Since the beginning of public relations, communicating information has been through word of mouth. People learn information through different means of communication, whether it be through listening or visual means. This means that practitioners must be able to be flexible in their means of communication, either through videos, blogs, podcasts, or just word of mouth.
Social media is dependent on participation from others. This participation is vital for pracitioners as well. One part of social media that is sometimes forgotten about is the viral video.
YouTube is one of the most popular sites for to find videos. It allows viewers to seach through most popularor by categories. Anyone can post a video, but only a few videos become popular and gain a mass audience, which makes it viral. These videos must be creative and unique for them to become popular, so that they don’t get mixed up with other videos.
For example, this video is short, but funny.
This video may be something that appeals to you simply because it is funny. I heard about this video through word of mouth. This made it become a popular video.
This video may have been viral because it is unique. It is not the normal video you think of when watching a cat.
Whatever the reason may be, in order for a video to go viral it must be different and appeal to a mass audience.
I agree. My blog explains the same points you hit on discussing how people learn in different ways. People learn from visual aids, or hearing the information, or from both. Thus, this is why it is vital for us public relation students to know how to communicate effectively by creating podcasts and embedding videos in our blog posts.
By: Lauren Hopkins on April 12, 2010
at 1:43 am
Social media definitely depends on participation. None of these viral videos or blogs would be worth anything unless others viewed or commented on them. Things get popular online because others share links and send them to their friends. So many videos become popular because they are bizarre and out of the ordinary. People enjoy watching others do dumb things! It is an important skill for PR practitioners to know how to make videos and podcasts because they may come in handy on a job.
By: laur22 on April 15, 2010
at 7:52 pm
I completely agree with you. That is the only that social media can work is through participation from others. Sharing links is what makes the videos become popular. It is amazing to me how these videos can become so popular and have so many views by other people. This videos have to be different to be interesting. I know the random ones that I watch are about some of the dumbest things. I spent thirty minutes one day looking at people playing the Wii and letting it go through the TV. Sounds kind of weird but it kept my attention.
By: Brittany Maree on April 17, 2010
at 1:42 am
I loved your discussion for the viral video topic of the week. There are tons of people out there viewing video’s daily, making them more popular by each viewing. By simply uploading a video onto youtube.com they can boom like crazy. Not only have they taken off in popularity, but its crazy how people get noticed. For example, the newest pop singer Justin Beiber was found on youtube and is now a hit amongst teen girls. I think video’s are a great way to share information. You can post notes to go along with slides and video, which really seems to help those learning follow along, and video’s seem to catch many learning personalities. I loved your choice of video’s that you posted along your blog for this topic. The charlie bit me video never gets old. haha
By: Kati Ann Wright on April 18, 2010
at 12:22 am
Hey Brittany,
Charlie bit my finger is one of my favorite viral videos. I agree with your point about not only viral videos, but social media depending on participation. Social media is the modern word of mouth. You have the ability to tell people about things not only quicker, but you also have the potential to reach more people. There is one thing about humor in viral videos that is similar to your comment on how people learn differently. People have different tastes about what they think is funny and we might end up offending people. That’s one thing that we need to keep in mind when it comes to viral videos.
-Meghan
By: meghanlane on April 21, 2010
at 11:30 pm
[...] Viral Videos [...]
By: Blogging Samples | Britt0621's Blog on April 28, 2010
at 1:49 am