Viral Links

When I first read the Viral Links assignment details, I was a little unsure of what exactly to do. I've never used social media to try and be as popular as I can or spread news around, but rather to check up on what my friends were doing. I was timid to start posting on Facebook because I haven't had a status update (other than when I've been hacked by friends) since I found out I got into UF. 

In order to spread the word about my video concerning technological addiction in our generation I used facebook, twitter, and vine. All three of which I mainly use to observe (I guess I like to keep my thoughts to myself). 

Let's see how things turned out...

Vine:

Vine is one of my favorite social media sites. Its simplicity, I believe, is what draws me in. Some 6 second videos make me laugh more than comedies do. In order to make vines about my video, I thought that trying to add some humor would help viewers want to pay more attention. 



For this vine (see left) I wanted to show something we see everyday. Walking around campus or hanging out with your friends, people are on their phones EVERYWHERE, including myself. I decided to show some of my friends in the locker room 'hanging out'. I chose to put popular hashtags along with my #putitaway hashtag that I used for my video in an attempt to gain more views from more efficient circulation. 


In an attempt to keep humor an aspect of my vine videos, I kept up the theme of adding memes or GIFs (see right). With so many viral videos alive today, most of the memes or GIFs in circulation are recognizable by your average social media user. In studying my own habits of vine use, I noticed if I recognized part of a vine I felt more connected to the video and would watch it for multiple loops. After showing this one in class I got good feedback, so I guess I did okay!



Facebook:

As I said before, I RARELY ever post on facebook. Maybe a few pictures here and there, but this would be the first status update/post in a couple years. I actually got a few messages wondering if I'd been hacked or if I was okay. Am I okay? I didn't know making a facebook post would render the thought of me being in danger, but hey it's good to know people care about you. 

After that incident, I began putting a note at the top of my posts indicating it was for this class, so hopefully that cleared up any confusion. For this post (left) I wanted to use a famous quote to try and draw in any curious browsers of the news feed. In an effort to create dialogue/controversy with my viewers I added some questions at the end. I did receive a decent amount of likes, but when I saw it was some of my closer friends I became suspicious of 'pity likes'. 

I knew going in that facebook wouldn't be the best brand of social media to try and spread my video, for many of my friends are on there for the same reason as me, to simply 'observe'. I wasn't able to gain too much attention as far as likes or comments go, but it's also
hard to tell how many people actually saw the post. 

Twitter:

Going in, I thought twitter would be the best way to increase the popularity surrounding my video. A huge factor that hurt my ability to do so was that I created my twitter account at the start of this class. As of now I have 15 followers...not exactly the amount of exposure I would hope for my video to get.

For one of my posts (see left) I found an interesting article about our body and these "phantom vibrations" that happen to people. Our body creates, what feels to be, a vibration that our cell phone would make. The only difference being that when that person checks their phone it won't show any updates or messages. I thought the article would spark some interest in the subject of technology addiction.     


Another post (see right) inspired one of the vines I made. I think memes are great because they poke fun at things that happen on a daily basis to many of us. With only a picture and brief explanation we're able to get a point across. 

Infographic:

Using the infographic, I wanted to specify one of the points of my video in how we're not letting our minds wander as we used to (without smartphones). Einstein was a firm believer in the power and creativity that our minds have when we're able to think (a large reason I've mentioned him multiple times). Had I been more skillful in creating infographics I think I could have maybe done a better job than the one I chose, but it still addresses the issue I want to portray. 


In Conclusion: 

I'll admit, I wasn't very excited when I saw this assignment. I've never been a huge fan of promoting myself or my ideas of social media and normally watch from the sidelines, but this assignment took me out of my comfort zone. A lot videos become viral by chance, but what separates them from the others? This assignment made me realize that there truly is a 'social media science' and companies are in dire need of people with expertise in this field. No matter what you think, social media is going to continue to grow as a part of our society. It's somewhat scary for me to think about, but it's also too intriguing not to study the patterns of social media worldwide. We're more connected than ever before, and it seems that we're only scratching the surface. 

The "Science" Behind Social Media

Let's face it, social media is now the hotspot for advertising and increasing your brand's popularity. It doesn't matter if you're a fan of the technological revolution or not, but if your company doesn't effectively promote itself it will be swallowed up by the newsfeed. Brands can make the mistake of being too aggressive in their social media endeavors as well as too timid. There's a happy medium between the two. More importantly than just how often you post, the content and strategy of each post is crucial to having social media success. "It’s about having a strategy for making your company or organization more like a person and less like a machine. It’s about humanization" (Jay Baer). So how is this done? Well everyone likes scoring a deal, no matter what the circumstance. Offering discounts or free accessories will always help gain popularity, but what separates the most successful social media users from the rest? 
Companies today employ people for the sole purpose of social media exposure. These people meet and discuss the best ways to promote their product on various sites. As said before, offering free deals or discounts is a great way to up your stock on social media, but there's something else that takes the connections with your customers/followers deeper. With so many different social media types, it's crucial to find what's best for your company. For example, vine may be a great way of promoting a sports team, but not for a furniture store. Choosing what's best is also impacted by the audience you're trying to reach. Linkedn is great for companies in search of employers as it's a much more formal type of social media, whereas twitter isn't the ideal place to search for potential employers. 
There are endless strategies to becoming successful on social media, but one of the crucial things to remember is to not overthink it. It only takes a few shares before something can be spread all around the world. Be as personable as you can to create a connection with your audience, and don't post too often, maybe then you'll be able to stand out. 


When someone famous mentions you in a tweet or has some type of personal interaction with you, you get excited, right? The more personal connections a brand can make with their customers, the more loyal they'll become. We'll be content with winning a free prize, but we feel appreciated or cared about when a more 'human' response is given. Even if it takes a split second for a company to tweet at someone, it goes a very long way. For not only does the person mentioned feel like an appreciated customer, but if they are to retweet or reply, all of their followers will see it as well. Making one connection can lead to hundreds, even thousands more. 

Screen Story

In making this video, I wanted to show people (even myself), that we all spend way too much time on our phones. I thought Louis C.K.'s Conan episode was great, I just couldn't show all of it. We're losing the ability to be content with our thoughts. We're so afraid of being alone that the second we feel it we reach for that thing in our pockets. Our imaginations have been tainted because we don't allow ourselves to be one with our thoughts nearly as much as in the past.

I chose to use textual, image and auditory modes to portray the issue I wanted to bring up. I did so because I didn't want to solely use one of the modes, for I thought the viewers could lose interest if they only saw pictures or had to read words on the screen the entire time.

The tone used was more humorous than serious. If the first scene is a video clip from a Conan interview I'd say it's definitely more humorous than any other. I thought this was a good way to attack the technology issue. To be able to hear Louis C.K. poke fun at a problem allows the audience to be more open to listening about the topic. If I had used intense music or dark imagery to show the problems with technology, people might think I'm taking it a little too far. When we laugh at the topic at first, we're more accepting to learn more (at least for me). We're all guilty of being addicted to technology, but we're being told in a much friendlier, comical way.

Throughout the video, the text I used was always centered. I tried to avoid any fancy designs or words flying across the screen because I felt it would've been 'too much'. I thought that the scenes from Conan were enough flash so I decided to keep the text and transitions simple.

One section that wasn't my favorite was the time lapse of checking my phone in the morning. I liked the start, but should've had more information to put in while the video was going. I felt that there was too much of a delay between scenes, but I could probably fix that. The music addition helped the delay slightly, but more information would be of more help.

And who doesn't like a good quote from Ferris Bueller's Day off?