Here We Are Now, Entertain Us (and Other PR Blog Jots)

The Emperor Has No Viral Strategy
Social Media Marketing
It must be a maddening undertaking to explain to a client that no, there really isn’t any way to just create a viral out of thin air—particularly since no one can predict the next YouTube sensation. That’s the beauty of the medium, many of the best virals have been happy accidents, or (the Mentos/Diet Coke thing comes to mind) not even actually the result of any marketing effort whatsoever. That being said, Scott Monty argues that there are some things you can do to improve your chances at getting some love from the online community. Do your homework on your audience, and be as entertaining as possible. “That's not to say it's going to work. Odds are, it won't. But this is the formula that has to be followed, in my opinion, if you want any shot at success. You don't just upload some half-ass video to YouTube and claim you've got a viral video. The 42 people who view it may think so, but I doubt your client or manager will.”

Nine Billion Served?
Six Pixels of Separation
According to a recent Comscore report, in the month of July alone nine billion videos were viewed online, with 75 percent of Americans watching an average of three hours of online video in the same month. Mitch Joel reports on this news, noting that most (this blogger included!) would probably be somewhat incredulous at the nine billion figure, which is so large it could very easily be a typo. “I always believed that consumers don't just want to sit and stare at a computer screen... that's what they were doing with television. Especially when you factor in the quality of online video and the bandwidth buffering issues that still persist to this day. I have the humility to say that I was (and still am) shocked that in an interactive environment like Web still has people who are eager to sit back and passively watch videos.”

Disclose, Disclose, Disclose!
Shel Holtz
In one of the more apropos blog headlines I’ve seen recently, Shel Holtz implores “Will we never learn?” Seriously. The Guardian is reporting that Microsoft PR firm Burson Marsteller has caused a bit of a kerfuffle by advocating for high-profile corporate memberships in an organization meant to fight the recent Google acquisition of DoubleClick. Not coincidentally, Microsoft had been bidding on DoubleClick as well. Shel’s problem isn’t so much the formation of the organization or even Burson advocating for it—but a lack of full disclosure. “The world is transparent, and many eyes are focused on the lens peering into the business world. Deceit will be exposed. There is no benefit in trying to get away with something like this, which only hurts the public relations profession, including those who would never engage in such practices.”