Interview with Gerri Elder

Gerri Elder is a one-woman force in social media. When she’s not busy with her nearly 5-year-old son, Gerri maintains a healthy and active following on Twitter as AbsolutelyTrue, which is also the name of her popular blog, and was briefly the number one Digger last month–one of the few women to have accomplished such a feat. Gerri’s active on Stumbleupon, Reddit, and Mixx. She is also professional writer for a wide array of legal, environmental and urban sites. A tornado of activity, Gerri seems to be everywhere. In fact, she is.

Gerri, what exactly are you doing with social media?

I’m having a blast, networking and feeding my need for current news and events, all at the same time.

How did you get started?

I left my career as a paralegal in 1997 to pursue Web design and development.?  In the early days, it was the Wild West and those who caught on fast could go far.?  Around mid-2002, after working 18 hour days for four years, I needed a break.?  I retired from Web work, took it easy for a while, and then gave birth to my son. When I came back in 2006, the Web had gone 2.0 and I had to reacquaint myself with it.?  I was surprised at how much better it became, and quickly became addicted to the fast pace that social media had to offer.

Some pockets of social media (like Digg) can be downright hostile to women. How do women conquer such sites?
When I worked in the legal field, it was a man’s world and the same was true during the early days of the Internet.?  While there may be some areas of the Web that still refuse to see women as equal players, you only have to look around to see women like Amy Vernon, Rebecca Kelley or Tamar Weinberg kicking ass.?  I think there’s only sexism where you allow it, and successful women just don’t.

You are also a blogger. How do blogging, micro-blogging, and social bookmarking coalesce?

Obviously, things on the Web move very quickly.?  Any medium that is unable to mesh and evolve will not stay relevant.?  Twitter and social bookmarking complement blogging, and blogs stay on the cutting edge by incorporating social media and Twitter plugins into the design.?  So far, so good.?  It doesn’t look like any of them are becoming obsolete just yet.

Why should companies tweet?

Twitter offers businesses the opportunity to interact with customers and clients in a unique way. Companies with sharp marketing and PR talent are able to utilize what Twitter offers without coming across as spammy. It’s a rare social platform that, when used properly, allows companies to reach a broader audience and grab larger marketshare.

For something to go viral, what should happen?

You know viral content when you see it.?  It’s special.?  It’s hilarious, shocking or offers information that has never been seen before.?  If the content isn’t all that, nothing and no one can “make” it go viral.?  When content does have viral quality, it’s about giving it the right introduction.?  Social media takes it from there.

What do you think will be the next big thing in social media?

You can never tell what might be around the corner.?  It’s always exciting to see what’s up and coming and watch it develop.?  Twitter is already huge and growing at an alarming rate.?  However, the fail whale is omnipresent, so it’s hard to say what may happen.?  Other social media sites are busy behind the scenes adding user-friendly features, reinventing themselves and devising plans to eventually make them profitable.?  The only thing that is certain on the Web is change, so we have to wait and see.

Posted by Jenn Lowther

There are many factors that you need in order for a video/campaign to go viral. Even if your viral campaign has all of these factors, there is no magic recipe to ensure success – part of it is purely random – you happen to tap into the right market at the right time.

First and foremost, the campaign has to be funny and engaging. This is the only way that you are going to get people to willingly pass along the viral to their friends and get the interaction that you are looking for from your campaign. If there is nothing in it for the consumer they have no reason to do anything with it.

Second, you have to speak with the consumer rather than at the consumer. No one likes getting spoken to, you need to actively participate in the conversation. When people spread virals, they know that it is marketing, but it cannot be self-serving marketing – there has to be something in it for the consumer.

You need to be transparent. The worst thing that you can do is ‘hide’ your affiliation with the product or what you are selling. If you are not transparent and the campaign goes viral, there is a good chance that it will come back and hit you in the ass. Take a look at some of the viral campaigns that Sony and 7up ran ‘off-brand’. When the public found out that they were set up, the negative reaction was far worse than any positive effects the company received from the campaign.

You also need to try and get influencer’s engaged with the campaign. These bloggers, youtubers, diggers and the like have large networks of friends that are tapped into the markets that you are likely trying to penetrate with your campaign. These are also the people who will crucify you if you are not transparent with your marketing attempts.

And you need to sit back and wait. These things far more often than not do not take off over night. Patience here is a virtue. And keep in mind that if you do not have failure with some of your viral campaigns, it usually means that you are not pushing the envelope enough to have a campaign that will truly go viral. More often than not your campaign will not go viral, but when you have one that does (and you’ve done it correctly), it will more than make up for the failed attempts. Think about it this way – viral marketing is like shoe shopping – you aren’t going to find the perfect pair of Manolo’s for half price every time you go shopping.

Online marketing is a rapidly changing industry — over the years we’ve seen banner, button and pop-up advertising, text advertising, in-line story advertising, page-turn Flash advertising. As we grow accustomed to each new type of advertising, however, we learn to tune it out. We mute the commercials on TV, scroll past the banner ads without a second glance. Viral Marketing defies all of this.

A viral is passed around from person to person, much like the common cold on a stuffy bus. You’ve seen them — they’re usually videos, short and funny or sexy, packing a punch in less than a minute. You’ve gotten them in your email with a note from a friend (“Check out this hilarious vid!”) and you’ve followed the link to something you didn’t even know was an advertisement.

Well, it was. It was effective, it was interesting, and best of all, it wasn’t annoying. Virals, unlike traditional advertising, can’t be “skipped” or “tuned out”, because each viewer has made an active choice to view the viral. A good viral can reach thousands of people within a few days, without any expensive placement charges. You’re not paying for a spot in the newspaper or a few seconds on TV.

We know how virals work, and we know how to get them out there. By seeding them to the right groups of people, we can get the message out to your target demographic, and from there – who knows where it’ll go? You may pick up attention from areas you didn’t expect. That’s the magic of the viral; once it’s seeded, it advertises itself.

Interested in spreading your own piece of internet wildfire? We’re experts. Check out Memelabs.com for more information on running a Video Contest, or just contact us at viral@invokemedia.com for more information.

JWT wasnt joking when they put this video together for Scruffs. Although softcore is a more likely title, its fairly hardcore by North American ad standards.

It seems this is a bit of a trend, following in Sex Packing’s footsteps. They truely earn a hardcore title for their latest ‘catalog‘

enjoy!

Seemed like a good idea at the time, but maybe a little more strategic thought was in order.

Some entries:

Chevy Ad 1
Chevy Ad 2
Chevy Ad 3