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Social Networking Wars

Capturing the attention of Your Web audience

People will go to great lengths to capture the attention of their web audience and they will do it in

variety of ways.  a viral video becomes viral because it evokes an emotional response when viewed be it humor, fear, pain or compassion.  but you’ll need to hone in on a topic that gives these types of responses in order to be successful in viral video.  Let’s talk about how you can do that.

Idiocy sells. Talk about or video something that’s ridiculously dumb and you’ve got a good chance of going viral.  Whether it’s people making fools of themselves intentionally or not, people just love to watch humorous stuff.  With videos, you have an easier way of showing your funny story compared to a blog or even a podcast because people don’t have to imagine it being funny.  They can just see it.  With all that being said, humor sometimes really puts things in perspective.

Videos that show people getting hurt have a strong potential for going viral because of the inherent emotional ties evoked when viewed.  What is it about people getting hurt that compels others watch?  Maybe it brings to light a reality that it could somehow happen to us.  Maybe it’s the horror of watching something death defying.  Maybe, just maybe there is some thrill we get by watching people get hurt.  This always reminds me of the “rubber-neckers” on the freeway that cause traffic jams.

bringing people to justice is also something people love to watch.  People love to see the happy ending when the good cop defeats the bad cop.  People want to know that cheaters and liars (who happen to always show up in our lives) are always brought to justice.  Seeing video like these bring out the “noble cause” side in all of us that justice is served and peace can now come back to the good people of this nation.

Topics that are considered secret or taboo are often good candidates to go viral as well.  Little known facts or real life stories generate talk because there’s just something mystical about a secrets and taboo.   

all of these situations evoke a particular emotional response that compels us to comment on the video, blog about it or somehow transfer this clip of information into the hands of the next person and it goes viral.  The stronger the emotion, the faster the viral transfer takes place.  Put some emotion into your video and get the buzz going!

Photo credit: viewzi Video x3 View by Chris Mancini

]inbetween[ weekend, June 7/8, Orlando Convention Center

attending Teched and looking for something to do ‘inbetween’ the two Techeds?  Or just looking for a
really great, free, community driven event for the weekend? The Florida Microsoft Community has secured Orange County Convention Center in Orlando (where TechEd is being held) for a giant community mega-event on June 7 and 8.  There’s .NET CodeCamp plus SQL Saturday plus ITPro Camp all rolled into one.  and that’s just Saturday. 

On Sunday they’ve got all day tracked learning in SQL, Office Communication Server, .NET Framework 3.5, biztalk, Sharepoint, Visual Studio Team System, DotNetNuke, and more.  Russ Fustino will also be spearheading an all day Toolshed session as well.  In addition to the learning, we’ll have OpenSpace lightning talks, MCSD/MCaD exam crams, discount certification testing, MCT training, and some extra special surprises.  For more information go to http://www.devfish.net/articles/inbetween.  Register for an event on Saturday, and one on Sunday, and we’re good to go.

Photo credit: viewzi Celebrity Photo View by Joshua Stearns

Capturing the attention of Your Web audience

People will go to great lengths to capture the attention of their web audience and they will do it in

variety of ways.  a viral video becomes viral because it evokes an emotional response when viewed be it humor, fear, pain or compassion.  but you’ll need to hone in on a topic that gives these types of responses in order to be successful in viral video.  Let’s talk about how you can do that.

Idiocy sells. Talk about or video something that’s ridiculously dumb and you’ve got a good chance of going viral.  Whether it’s people making fools of themselves intentionally or not, people just love to watch humorous stuff.  With videos, you have an easier way of showing your funny story compared to a blog or even a podcast because people don’t have to imagine it being funny.  They can just see it.  With all that being said, humor sometimes really puts things in perspective.

Videos that show people getting hurt have a strong potential for going viral because of the inherent emotional ties evoked when viewed.  What is it about people getting hurt that compels others watch?  Maybe it brings to light a reality that it could somehow happen to us.  Maybe it’s the horror of watching something death defying.  Maybe, just maybe there is some thrill we get by watching people get hurt.  This always reminds me of the “rubber-neckers” on the freeway that cause traffic jams.

bringing people to justice is also something people love to watch.  People love to see the happy ending when the good cop defeats the bad cop.  People want to know that cheaters and liars (who happen to always show up in our lives) are always brought to justice.  Seeing video like these bring out the “noble cause” side in all of us that justice is served and peace can now come back to the good people of this nation.

Topics that are considered secret or taboo are often good candidates to go viral as well.  Little known facts or real life stories generate talk because there’s just something mystical about a secrets and taboo.   

all of these situations evoke a particular emotional response that compels us to comment on the video, blog about it or somehow transfer this clip of information into the hands of the next person and it goes viral.  The stronger the emotion, the faster the viral transfer takes place.  Put some emotion into your video and get the buzz going!

Photo credit: viewzi Video x3 View by Chris Mancini

]inbetween[ weekend, June 7/8, Orlando Convention Center

attending Teched and looking for something to do ‘inbetween’ the two Techeds?  Or just looking for a
really great, free, community driven event for the weekend? The Florida Microsoft Community has secured Orange County Convention Center in Orlando (where TechEd is being held) for a giant community mega-event on June 7 and 8.  There’s .NET CodeCamp plus SQL Saturday plus ITPro Camp all rolled into one.  and that’s just Saturday. 

On Sunday they’ve got all day tracked learning in SQL, Office Communication Server, .NET Framework 3.5, biztalk, Sharepoint, Visual Studio Team System, DotNetNuke, and more.  Russ Fustino will also be spearheading an all day Toolshed session as well.  In addition to the learning, we’ll have OpenSpace lightning talks, MCSD/MCaD exam crams, discount certification testing, MCT training, and some extra special surprises.  For more information go to http://www.devfish.net/articles/inbetween.  Register for an event on Saturday, and one on Sunday, and we’re good to go.

Photo credit: viewzi Celebrity Photo View by Joshua Stearns