Tag Archives: hooking up

book, Online Video

Companies Shouldn’t Engage in Social Networking. They Should Give People Woodies.

15 Comments

Here’s a press release by Cone (a division of Advertising Conglomerate Omnicom), which did a study about consumer expectations of companies in social media. I’ve got an important point of clarity:

Cone Finds that Americans Expect Companies to Have a Presence in Social Media: Harder-to-reach audiences are ripe for social media interaction.

Some stats:

  • Sixty percent of Americans use social media, and of those, 59 percent interact with companies on social media Web sites. One in four interacts more than once per week.
  • According to the survey, 93 percent of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media, while an overwhelming 85 percent believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media.
  • In fact, 56 percent of users feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment.

sxephil\'s brother in hooking upSo I’m not arguing with this study, but I want to make an important distinction. I believe people don’t want most companies truly involved in social media. That’s because a company can do little more than issue an ad or a press release. A company can’t leave a comment, respond to my note, post a vlog, or even write a blog. The company’s employees, however, can get involved individually.

But their names are not Coke, Mac, American Express or Kraft. They’re Mike, Ed, Tom, Jennifer, Micki, Karen or even Woody..  

Think about your favorite companies or brands, and the feeling you get when you reflect on them. Do it right now. Picka cool brand. Now think about a different company (maybe a small web-based one) in which you’ve had a positive interaction with a specific employee. You remember his or her name. Often your bond is as strong or stronger with the latter. For me, Revver will always be Micki. Metacafe was Talia. DailyReel was Alex and Felicia. TVWeek is Daisy. blip.tv is Mike. YouTube is BigJoe or Mark (because Chad and Stephen are now under PR-induced witness relocation). These companies are cool because the person I’ve met there is cool. These companies are harder to trash when you’ve met someone whose job isn’t PR or sales.

Like G. Gorden Liddy once said of FBI agents (paraphrasing): we had to behave knowing that the person whom we interact would probably not interact with another FBI agent in their life, and would tell friends and family about that experience.

Vivid Example: On the early videos of the recent “Hooking Up,” the show’s writer was reacting to comments, and signing them “Woody.” I thought that was far more intimate than a comment from “Hooking Up” or “HBOLabs.” Sadly he didn’t have time to ride comments on Professor Klein (Nalts) first appearance. 🙂

People want to get social with actual humans, and companies are just collections of these humans. Woody was funny, laid back, and he did a good job acting as Sxephil’s brother. So when I think of HBOLabs I think of Woody.

It’s a lot easier to trust HBOLabs when they give you a Woody.

Online Video

Tilzy.tv Journalist Jamison Tilzner Gets Right to the Facts

12 Comments

A lot of journalists will let their subjects wander aimlessly about a story. But you have to give Jamison Tilzner, of Tilzy.tv, kudos for getting right to the story. As “Hooking Up” writer Woody Tondorf waxes poetically about some of the second-rate YouTube weblebrities appearing in the HBOLabs web series (which is now featured on YouTube’s homepage), Tilzner gets right to the key cast member. See 1:55 of this video. And feel free to rip, repeat and upload that to YouTube. Seems Nalts is missing from a lot of the heavy promotion, largely because he serves a bit role and he’s rather old for the target demo.

As I shared with the folks from PopTub in a recorded interview this morning, Woody and the HBOLabs team had two characters in mind when they reached out to me:

  • Professor Klein… a burnt out professor of the imaginary Bask University, which apparently recruits for kids who have low SAT scores but are Internet attention-seeking whores.
  • The janitor of Bask, who pops up at the end and says, “and I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you meddling kids.” Turns out they scratched that character to allow for more time to develop the character of Jessica’s boobs.

In the meantime, watch YouTube Reviewed, which is allegedly a mock site HBO Labs created to generate fake negative publicity about the show.

Online Video

HBOLab’s “Hooking Up” Web Series Debuts Today. Satire Ensues.

16 Comments

HBOLab’s “Hooking Up” series debuts today (see premier episode), and here’s a sneak preview of photos of the cast. There’s also a new YouTube channel with a trailer for the series at YouTube.com/hookingup. I don’t know much about the story because I only read my own short scenes with Michael Buckley. The plot revolves around relationships in a world where most of our communication is electronic. Of course I play a professor, and Buckley’s a junior professor. SxePhil and Jessica (LonelyGirl15) play a couple, and I have seen some sneak peeks of their e-mail and Facebook flirting.

It will be interesting to see how YouTubers receive this series, which involves higher production and scripted dialogue — which they don’t often associate with some of these popular YouTubers like KevJumba, Charles Trippy, and  MrSafety. Being a popular YouTuber involves a lot more than acting (writing, directing, promoting, connecting with crowd, remaining topical, etc.).

In this web series, however, the YouTube weblebrities have little more than their acting to rely on. I, for one, felt completely out of my element. I’ve done stage acting before, and most of my video stuff is improv with script points. So I didn’t find it easy to stick with a script of a character I didn’t invent — and I’m kinda bracing to groan when I see the clips.

At least we had a blast in LA. I didn’t see most of the people at the HBOLabs set (the mock Bask University) since my scene involved Buckley alone. But we did catch up later doing the Retarded Policeman, and then a brief dinner before a red eye back to the East Coast to… be a marketer.

One thing’s for sure. You’re gonna find out what a bunch of fat asses we are when we aren’t vlogging directly to the camera, and don’t have the privilege of editing out unflattering body shots. Especially that Jessica. She must weigh about 95 pounds.

P.S. If you’ve seen the Hooking Up Trailer, then you’ve got to watch FallofAutumnDistro‘s biting satire of it titled “Selling Out.”