Ghostbusters is one of my favorite comedies, and Halloween is a great time of year to watch it. Here’s the classic scene when our phantasm-fighting threesome get their very first call to action.

I love, love, love this Steven Spielberg horror classic. Spielberg takes adventure elements from Indiana Jones and the “ordinary family under extraordinary circumstances” narrative from E.T. to create Poltergeist, a ghoulishly fun ghost story set in the scariest of all nightmares: Suburbia.

Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow tells the favorite tale of Ichabod Crane and his fateful encounter with the Headless Horseman.

Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark? used to terrify me back in the 90s, but I watched it anyway. I even made my little brother, who was probably more terrified than I was, watch it with me. The clip below features some of the spookiest villains in the series.

Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall provide us with truly Oscar-worthy performances in The Shining, the horror movie of all horror movies. It comes on TV all the time, so I would highly recommend watching this excellent film.

A woman cheated out of trick-or-treating is a dangerous prospect, as Linus learns the hard way in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

No commentary is needed for this next video clip. A Halloween classic, pure and simple.

Homer Simpson gives demonic minions more trouble than they bargained for in this “Treehouse of Horror” clip.

And finally, my favorite Halloween movie of all. Before it became over-commercialized and popular with emo-goth teenagers who like to pretend they’re dark and depressed, The Nightmare Before Christmas was an obscure, light-hearted holiday treasure to me and my family. Without fail, the song “This is Halloween” is stuck in my head throughout October. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Well I hope I scared you silly with my chilling clips. Happy Halloween to all!

I love Pat’s face at the 44 second mark.

This is probably my favorite one

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?

Earlier this week my sister reminded me of the genius show Animaniacs. When I was growing up this was one of my favorite cartoons to watch. I still crack up watching these hilarious clips.

I hope you enjoys these, have a great weekend!

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:

Apparently, Hitler likes the 1982 Disney film, Tron.

I’ll admit that I liked a lot of the videos on YouTube parodying Hitler in the the 2004 film, Downfall. I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something hilarious about one of world’s most villainous tyrants throwing a hissy fit over banal pop culture events such as Tiger Woods’ affair, Susan Boyle and the Twilight DVD.

But, as many of you savvy news junkies out there already know, the film’s distributor, Constantin Film, asked YouTube to remove all Downfall parodies from the site. Many are still up, but it irks me that such a large film production company (or any company) is so completely dim that it would attempt to kill all viral content celebrating one of its products. Sure the videos are parodies, but they still have the potential of driving thousands of people to watch the original clip, if not the original film. How, in this Viral Age, can companies still think they can censor or destroy user-generated content online?

Corynne McSherry, an attorney specializing in intellectual property and free speech issues, has already said that the parodies constitute fair use and aren’t infringing on any copyrighted material. It’s satire, which is protected speech. But regardless, Constantin Film should be embracing the free attention its film is getting from this huge online phenomenon. Don’t bight the hand that feeds you.

Needless to say, Hitler is not happy.

Maybe this edition will expose my nerdy side a little too much, but I just love how far technology has evolved. Check out these cool/remarkable robot videos:

This robot is amazing. One of the biggest challenges engineers have in making a truly mobile robot is balance. When you balance you’re using hundreds of muscles just to stay upright. When someone pushes you or when you walk on ice or any type of uneven or abnormal terrain, you use another set of muscles and brain functions just so you don’t fall over. With that in mind take a look at this incredible robot:

The fluid and quick motions of these robots is pretty amazing:

This is just cool. Look out Wall-E:

No post dedicated to robots is complete with out seeing some classic robot fighting:

What are some cool videos you like?

Cozy up to social media more often.

Using social media all of the time can get a little tedious. When you’re using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blog, or other forms of social media, it’s easy to get bogged down. You get wrapped up in making sure you post to your blog, that you tweet or that you check your Facebook News Feed. These online activities are all important (particularly for your business), but you need to make sure you’re having fun with it!

Take a few minutes today to rekindle your love for one of your social networks. Get on your blog and write about something different and exciting. Go on YouTube and watch some videos that make you laugh (click here and here to see a few of my favorites). Get on Twitter and try to connect with someone in your industry. Don’t just follow them, connect with them. Log onto Facebook and really get in touch with an old friend. Actually message them and start a genuine conversation. If you’re only seeing their updates from time to time, then you haven’t really re-connected with them.

Have fun, do something meaningful, renew your love!

What do you do to keep your social love affair going?

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Social media and viral marketing is about people, not products. Coca-Cola gets that, and successfully produced a compelling, entertaining and human campaign that connects with the consumer in a deeper, more memorable way than a traditional advertisement might. Ravi Sawhney said it perfectly in his Fast Company blog post yesterday:

“How can designers create these special moments–this magic? And not just ‘viral video’ magic, but that everyday life magic of the emotional connection that bonds people with your brand. Can we conceive of the complete story and lead people down a path of creating smiles?”

If your social media campaigns aren’t cultivating inspiration, motivation and smiles, you’re probably doing something wrong.