Posts Tagged ‘video’
The Shaq Effect: Just how influential is the Big Cactus?
So…the Oprah Effect. You’ve heard of it. How much she – and other celebrities - are affecting the social media realm. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing can be discussed in other places, but one thing’s for sure…it’s definitely a “thing” and it should not be ignored.
Take, for example, “The Shaq Effect.” The argument could be made, in fact, that the Shaq Effect served as the precursor to the Oprah Effect. His engagement with fans via Twitter and his Facebook Fan Page led to all kinds of buzz and excitement as his follower numbers skyrocketed and he enjoyed interacting with his adoring public.
But how can you really measure something like The Shaq Effect? Sure you could use detailed metrics of Twitter number increases and Fan Page fan statistics, but that’s way too boring and scientific. We’re going to go with something way cooler and more fun: screen shots and videos. Hooray!
Here’s the situation: At 10:40 p.m. CT, on the night of Tuesday, June 23rd, Shaq tweeted this:
The video he’s tweeting about can be seen below. As the screen shot shows, it had about 340 views at the time of the tweet. That’s not bad. (Screenshot first, then video below that)
(Here’s the video itself…)
Being the studious and curious thinker I am, I made a point to check back in at exactly 10:40 this morning. Here’s the number of views, exactly 12 hours after Shaq’s tweet:
And now, as of the time that this post was created, the view numbers are almost 35,000.
So…did the numbers spike so rapidly due to the video itself simply being awesome, or is it the fact that Shaq’s network of 1,372,200 people (at the time) rushed to view a video that inspired Shaq to want to play a guy in a game of horse for $1,000 (many of whom probably then shared it with THEIR networks)? Bearing in mind that the video had been posted since June 11 and only had 340 views in almost 2 weeks, I’m guessing Shaq had a bit to do with the view number increase of over 5,000% in a 12-hour span. Obviously there’s more to this equation than page view numbers in the bottom corner of a YouTube screen, but this was simply meant to be an observation that happened to morph into a blog post.
Our question is this – Could any Twitter celebrity have made that happen or is it the sheer numbers behind the army of Shaq Twitter followers that made it happen? If Gary Vaynerchuk had thrown it out there to his 566,000+ followers, would the video views still have jumped to 20,000? If Chris Brogan had shared it with his almost 80,000 followers would his followers (and their networks) have gotten the video 20,000 views? On the flip side, would Ellen DeGeneres’s network of 2,100,000+ followers have taken the video to 40,000 views?
Or would simply landing on the front page of Digg have been all it needed to get there? Are you at all surprised that Shaq’s network didn’t get the video MORE than 20,000 views?
All of these many questions are questions that we’re currently debating in the office, so we figured we’d see what you have to say. We’d love to hear your thoughts, so fill us in on your views in the comments section below or on Twitter at @deepbench.
P.S. – We’d love to hear your favorite Shaqalicious nickname while you’re at it, so let us know. Big Cactus, Big Diesel, Big Jabberwocky, Big Aristotle (my personal favorite) or one of the dozens of others?
UPDATE: As of a few hours after we posted this highly detailed analysis (around 6:00 on June 24th), it appears Shaq has been traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. According to TechCrunch, it’s possible he found out about this trade via Twitter. On a side note, it is this writer’s fear that, when Shaq gets to Cleveland, the potential combination of his HUGE personality combined with LeBron James’ equally outgoing personality could cause the entire city of Cleveland to explode from a fun, passion, and excitement overload. Things could get crazy, folks.
Box Scores: May 18-24 – Killing Your Website, Eye-Tracking Studies and More
Although it’s Memorial Day, we didn’t want to break our tradition on Box Scores and wait a day to post them. In fact, not only did we continue our Monday tradition, but we also added a new element to the mix. From now on, we’ll be including video intros to Box Scores. Why? Because we love Box Scores and we figured that if we have this much passion for them, you should be able to experience our passion with us. So watch the video and then read up on the Box Scores to see how much you can put them to good use in this upcoming 4-day week.
-“It’s Not About Technology, It’s About Ideas”
This Future Buzz blog post by Adam Singer can probably best be summed up with this opening sentence: “It’s not about technology or being able to manipulate tools “better” than anyone else, rather – it’s about ideas.” From there, Singer goes into plenty of detail regarding the difference between tools and ideas. The bottom line: Anybody can use a tool. It takes great ideas to be truly innovative and effective as marketers. Read why in the post to understand the difference. Then put it to use and become better at what you do as a marketer.
-“Human Motivation and Your Brand”
While Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is an often-cited element to how marketers relate to and engage with consumers, this post on the PR-Squared blog keeps the breakdown short and effective in their logical use of Maslow’s Hierarchy. As a short post, it’s worth giving a read to see how they compare the modern needs of consumers with the pyramid, but this summary sentence wraps the whole post up nicely: “When you start thinking in these terms, you won’t start-off a marketing strategy meeting by asking, ‘What’s our Twitter strategy?’” Words of wisdom to keep in mind, marketers.
-“11 Striking Findings From an Eye Tracking Study”
Eyetrack III just completed a study of where website visitors’ eyes travel as they access various websites. Some of the findings could be very helpful for you as you build out your blog or website design and layout, so it’s worth giving both this summary post from Problogger as well as the findings of the original study a read. Some of the summary thoughts include gems like “For headlines — especially longer ones — it would appear that the first couple of words need to be real attention-grabbers” and “We found that ads in the top and left portions of a homepage received the most eye fixations.”
-“There Is No Social Media Kit”
The title of this “Altitude Branding” post almost says it all. While we highly recommend reading the entire post, this quote summarizes it quite nicely: “There are some examples of what works. There are examples of what didn’t work. The answer to “will this work for us” or “how should we get started listening” or “what’s the best way to engage our audience online” will always be this: it depends.” Give it a read to see how this is expanded in more (and quite beneficial) detail.
David Armano comes in on this Logic + Emotion post with those three direct and deliberate words. The logic behind them makes perfect sense and is worth giving a read (whether you currently have a top-notch website or you’re just considering whether or not you even want/need a full-fledged website). He certainly justifies the headline of this post and it’s worth giving a closer examination.
-“5 Sales Pitch Fundamentals That Win Business In A Recession”
This guest post on Drew McLellan’s “Marketing Minute” blog comes from Joey Asher (President of Speechworks) and gives some great (short) insight into winning business in a recession with effective sales pitches. Joe includes some great tips on how to go into that sales pitch and effectively prove why you deserve to win the business. If you’re someone who has to be a part of sales pitches, give this a read and make sure you take some of these suggestions with you into your next pitch.
So there you have it. Box Scores posted and accounted for, a new video component to help us share our excitement, and some content that you can put to use in the upcoming workweek. Let us know what you think about any/all of these posts by leaving us a comment in our comments section below, or hit us up on Twitter at @deepbench.
Also, let us know what you think about our video intro. Anything you liked or disliked? Anything you’d do differently? Share your thoughts so they can help us make this a better experience for you. We’d definitely appreciate the input.