The Future Buzz

Yesterday I wrote on how the only way to build a sustainable web brand was not to play only to networks and try to get big spikes in traffic, but to build your brand slowly, methodically and organically. I stick by this.

Well, what if you don’t care about building a web brand or sustainable traffic. What if you really do want a one-hit wonder, or want to get a large amount of fleeting attention to just one thing or one idea. Today I thought I’d give you a quick strategy to do just that.

Please keep in mind this is the antithesis of yesterday’s advice for building a sustainable brand and sustainable traffic. This is a strategy to create a big hit for one specific idea, video, image, article – you name it. If you’re going to use technique on your blog, I highly suggest using it sparingly.

Yes, Digg is awesome. I know, I’ve had my content reach page 1 several times and send me 10,000+ absolutely unique visitors in one day.

But, unfortunately here’s the truth: Digg and other social media sites are not overnight king-makers of your brand on the web.

Sure, social media is fantastic for bringing your brand to the attention of a huge community of people and spreading your ideas. But, if your goal is to build a sustainable web brand for influence or monetization purposes you cannot rely on social media alone to build your traffic and hits.

Intro

I have strong thoughts and passion on this subject, and decided to put down just some in a feature connecting the music and news industries with a little history, the future and why everyone needs to come together and not fight change.

As both an artist and someone who works closely with the media industry, I believe I have a unique perspective on how similar the challenges are facing both of these industries and how it is unfortunate that the big players are using their positions of power to destroy a beautiful evolution of technology and communication.

This evolution ultimately will impact society in an incredibly positive way, bringing down the gatekeepers and creating a completely open and free cultural and information economy.

That is, if we (the independents) can win, and the laws are not bent to the fortune of the few when the power of the many is what will most benefit humanity.

A lesson in corporate blogging
I wrestled with whether I should blog about this – but I think it is worthwhile to write this up to show you a great example of what not to do on a corporate blog.

This is of course, my personal blog, and I have a clear disclaimer right at the top. I make zero claim to tie anything on this site to the firm I work with – these are entirely my own thoughts.

A corporate blog is a far different animal. Depending on what your corporation is, you may be able to venture into some debate, but at least do your research first, and be open to fixing something if you post the wrong facts.

Did you LOL yet?
Obvious part out of the way: Lolcats are a hugely popular internet meme. If you’re unfamiliar with what an Lolcat is, well it’s actually quite simple. The meme involves combining a photo of a cat with some quirky text to create a humorous image (I included a few in my 50 Viral Images article).

Here’s just one recent Lolcat photo:

There are an immeasurable number of Lolcat images floating around the web across platforms. If you Google lolcat, you’ll get more than a million results.

Yes, they’re popular. And yes, you probably secretly like them even if you complain and post negative comments every time one graces page one of Digg. Of course, I’m talking about lists (top 10 lists, top 100 lists, top 9000 lists, you name it).

Lists are a popular way to arrange content on the web for a number of reasons. Wait for it – I’m going to list them.

Lists:

• Are scan-able
• Provide easy to read and consume content
• Have the novelty factor
• Are many times “must-share” content
• Engage people
• Are at times humorous, entertaining or incredible
• Are a strong social web meme
• Get strong traffic

Twitter, Digg, Friendfeed, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. – these are all incredibly popular social networks with useful services connecting millions globally.  Notice all of those links take you to my personal profile page within each of those networks (feel free to friend me on any of these sites). 
Within those networks, I am connected with countless […]

Just remember, it has to be beyond awesome. You’re competing with videos as compelling as this:

or as creative as this:

or as thought provoking as this:

or as cute as this:

or as hilarious as this:

(Related: here’s 5 essential tips on how to make a viral video successful.)

Viral videos are ubiquitous – they have spread into both mainstream pop culture and corporate America. Everyone talks about developing viral videos, and there are plenty of techniques you can use to give your video the best chance of success.
But, something not talked about as frequently are viral images. Viral images predate viral […]

I normally don’t blog about clients I work on at the firm I’m employed with (Pierson Grant Public Relations) for two reasons: the first of which is I don’t want to sound biased, and the second of which is permission. Bloggers in many industries can write all about what they did that day […]