flickr users; as well as the general Internet audience.

Similar to Photobucket, Flickr functions as an image host – but its strength lies in the social sharing of the images with a massive community of users. Photographers use Flickr to showcase their art, computer bloggers use it to save on bandwidth and keep their own servers empty by dumping massive photo files on Flickr.

One thing very new, yet very effective, in terms of marketing this social media showcase – is to build traffic to your website using this creative tool.

Let’s look at few things about Flickr:

1. It is the #2 rated photography website in the U.S., UK, and Australia, while holding a near 40 percent market share in the U.S. While Photobucket is still the leader in all three markets, - Flickr’s global presence could still be greater.
2. And with Yahoo! acquiring the image giant in 2005 – it has been optimized with the Yahoo! Image Search tool.
3. Flickr’s photos are listed in the Google, Technorati, personalized and start pages, as well as various other portals, websites and blogs which pull in and display Flickr pictures through RSS feeds.
4. All of these direct sources can be funneled back to your website, and at least make others aware of your brand and/or product.

Flickr – Getting Started

Flickr allows you to create a profile, using a buddy icon, screen name, profile where you can place relevant links and information about yourself or business. And then, you can create your own Flickr address – meaning http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicholascifuentes

Flickr also offers two options when signing up, a free and paid version. The free version allows you a bandwidth limit of 100mb per month. This is reasonable if you don’t’ have too much traffic or photos that are limited sizes – but to be honest; the Pro Account (paid version) is the best way to go. They charge you only $24.95 for the year, but you get an unlimited number of bandwidth, and you are able to upload not only pictures, but video as well. You are also able to setup an unlimited number of photo sets, as compared to only three for the free version.

Read the rest of this entry »

Your blog is like a baby, you nurture it, feed it daily, take care of it when it is sick and watch it go to sleep every single night…yes, my friend – blogs are addicting.  It is 2008, time to build readership, and begin to grow your brand’s awareness through the social media channels.  As popularity has grown in blogs, and blogging, there are some key steps you can take to market your blog and grow effective strategies to increase readership.

Here are some key strategies for growing your blog in 2008:

Bring your Blog Home: One tactic to consider when trying to harbor more traffic, that will almost always work, is to localize your blog.  Targeting a specific market and reaching out to them, using their language, all is a great way to reach more outlets.  Localization allows you to cover topics that competitors probably won’t take the time to cover…something that should be considered when considering new material to write about.

Have Others Write It: User generated content is a great way to expand your blog’s reach.  You can ask the public to submit articles that you feel might benefit your blog’s purpose and publish them accordingly.  This can be gained by seeking out online writers, using article PR services to get content, and affiliating with other blogs in your field.

Start A Forum: A forum is great way to let your users interact with each other.  You want reasons for your audience to come back to your blog, socialize, and interact with each other online.  A forum is a great tool that will encourage this.  By creating this outlet, you create a magnet for your users, which encourage them to return to your brand daily.

Start a Newsletter: Newsletters are an excellent way to reach an audience with information that differs from your blog.  Depending on your product, newsletters are almost necessary to keep your customers returning.  Newsletters are an excellent way to send out narrow messages, or more concentrated, to your audience.  Create a weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly newsletter to connect to your followers.  One of the great advantages a newsletter has is being able to monetize it in several ways (advertising, premium content), as well work them into effective methods for capturing leads.

Social Media Anyone: Social Media Optimization starts with social bookmarking.  Creating an outlet for other readers to take your content and submit it, talk about it, or even blog about it in the social media channels will ultimately grow your traffic.  Allowing applications like Twitter, Facebook, Digg and countless other social news websites, can help disseminate your information to a target user.  Open up accounts in these channels and begin the process yourself, befriend the influencers in each channel and begin to watch your content wind its way through the Internet, and leads grow on your blog or website.

New Writers: New writers can be a great way to bring a new ‘voice’ to your blog.  Otherwise, a change of pace.  Just remember, when you pay someone per an article, make sure they are the best at what you need.  Don’t bring in writers who are unsure and could question your blog’s voice, keep it lively, bring in TALENT, and then you can pay more attention to marketing the blog instead.

Premium Content: This is a great way to further monetize a blog.  Premium content refers to exclusive content that is not made public to everyone and anyone who may fall upon your website.  Create member only pages inside your blog that you can tie to subscriptions and promote alongside your free content.  One suggestion I do have, when you do this, please make sure the content is original and most likely can’t be found anywhere else – it is what makes it PREMIUM!

Other Blogs Like You Too: Working with people in your industry can bring surprising results.  Collaborating with other bloggers in your practice would be done to initiate some sort of social network possibly, large writing projects, online applications, awards, and contests.  This helps build your brand and drive specific traffic to your website.

Videos & Podcasts: Consider video blogging, as a new tactic to your approach.  Your content can reach an entire new audience through some major social video websites like YouTube, Metacafe, Dailymotion, and other high traffic video websites.  Podcasting works the same way, obviously your hearing instead of visually applying yourself.  Viral video marketing also falls into this category, and should not go overlooked.  You will be surprised how much traffic and new conversions you see using this technique.

Overall, in 2008, be creative!  High quality editorial content will keep audiences interested, however, building a supportive audience and broadening your distribution channels will only help the original cause.  Expanding your blog through some of these channels will increase your user participation, create new delivery channels, grow your reputation and influence the audience around you.

Get Blogging!!