YouTube Trends

I recently watched a speech on Ted given by Kevin Allocca. The first line of his biography alone is enough to grab your attention. “Kevin Allocca watches YouTube videos. For his job.” He is the trend manager at YouTube and his speech, titled Why videos go viral, discusses how YouTube sensations come to be.

Allocca begins his speech with an astounding statistic. Over 48 hours of video get uploaded to YouTube every minute. My first thought was probably something close to yours. If that much content is being uploaded, how does anyone stand out?

Allocca makes it simple to understand. He attributes it to three different, and recently new occurrences. The first, are tastemakers, or influencers. These are the people that have a wide variety of followers, and with one tweet can cause a mass of influx to someone’s YouTube post. For example, think Tosh.0 or Jimmy Kimmel.

The second occurrence is linked to communities of participation, or culture. Once the masses become aware of something, they spread the phenomenon even further. They tweet about it and even make their own parodies, in turn, creating viral videos.

But before a video can accomplish any of that, it needs to be unique and unexpected. It wouldn’t matter who the tastemaker for a video was if it was lacking entertainment. Simply said, videos have to stand out in order to go viral.

After listening to Allocca’s speech I began to think about how this trend could be applied to all areas of social media. With so much content, no matter the medium, being added to the web, how is it possible that anyone is able to make a splash? I think these same three occurrences or phenomena could be applied to the Internet as a whole. Let’s look at blogs, for example. According to Web Designer Depot, there are over 100 million active blogs on the Internet. It’s safe to say that in order to have a successful blog you need original content. You also need followers to read your blog and spread the word, so to say. If you have the first two and could get a tastemaker to endorse your blog, the sky would be the limit.

Photo courtesy of: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30311/10-Amazing-Blogs-About-Blogging-to-Start-Reading-NOW.aspx

As our culture continually changes and the public becomes the gatekeepers of information, I think that content will become much more quality driven. Tastemakers will still influence the masses, and the Internet clearly isn’t going anywhere soon, but I believe that the content that drives those trends will begin to improve.

Love.

I saw this very funny picture, courtesy of Duffey Communications, on Facebook today and couldn't resist sharing. I really couldn't agree more! :) 

Twitter: Breaking News via Social Media

My previous post discusses the impact of social media on our everyday lives. Social media is utilized daily by a wide variety of demographics, and the statistics from 2011 support the growing trend entirely. According to Edison Research, in 2011, approximately 46 million Americans over the age of 12 checked their social media sites several times on a daily basis. While the article refers to Facebook as the driving factor behind most of the statistics, there’s no doubt that Twitter is catching up.

Photo courtesy of: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/twitter-worm-hits-googl-redirects-to-fake-anti-virus/7938

Since the site’s launch in 2006, the social media platform has exploded with users. The most recent example of the website’s popularity was displayed this past weekend when music icon, Whitney Houston, passed away. According to this article on Mashable Entertainment, Twitter released the news of Houston’s death before the mainstream press.

Many people, myself included, might say that the primary job of the press is to break stories as they happen. Considering that the first tweet about Houston’s death went out 27 minutes prior to any news station mentioning it, it’s safe to say that the press let us down in a way.  The press does deserve a little slack though. It’s not like this happens on an everyday basis, but it’s not the first time Twitter has outdone mainstream news.

Not only did Twitter break the news first, but the first reported tweet about the incident even alluded to the possible cause of death.  Twitter user @AjaDiorNavy was the first person to tweet about the incident. The tweet claims that Houston was found dead in the bathtub, a fact later restated by celebrity gossip website, TMZ.

While TMZ doesn’t register to many as the most credible website, it’s astounding that someone on Twitter not only reported Houston’s death first, but may have also reported it right.

So far, there are not many incidences where Twitter has broken a top story, but no one can say what will happen in the future when Twitter’s popularity has doubled or even tripled what it is now. Will the general public become the first source for breaking news via social media sites? How did you first find out about the news of Houston’s death? 

Defining PR

One question that I am constantly asked is, “What is public relations?” Even though nearly every business must utilize the public relations industry in order to succeed, many people don’t even know its main function. If you ask any public relations practitioner, they may give you the standard definition, to create and maintain relationships between a company and its public. The problem with this answer is that, like any industry, the world of public relations is much more complex.

If you search for job postings in public relations you will see an array of different industries seeking PR pros. For example, education, government, medical and entertainment are all options.

I found a very funny article from PR Daily titled, 33 (more) signs you work in PR. It literally made me laugh out loud. Anyone that works in the PR industry can spot a fellow practitioner, but for those of you who don’t know this article breaks down common PR characteristics.

While reading through the list I thought, “Yup, that’s me!” about nearly every trait. For example, number 11 states, “In your personal life, when people try to help you stuff invitations, assemble gift bags, etc., you take over the project because you can do it more quickly.” Most PR pros are extreme multitaskers. Many people might even classify them as ADD. There is usually so much to be done in so little time that multitasking is a necessity.

Another favorite is number 16, “People assume you attend parties and meet celebrities for a living (and you let them think so, because it’s better than the reality of being chained to your phone and laptop).” The public relations field that I would most like to go into is entertainment. When I tell people this they usually respond with, “Oh, so you want to work with celebrities for a living?” While, yes, it would be exciting to brush elbows with the rich and famous, that would hardly cover all aspects of the job.  

PR pros are first and foremost, researchers. We are constantly researching our clients to see who is saying what about them.  Reputation is everything, and maintaining a positive one for an unruly client can be the biggest headache.

According to this CNBC article, public relations is ranked seven on the list of most stressful jobs in America. It’s no wonder that PR pros are stressed out. Most of the time, we are dealing with people and incidences outside of our control. One of my favorite examples from pop culture is when Britney Spears went crazy and shaved her head. It’s the classic instance of a PR nightmare. Her publicist couldn’t do anything to stop her; he/she simply had to deal with the aftermath.

Photo courtesy of: http://justjared.buzznet.com/2007/02/19/britney-spears-shaved-head/

While this post doesn’t give you a complete look at the hectic world of PR, I hope that it at least gives you a better idea. Hopefully, I’ll never have to deal with a ‘Britney’ incident, but that’s just a risk I’ll have to take. The fast paced and unpredictable craziness of the PR world is what I love most, and I wouldn’t trade it for a thing.