YouTube, Facebook, Twitter – it’s a lot. Try out a new social net- I mean, a new something that can do everything those social networks don’t do, and more.
Watch the GINK video and learn all about it.
(Community fans – you can thank me in the comments!)
The latest Social Media craze is Foursquare. Surely you’ve heard about it by now. Everyone is taking about “checking in” and becoming the “mayor” …and I was trying to explain it to a dear friend of mine who is just…technologically challenged, if you will.
I decided to check out their homepage and see if maybe they had sometime concise that would explain it to my friend…you know…do the dirty work for me.
I was quite happy to see a link on their homepage that read “Learn More.” When I clicked it, a cute animated video popped up and explained how to use the site. Thank you, Foursquare, for not making me do the hard work.
I will say this though…part of me wanted the video embedded on that homepage. I almost didn’t see the link there…and even when I *did* see the link, I wasn’t sure if I was going to find 39042840932 pages of text or something useful (like a video). Luckily, it was a video.
Also…while the video did a really great job of telling us how to use the service and showing us how easy it is to use (like…super easy)…it didn’t quite lay out the real benefit to the user. There was mention of discounts and the prestige of being the Mayor of that favorite place you always go to…but why should I care, really? Unless you’re just into social media…which some people are not (shocking, I know)…you may not really “get it.” You know?
So I’m on the fence about this one too. It’s like it…but not quite IT.
We had the great honor of working on the new homepage video for the folks over at Chatterbox, specialists in customer experience optimization.
We certainly optimized THIS customer experience. We’re all pretty darned happy with the results.
Can we discuss the awesomeness of this video for a moment? Like seriously…take a moment and just…watch the thing.
Did you watch it? If you didn’t…you’re really missing out.
This video is bliss. It’s the kind of video that makes advertisers and marketers and social media experts and high techies and designers — basically, everyone — gaze in awe.
Why? Because it’s captivating and engaging. You don’t even have to CARE about social media or any of the stats and figures they’re feeding you…you’ll get sucked in from the first second. The music starts, and then you see all these colorful, fun icons in a pretty shape. And then…they hit you with a provocative question that makes you go, “Hmmmm.”
The rest of the video is an engaging blend of text, graphics, interesting statistics (even for people who don’t care about Facebook) and music. It sucks you in and you just…can’t…stop…watching. Well, I can’t speak for you…but I know I couldn’t.
It didn’t even bother me to find out at the end that it’s an ad for a book. Sometimes when I see these viral videos on YouTube, it bothers me when I find out it’s a secret ad campaign for denture cream or ferret berets or whatever. I sometimes feel tricked. But THIS one…this one did not bother me at all. In fact…as I watched it, I wondered who could possibly have produced such a fun video to watch.
Socialnomics is the name of the book. After seeing this video…I think I’ve been Socialnomicized. I think they succeeded!
I was talking to one of my geek friends the other day about new cool services on the Web. She told me to check out Brizzly because it was this super amazing social network kind of site that I would absolutely love. But…I already have Twitter and Facebook. I deleted my MySpace and Friendster accounts a long time ago. What could she possibly have been talking about!? I went and checked it out. It’s a nice simple homepage design…it might be TOO simple.
I stared at it for a while and never quite figured out what it was about. I’ll have to call my friend for an explanation, I guess. But wouldn’t it be so much easier if they had a short video on the homepage explaining why I can’t live without them? Word-of-mouth got me to their site…but it’s not enough to keep me there if I don’t really know what I’m there for.
Brizzly DOES have a features video that I found through the “About” link on the footer. I almost missed it…but I did watch it and learned a lot about the product. But I didn’t hear anything about ME. What about ME, guys? What’s in it for ME?
