Blue Helm

I’m sure by now you’ve either seen or heard of the BYU “New Spice” video. If you haven’t, here it is:

When I first saw this video it had only 350 views. 12 hours later there were over 350,000 views. Within a few days the video had been viewed over a million times and is now at about 1.9 million.  Not only have millions of people viewed the video, but it was covered on CNN, Time Magazine, in all of the local Utah media, huge blogs, and even the Huffington Post. Great PR.

The question is, why? Why did this video go viral? Why does any video go viral?

Timing – The BYU Harold B. Lee Library couldn’t have posted this video at a better time. Old Spice was right in the middle of its big YouTube campaign and millions of people were already searching for things that would pull up the BYU video.

Quality – Obviously the quality of this video was very high. If this had just been a home movie it probably would not have had the same impact. You can see the effort and professionalism put into it by watching the video’s Behind the Scenes update. The quality is what really galvanized not only BYU students, but other audiences as well. Mainstream media outlets and websites saw the video as more legitimate due to its high production value, thus increasing its viral spread.

BYU Audience – The BYU audience is pretty big. There are around 32,000 students and millions of alumni. These dedicated BYU fans pounced on the video, posting it on their Facebook Walls, Twitter feeds and blogs without hesitation.

So what can we take away from this? First, be aware of what’s happening in the social media world. If you’re on top of things you may be able to capitalize on the latest fad. Second, people appreciate quality. YouTube viewers are so used to seeing poorly executed knock-offs that when they see something of true quality they’re more likely to share it. Third, even if you’ve created an awesome piece of content, it will still need a boost. That boost can come from an existing base of people or even from using the powerful YouTube promoted videos feature. Lastly, you’ll need a little luck.

What are your thoughts on what makes a video viral?

Before announcing new privacy changes, Facebook and the Death Star were synonymous.

After weeks of intense criticism and controversy, Evil Emperor Zuckerberg over at Facebook Corp. forsook the Dark Side (for now) and announced new and improved privacy settings that should arrive at our virtual doorsteps soon. Tech blogger Harry McCracken helps us by summarizing what exactly will change:

• Rather than having to wade through gazillions of granular settings, it’ll be easy to tell Facebook you want anything you post to be visible to friends only, friends of friends, or everybody. These rules will apply to future Facebook functionality that doesn’t exist yet.
• You’ll be able to make your Friends and Pages lists completely private.
• It’ll be easier to block apps on Facebook from getting at your information.
• It’ll be easier to block external sites such as Pandora which use Facebook’s new “Instant Personalization” from getting at your information. (Currently there’s no single place to go to do this, nor any way to block all sites with one click.)
• If users find these changes satisfactory, Facebook intends to avoid major changes to privacy policies “for a long time.”

So there you have it. I wholeheartedly support the new privacy settings, and I hope The Zuckster learned a valuable lesson from all this. He created Facebook to be a simple, intimate way for friends to share information. It’s grown into a ravenous information-hungry ogre. Bring the site back to its roots! Remember when U2 made that weird Pop album in the late 90s and everyone was like, Um, what band is this? Then U2 retraced its steps and released All That You Can’t Leave Behind, returning to the music that defined them as one of the greatest bands in history.

Yet again, Bono comes through with life-changing lessons.

Have you ever heard of National History Day? It turns out there is a pretty cool organization that encourages children to take more interest in “the discovery of the historic, cultural and social experiences of the past.” Classrooms across the nation participate in a contest that encourages students to submit a presentation on a topic of historical significance. Think of it as a science fair for history.

My 12-year-old sister participated in this year’s National History Day contest. Her project won first place in her region! Unfortunately, she was sick the weekend of the state competition and wasn’t able to go. Otherwise she probably would have won at the state level (there’s no bias in that statement at all). The topic of her project is “Getting Information to the People: From Gutenberg to Twitter”, a topic that is extremely relevant and very interesting. The best part is that there is an interview at the end with a very attractive young man (that would be me for any who are confused). So without further ado, here is her final project. Enjoy:

I was a pretty quiet kid, at least in public. At home I would let loose and be my loud, outgoing, and sometimes annoying self. At school I had a close knit group of friends and I kept pretty much to myself outside of that group. Most people liked me and never gave me much grief outside of the occasional jab at my last name, which I didn’t mind. But then came the sixth grade, and I was faced with my first bully.

His name was John and he sat in front of me on the bus. He wasn’t a very big guy, but he had a very bad attitude. At some point during the year he decided to start picking on me. He would turn around and say mean things to me and make fun of me. At first I just ignored him. After all, why should I dignify his stupidity with a response? Ignoring John just made things worse as he graduated from verbal to physical annoyance. One day he decided he needed to lightly slap the side of my head a few times to get a reaction out of me. His weak slaps only hurt my pride. Unfortunately his ploy worked. As I got off the bus I walked past his seat and slapped him in the back of the head. I was safe at the time because if he chased me off the bus the driver would have stopped him. As the bus pulled away I looked up at his window and saw him staring at me full of rage.

The next day on the way to school John told me he wanted to meet at a certain location during recess. The rest of the day leading up to recess I was pretty nervous. I told my predicament to a few of my friends and my larger friend told me not to worry. I was still worried, but had a little more confidence.

The designated hour came and I met with my foe at the chosen location, my friends in tow. He didn’t have any friends with him, but that didn’t stop him. He mouthed off to me. My buddy whispered in my ear to go and push him. I was hesitant but I stepped up and pushed him pretty hard. John rushed at me, but my friend stepped in front of me just before John got to me. John looked at my formidable friend and took a step back. My friend then said “I don’t want you messing with Chad anymore.” John’s confidence was shot; I could see fear in his eyes. He backed away and I never had problems with him again.

I learned a great lesson that day about networking. When I had a problem with John I had a network of friends willing to help me. I may have been able to handle John on my own, but there was no need. My network was there to help. I learned that a strong network can save you in a pinch.

Business is no different. Your business is going to run into bullies. There will be competitors, customers or just random people that will attack you. Sometimes they will attack you for no apparent reason. Maybe they’re just jealous of your success. So what do you do with a business bully? How do you handle them? Ignoring a bully only works some of the time. Sometimes it makes things worse. What you need to do is proactively build your networks before the bullies show up.

Your business needs to be on Twitter, Facebook or wherever else you can build the strongest network. As you develop strong relationships with your customers, followers or fans, they will step up to the bully and tell them to take a hike. They will defend and build up your business because they are loyal to you.

Stepping into the social media world can be scary. You may have to face some bullies. Don’t let that fear stop you. You will make friends, and your friends are much more powerful than the weak bullies of the world.

What do you think? Have you ever faced a business bully? What happened? I’d love to hear.

I have to admit I was a little surprised when I saw the following chart on Mashable the other day:

The lines in the graph that surprised me the most corresponded with LinkedIn and Twitter. LinkedIn actually had a better year than Twitter!

We’ve all heard about how Twitter is growing like crazy. Ever since Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN to a Twitter-off, Twitter has been all over the media. Celebrities, news shows, websites and commercials all promote Twitter in some way. As a result, Twitter has grown at an remarkable rate, but surprisingly, LinkedIn has grown more.

How has LinkedIn done it? Here are a few ideas I had:

1. LinkedIn is more robust – I love Twitter, but there’s only so much you can do with 140 characters and a few different symbols like @ or #. LinkedIn has all sorts of great resources to help you connect with other people. They have groups, they suggest people you may want to connect with, there’s the Q & A section and they have improved link sharing capabilities. Also, your profile says a lot more about who you are and you can recommend close connections. These features are attractive to someone who’s looking to connect and network on a deeper level.

2. LinkedIn is easier to use – This may sound contrary to my first point, but hear me out. First, Twitter is not easy to understand for a new user. They don’t know what a re-tweet is, they don’t know what a hash tag does and they don’t know what the heck they should tweet. Worst of all, Twitter does a terrible job of explaining all of the ins and outs of how to use the site. Twitter does have a 101 course, but it’s not easy to find. The 101 course should be a part of the sign-up process. Second, Twitter is very high maintenance. If you want to have a successful Twitter account you have to tweet a lot of great content, which is not an easy task for most people. Third, there are all sorts of spam on Twitter. People get tired of being followed by accounts who are following 300 people and have few or no followers. I have to delete spam every day on Twitter, while on LinkedIn I’ve never had to. LinkedIn on the other hand is very user-friendly. There is a side bar tool that tells you what you need to do to complete your profile. They have great tabs that are easy to understand. All of the updates are broken up into categories. Not only is LinkedIn clean and easy to use, but you don’t have to update it all of the time. If you update it once a week you’re doing great.

3. LinkedIn’s demographic is specific – LinkedIn targets business professionals. There’s no point for everyone and their dog to get on LinkedIn and clutter up the space. The only reason people are active on LinkedIn is to network with other professionals. On the other hand, Twitter is full of people talking about everything from Justin Bieber to Earth Day. It’s not easy to sift through all of the noise to hear what you want.

4. Twitter is helping to grow LinkedIn – I think all of the hype Twitter gets actually helps LinkedIn. Convincing people that they need to be a part of the social networking revolution has gotten a lot easier as more and more people hear about these sites in the news. Professional people keep up with news; as a result, they turn to a network that makes sense to them…LinkedIn.

Why do you think LinkedIn is outpacing Twitter? Do you think I’m way off base? Let me know.