By John Alexander
We recently were invited out to my wife's brother's
home on the weekend for a pleasant backyard barbeque.
Paul and Jan are delightful hosts who really know
how to do a family gathering up right. It was just
an ordinary Sunday afternoon out on the patio with
family (which included our various pets too.) My wife
brought along Christy our Jack Russell Terrier, just
to liven things up. Understand of course that Jan
and Paul already have a house full of pets including
a couple of dogs, several cats and some exotic birds.
Also along for the afternoon was my son Curtis, who
has recently been doing a lot of photography around
town. Before we talk about one of the highlights of
the afternoon, I wanted to encourage you by showing
you just how quick you can easily you can put together
a viral marketing video.
What is a viral marketing video?
Its not so much SEO related, although still effectively
about bringing traffic to your Web site the easy way
(through word of mouth.) For example the term viral
is thought to have originated from the reference to
a "virus like" means of spreading from one
person to another. The whole concept of viral marketing
is to create a "buzz" about Web page, Web
site or a product or even an idea.
To create a viral marketing video, we are talking
about publishing a video with the idea of having it
spread widely and very quickly. It might be through
social network marketing using a network like Utube.
On the positive side, the viral marketing video may
require little effort on the part of the promoter.
With a viral marketing video, each of the recipients
watches the video and then they become the means of
"spreading the word" to other people. On
the negative side (if there is a negative side) it
can be hard to measure or hard to control once it
takes off. Numbers can literally double or triple
huge traffic volumes as the word spreads, depending
on how wide it spreads.
Benefits of creating your own viral marketing video:
1. Video is very easy to create.
The example I'll show you took place in less than
60 seconds while we were enjoying a barbeque on a
Sunday afternoon. My son Curtis grabbed his camera
took a short video and added the sound track in that
evening.
2. Viral sounds like it is rather nasty or "disease
related" but really the benefit is simple. You
are creating something that others find very watchable,
entertaining, humorous or even just plain fun. If
your video makes people smile or laugh, chances are
they'll pass it on to friends or let others know about
it, right?
3. You can use existing social networks to help put
the word out.
4. Its not dependent on high quality or expensive
equipment but often you can create something with
your average digital camera. Of course it helps to
have an eye for an event or something worth photographing,
but its not technical at all.
Meanwhile back at the Sunday barbeque...
Okay, now back to the barbeque on Sunday. One of
the highlights was when my Sister-in-Law's Parrot
named Simon, decided to do a little dance for everyone.
Perhaps it is not that unusual if you are an avian
fan and familiar with a parrot's behavior, but Curtis
grabbed his video and simply captured Simon's Dance
Party. Once he had the footage of Simon, he did a
little editing that night adding in some fitting music.
By next morning he e-mail me the video and I added
in a simple title and some captions.
To create the following video, Curtis used:
His Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart Camera 6 Megapixel
Windows Movie Maker (which comes with free with Windows
XP
Music clip is "What is Love?" by Haddaway
Title and captions were added with Camtasia Studio
Simon the Parrot says....you are now invited to his
dance party: (Clip runs in 59 seconds)
Click here to check this example viral marketing
video called "Simon's Dance Party."
Its amazing what fun you can have creating a quick
little video that makes people smile. Keep your video
camera charged up and handy next weekend and see what
you can create in the way of a viral marketing video.
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