At First It Was An Assignment...

Well people, my Klout score is up from 15 to 28!!!!!! I feel like I have a slowly growing significance in the online world...all based on some silly number that shows up on my computer screen. But hey, I would rather be an Explorer than an Observer, it just sounds cooler. Check out your Klout score and it may help or hurt your ego for a second: http://klout.com/



I have an hour over lunch between classes that I have reserved for tweeting, facebooking, and blogging. I was originally forcing myself to think of useful tweets and blog posts with considerable effort, but now I actually look forward to my hour of socializing online. It's actually become quite an addiction where I find myself showing up for class late because I am in some sort of trance online....that which made me look at the clock and realize I better log off!

Courtney

Top 4 Lessons Learned at the AMA International Collegiate Conference

My experiences from the American Marketing Association's International Collegiate Conference in New Orleans can be summarized into 4 Lessons for a Successful Marketer:

1. Customize to your audience; Keynote speaker Michael A. McCullough, the Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer Miami HEAT, spoke about the huge marketing campaign held the summer of 2010 to secure three of the NBA's biggest free agents for the Miami HEAT: Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh. The We Want Wade campaign was entirely aimed directly at Dwyane Wade cleverly including huge billboards placed on Wade's route to work, home, the grocery store, and the gym.

2. Be Unique; there was a table at the conference at which attendees could drop their resumes in trays for employees present at the career fair. Leafing through the top few resumes I saw a cookie-cutter layout and text. How on earth was my resume going to stand out among the 1500 other resumes?!?! Find something unique and interesting about yourself to grab attention and be memorable.

3. Be Passionate; Beth Ann Brannon, Complex Sales Manager at W Hotels of New Orleans said at her Experience Speaks session that "when searching for the right career path… Be Passionate. Be Involved. Be Informed. Be Humble. But most of all… Be You!" Combine all the time you spend working with all the time you wish you could be doing something for yourself and you will find a successful and fulfilling career will follow.

4. Work hard, PLAY HARD; combining the AMA Conference with its location a block from Bourbon street taught me this cliche is nothing but the truth. If you can work hard and feel that you have put 100% into your work, there is nothing as rewarding as celebrating your hard work. You've got to chill out and let your brain have a break or else you will burn out eventually. Both parts of this motto are to be followed though; if you do not work hard but decide to play hard that night, you will find your work will only pile up and still be waiting there the next day. This motto also creates a great time to get to know your coworkers on a different level outside of the office.

Here are a few photos of the University of Northern Iowa's AMA chapter members that attended the 33rd International AMA Collegiate Conference this year. We worked hard both preparing for the conference and also competing and participating in the conference. With all our hard work, we were able to enjoy a few (maybe too many) nights out on Bourbon street bonding with each other.

Burger King's Viral Marketing Successes

I thought this was a fun post to see the past attempts by Burger King to create viral commercials. Of course the most remembered was the subservient chicken who would do any command the computer user typed.



How was this subservient chicken such a success? It was interactive, customizable, entertaining, and playable. All of which are included in the 6 Great Foundations of Great Digital Creative posted by soapcreative.com.

Other Burger King ads from the years are just as fun. Check out more at:

http://adage.com/article/agency-news/slideshow-burger-king-crispin-ad-creative/149491/

Creating A Viral Blog

As I am just new to the blogging world and trying to focus on viral advertising, I thought I would do some research on how to create a successful (viral) blog.

The Eloqua Social Media Playbook offers an easy read on how to become a great blogger.

Here are Six Guidelines for Successful Blogging as suggested by Eloqua:
1. Support colleagues by leaving comments, tweeting, sharing a link, etc. to strengthen coworker relationships.
2. Become a thought leader: contribute. Be diverse, useful, and be an expert to increase leads, media coverage, and overall industry clout.
3. Point prospects to relevant entries; use your blog like a tailored Wikipedia entry.
4. Build relationships with influencers and prospects. Utilize Google Blog Search and Technorati to find industry leaders to comment on and promote.
5. Track competitors to gain insights into what they are interested in.
6. Gain industry insights by sorting through the millions of blogs to find specific blogs on just about anything you want to learn about.

Bad Viral Gone Viral Despite Faux Pas

Hot topic of the week: Jennifer Aniston's viral video for Smartwater. Here's the video to watch if you haven't already seen it:


So what's my point of posting this video that is already deplete of discussion?

Bad viral videos are still viral.

The first major mistake of Smartwater: naming their viral video a "viral campaign". As my respected teacher of Digital Advertising at the University of Northern Iowa and aficionado of digital knowledge, Matthew Wilson so cleverly stated, the #1 rule of viral videos is don't call it a viral video, that's just lame. Viral is an organic state of extreme growth and it cannot do just that if people are told that it is supposed to spread like wildfire.

The second mistake of Smartwater's video was a bad video. What makes the video worth watching and then sharing with your friends? If you want to see Keenan Cahill, there are way funnier videos to watch. If you think Jennifer Aniston is hot and that's why you are watching the video, there is a video titled "Jennifer Aniston- The Hottest Woman on the Planet"; I'm sure you could see hotter images of her in that video than in the Smartwater video.

How did this bad viral video that was named viral, go viral (+6 million views to date)? There are no answers to this question because there are no magic rules to follow that will guarantee a successful viral campaign; it just happens. As David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Viral Marketing, states, "It is virtually impossible to create a Web marketing program that is guaranteed to go viral; it requires a huge amount of luck and timing."

If I just told you there are not set rules to going viral, what are these "new rules of viral marketing" that Scott claims then? Rather than calling them rules of viral marketing, a better description would be "rules to turn the odds in your favor". If I have sparked your curiosity, I highly advise locating a copy of Scott's book and enjoying it with a glass of wine some evening. You may be able to figure out for yourself how this Smartwater viral campaign went viral despite some major faux pas.

Old Spice Knows Viral

It must be that Old Spice really knows its viral marketing tactics. They stole four of the ten spots on Ad Age's "Biggest Viral Ads of the Year". Here is the top Old Spice video, viewed nearly 6 million times on YouTube:

So how can I study Old Spice's campaigns to improve my own digital presence? The key?: integrated communication. To establish my digital identity and make it known, I need to integrate all my digital footprints into one interconnecting web. This means linking my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs together by mentioning each outlet on every other outlet; tweeting about a new blog post, posting links to Facebook, blogging about tweets, etc. And I'm already on my way to success! I've tweeted about the Ad Age article that I mentioned above.

Unfortunately digital viral success does not happen overnight. It takes time and consistent effort to create a digital identity. Since creating my Twitter account, I have a measly 4 tweets and only a handful of followers, ten to be exact. Based on my relative lack of activity, my Klout score was surprisingly high: 15! Read on:

Courtney Stinson is an Explorer

She actively engages in the social web, constantly trying out new ways to interact and network. She's exploring the ecosystem and making it work for her. Her level of activity and engagement shows that you "get it", we predict you'll be moving up.

So here's to tweeting, posting, blogging, and establishing my digital presence! I'll keep you posted ;)