Making Weird Stuff Awesome on YouTube

When I was a kid, I used to pretend that my sister’s horsewhip was a sword and play Highlander by myself.  I mostly dueled with inanimate objects…sometimes destructively.  I most assuredly looked like a huge dork.  YouTube wasn’t invented yet and this paragraph is the only proof (along with some scuffs on the wall in my parents’ basement).  So, there was no one to make my antics into something awesome.

Several years ago, a young lad was inspired to do similarly. However,  he was inspired by Star Wars,  he taped it and it made it on to YouTube:

And, either fortunately or unfortunately for him, it went viral (Ahhh…it was almost me!).  Then something cool happened.  Someone made his awkwardness into awesomeness.

Recently, this happened again.  And, it all started with a double rainbow.  A full on double rainbow, and someone who really liked it…a lot.

And, this nice gentlemen became famous, and even went on Jimmy Kimmel.

And, yet again, someone made it awesome.

It’s amazing what an auto tuner can do.  I want one permanently embedded in my voice-box so that I can  sound awesome even during regular everyday conversation.

But that’s beside the point.  The take home message here is:

It turns out that you can crowd source awesomeness without even asking for it, and people are so creative that they can be inspired by literally anything.

Brands Speaking and Listening Through Twitter and Foursquare

A while back I posted a story about how companies can “Twitter Sniff” and find out what people are saying about them.  You can read that here.  In that post, Smokey Bones found one of my tweets about them, and started a dialog with me.   Recently, I had another experience that mirrors this.  It involved an application called Foursquare.

When I became mayor of Chipotle on Foursquare (meaning I checked in more than anyone else), Chipotle tweeted a congratulations to me and started up a dialog with me that was similar to the one I had with Smokey Bones.  Earlier today I was at Chipotle (feeling some brand loyalty, given my experience with them), and eavesdropped on an employee getting trained.  I was very impressed with the thoroughness of it and I let Chipotle know about it via Twitter.  Below is the conversation:

Me:  @ChipotleTweets I am listening to an employee being trained and am very impressed. Very thorough.

Them:  @PureCognition Nice. We’re pretty thorough. Even for us staffers we had to work in the restaurant for at least 4 weeks. -Colin

Me:  @ChipotleTweets Very cool. I bet that helped a great deal with your perspective on things.

This is another great example of a company that is speaking and listening through Twitter (and Foursquare) in ways that were previously unheard of.  This is not an impersonal TV spot or billboard sign.  This is a high touch one-on-one conversion, and a glimpse into the direction that marketing is going.  And, did I mention it was mostly free?

A Simple Case of Twitter Sniffing

I didn’t want to write another Twitter post, but @SmokeyBonesBar made me!  The other night, my wife and I went to Smokey Bones to have dinner.  It’s one of my favorites.  And, to my surprise there was a piece of paper on my table with something handwritten on it in marker.  Oddly it wasn’t on any other table that I saw.  It was definitely speaking to me in particular.  It basically talked about a beer that they had called Vanilla Java Porter, which is basically beer that tastes like coffee.  And, as I soon found out, is AWESOME!  It turns out that beer and coffee are also my favorites.  So, what did I do next?  I tweeted it:

“Having a vanilla java porter at smokey bones. Coffee and beer in one! My two favorites!”

Not an inspired tweet, but accurate and descriptive nonetheless.  Not to mention deeply personal. 

The next day I got on Twitter and, to my surprise, that was retweeted by @SmokeyBonesBar themselves (who also started following me…a favor which I returned).  The following conversation ensued:

Me: @smokeybonesbar I’m really impressed that you found my tweet about you, re-tweeted it, and followed me. That’s quite proactive, and adept.

Me: @smokeybonesbar Oh, and one more thing, do you still have blazin’ shrimp? I couldn’t find them on the menu.

Them: @PureCognition Thanks for the compliment. Smokey Bones has a bit of an ego, and loves to hear what people say about us.

Them:  @PureCognition The Blazin’ Shrimp is still there – just has a new name. “Who You Callin’ Shrimp?”

Me:  @SmokeyBonesBar The previous name (“Blazin’ Shrimp”) was slightly more descriptive, but nevertheless I’ll know what to order now. Thanks.

Me:  @SmokeyBonesBar I really enjoy seeing how businesses use the collaborative web, so your story is very interesting to me.

Do you know how restaurants have waiters and waitresses circle URLs on receipts where you can go and fill out a survey and win stuff?  Most people probably forget to do it…I do.  However, tweeting can be done on the spot and is simple.  Businesses like Smokey Bones know figured that out.  Also, tweets are probably a bit more upfront and honest…Mine are. 

It’s nice to know that businesses like Smokey Bones are Twitter Sniffing to not only find out what their customers are saying, but to also meet them and answer their questions.

Recently, my wife won a 700 dollar grill from Texas Roadhouse through a raffle.  We appreciated it (we were looking for a grill).  But, as strategies go, I like Twitter Sniffing better. 

Recently I posted Seven Types of Web Communities.  I forgot an eighth:

Consumer Communities:   Communites of consumers for a particular business that give feedback and get questions answered.

Also, this is yet another example of one of the faces of twitter.

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Seven Types of Web Communities

Recently, a friend of mind wrote an interesting post on Gather.com called Facebook and Gather Are Not Direct Competitors.  In it, he explains how Gather and Facebook are two different types of web community sites aimed at two different purposes.  This interested me, because I never really thought of it.

I decided that it might be useful to start a dialogue concerning the types of web communities that are out there, and what they target.  I’m not sure that I can always tie a type of community with a specific application, but I’ll try my best.

So, below is my list of seven web communities:

Familial

As stated above, web communities may actually be based on real communities, made up of friends and family.  FaceBook and MySpace are the biggies for this.  Twitter was based on the idea that friends and family could get real-time updates about each other.  It has turned into something altogether different, of course.

Shared Interest

These are communities of people that often don’t know each other personally, but share a common interest that they discuss.  This is a common use for Gather.  Also, there is a good site for discussing books called Shelfari.

Collaborative Creation

This is a community that collaboratively creates things using the web as an online platform.  The major examples of this are wikis like Wikipedia.

Professional

These are communities of professionals that which to develop and maintain their professional network.  LinkedIn is the most common of these.

Economic

These are communites of people that buy and sell goods and services.  Craigslist and eBay are the most common versions of these.

Media and Link Sharing

These are communities of people sharing things that they have found or produced.  YouTube is an example of this for media.  Delicious is an example of this for links.  Twitter is another strong example of this.

Romantic

These are the types of communities used to find “that special someone”.  These are often not free.  The only one that comes to mind is eHarmony.

The online communities we belong to help us nurture the different aspects of our personal and social lives.  Humans have so many aspects to them that I’m sure that the above is not an exhaustive list.  I would like to hear about other types that could be added to the above.  If you can think of one, please drop me a comment.

I also want to add the disclaimer that some of the applications above, like Facebook, actually facilitate more than one of the types of communities above.  I mentioned it for what I use it the most for.  Sorry for my lack of objectivity. 

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Our Story: Distributed Identity in Web 2.0

Often we think of our online identities in terms of our logins, passwords, and various other ids.  Identity Theft is theft of these things.  But, in terms of the collaborative web, there is a great deal more…our story.

Our identity can me measured by our story and our story is made up of what we do.

In terms of Web 2.0, what we do is:

• Write articles
• Comment on articles
• Modify wiki articles
• Upload media such as pictures and video
• Decorate content with metadata such as tags
• Blog
• Micro-blog
• Contribute to open source

When you join an online community and begin interacting, your story can be told in two directions inward and outward.  The former tells the members of the community who you are by telling them what you have been up to outside of the community.  The latter tells people outside of the community what you’ve done inside the community.  You, I assume, are interested in both directions…I am.  Below is how these directions work in practice:

Inward Identity Sharing

Importing what you do at other sites is usually done by importing from those sites.  You usually do this by giving the community links to feeds and/or profiles from these other sites.  The community can then keep track of what you are doing elsewhere.

Outward Identity Sharing

Exporting from the community is done by giving addresses of your feeds and/or profiles from a given site to other sites.  These other sites can then keep tabs on what you are doing in that community.

Sites like FriendFeed and FaceBook actually do both directions rather well.  Other applications don’t.  FriendFeed , in particular, even broadcasts both directions…acting as a thirdparty broadcaster.

Personally, I think that this is an important dimension to judge an online community.  By honoring your users’ story, you honor them.  This respect won’t go unrewarded.  Users want this because they want their story told…everywhere.

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