Boring people suck. I’m going to put that on a t-shirt to prove I thought of it.
If you don’t provide a funny comment below than you’re boring and you suck. Mind you that it would be better to try to be funny and fail than not to try again. I came up with that one too.
It’s best to stay away from anything about the cat. She’s just there for the amateurs, and we both know you’re better than that.
Before this blog post is over I’m going to provide more original thoughts and quips than Yogi Bear.
Business Week wrote about Best Buy’s increasing influence, which worries several major electronics companies (not the least of which are those formerly of Circuit City). Seems Best Buy’s influence is beginning to take a Walmart tone.
“We used to call them the 800-pound gorilla,” says the executive of one company that sells televisions and other products to Best Buy. “Now with a lot of competition gone, they’re the 1,000-pound gorilla.”
Barry Judge, the CMO of BestBuy, blogged about the article, to surprising support from his readers.
Meanwhile, don’t try to fetch an iPhone4 as a BestBuy walk-in, even if you received an e-mail announcement the day prior:
P.S. This and any articles about BestBuy in the foreseeable future reserves the right to be negatively biased due to my $85 ticket for videotaping a Geek Squad van (see video). The black eye hurts too.
I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with social-media monitoring tools, and their inability to filter out old content or spam bots using my old content. It’s very easy for me to assess a social-media tool by querying my own name (Nalts). I know instantly what content about me is new, and can recognize old content that has been repurposed by spam sites, which often grab my old blogs and video descriptions to fool search engines and people into thinking they’re not autobots.
Here’s an example from my Google Alerts, which I am about to discontinue. None of this is new! Even Google can’t determine what’s old anymore... and some of this links to my own blog posts that are ancient. This makes me question the prevailing myth that Google will overtake the social-media monitoring landscape with its own free solution.
Is there a solution? Even the best social-media tools can’t seem to discern between legitimate recent posts (of me anyway) that are on my sites or others.
Today, December 17, is the third-annual “Project for Awesome,” where thousands of Nerdfighters will be using online-video to “reduce world suck.”
Even if you understood nothing in the headline or lead, I encourage you to keep reading because you’ll learn a lot about online-video through this story.
John and Hank Green were brothers who lost contact over the years, and decided to change that through daily vlogs to each other (which they posted for the rest of the world as Vlogbrothers). I find myself increasingly frustrated with people in online video that don’t know their name… and give them the look of disgust you get from a sports enthusiast when you say “I hope Tiger Ruth helps the New Orleans Rangers make it to the Superbowl.”
Unlike other popular online video creators, the vlogbrothers put their loyal viewers, ideals, intellect and charity above themselves. This has created a genuine fan base of people (we call ourselves Nerdfighters), who would pretty much do whatever the Green brothers asked unless it involved hurting small animals. We’re bonded on the pursuit of increasing awesome and decreasing suck. After all a good planet is equal to awesome less suck (put mathematically, that’s GP=A-S). In my opinion, increasing awesome is easier that decreasing suck. It’s easier to bond around a cause than a complaint.
Today, like the two prior years, hundreds of video creators will make “Project for Awesome” videos to promote good causes (here’s mine, which is to promote awareness of autism). “We want to make the world a better place, and so we’re thanking people who have dedicated their lives to do that, and promoting their cause with our time and our money,” the brothers write on their website.
So here’s what to watch for today:
Now let’s say your heart is made of ice, and you really don’t care about community or charity. What can you learn from this as a marketer? Well to keep it real, you’d unlikely be able to replicate this, because people tend not to rally around a brand or commercial effort like this.
But it does show the influence that a few people can have on a larger group (the YouTube “community” that is still vibrant), and in turn to a much wider audience of YouTube grazers (the rest of the world). Give people something to care about that’s bigger than your brand or you, and do something selfless (to help reduce world suck). That’s a noble cause, right? And maybe we’ll see major charities or brands tossing their hats in the ring this year or next.
The Vlogbrothers (Hank and John) helped orchestrate another “Project Awesome,” and I’m sad I missed participating. This thumbnail collection (right) is a collection of “Project 4 Awesome” videos, which are featured on YouTube’s homepage. Individual creators recognized a charity of their choice to help “end world suck.”
While I’m glad to see YouTube editors recognize this powerful grassroots movement, I’m far more struck by the image I saw 2 days ago. The most popular and highest-rated videos of December 18 were those created as part of this program.
The brothers didn’t need to feature the already popular Julia Nunes (Jaaaaaaa), but her “P4A/Office/Lupus” video was one of my favorites. First, I’m a huge fan. Second, you can see her sincerity and humility about asking viewers to help the Lupus foundation, even though a family member has Lupus. Third, she opens with the theme for my favorite television show since 1893 when TVs were invented. She’s going to knit a hat for the highest bidder on eBay (I awakened this morning, and grabbed my laptop, coffee and credit card… but alas, the bidding at $800 is past the Nalts price range).
John and Hank aren’t just interesting video creators, but very purposeful, intelligent and passionate. John’s an author, Hank a musician and more. And their viewers, who proudly call themselves “nerdfighters,” rally not just around the brothers, but around the values they share… ending world suck and all.
Folks, this is social media at its finest, and so far from self promotion known by many on YouTube (including myself). However it makes these creators and channels more appealing. For instance, I’ve seen the Elevator Show and met Woody, but his appeal for MS made me realize he’s not just funny- but he has a heart. It prompted me to watch about 10 episodes of his show that I hadn’t yet seen.
It will be interesting to see how the “grazers” of YouTube (those who surf specific videos or scan the homepage) will respond… will they roll their eyes and return to hot babes and cats? Or will they help the Nerdfighters grow the army of awesomeness?
Two closing thoughts:
Why haven’t I posted a video in nearly a week? You decide:
Brilliant video collection here. Like you, I don’t like reading manuals. I do like getting better and faster at my software. MyDamnChannel has a series of very clever but informative tutorials about PhotoShop called “You Suck at Photoshop.” This recent one (You Suck at Photoshop #4) is absolutely self deprecating and wonderful. Donnie Hoyle shows us how to use “masks” instead of the time-consuming eraser, as he goes about making a photo of his wedding ring for eBay. As he demonstrates the tools, he ponders his despair and how his wife left him to find someone who has working “man batter.” Even better, the ring is actually up on eBay and going for $750 at the moment. To date, 30K have seen the video so far (that will change by the time you read this) and 20K have visited the eBay page.
Thanks, Jan for the find. And for the shout out about my DVD. 🙂
I don’t think there’s been a video in 2007 that I’ve watched as many times as this recent discovery, “YouTube is My Life.” Seriously. I think I’m up to 19 views.
It’s by ChurchofBlow (aka WeepingProphet). His real name is either Jeremiah McDonald or Bernard Smith, and he’s a former film student based near Boston. (Parenthetically this is the first Google result if you search “Kevin Nalts real name… stalker! :). As he waits for his career to take off (and I’m quite confident it will), he has worked in the coffee industry among other places. Here’s the musician behind the most excellent score.
I’m on a mad campaign to get this featured by YouTube editors because it’s just perfect. Clever, well produced, fantastic cameos by some YouTube weblebrities (TheHill88, MarkDay and Sean Bedlam). It’s a totally addictive song, it’s well lit, the sound effects are fantastic, the acting is dead pan, the humor is intellectual, the camera movements are thoughtful, and the stop-animated finger puppets are just plain cute. It’s a great example of what an amateur with talent can do with scarce resources.
Here’s another one we seem to be watching some what obsessively (Farting Elves from JibJab).
It’s nearing the end of John and Hank Green’s experiment called Brotherhood 2.0. They’ve used video to communicate each day for the past year… each posting a video on alternative days, and communicating in no other way. And they’ve invited the world to watch…
The two recently helped initiate “Nerdfighter Power: ’07 Project for Awesome” takeover of YouTube. I’m not really sure how to explain it, so I’ll let John. Or maybe Hank should explain it.
I participated in it (to help reduce world suck), but didn’t quite know about this whole Brotherhood 2.0 thing at the time. How? I’m a friggin’ Viral Video Genius, and I am just finding out about this!?
Now I’m infatuated by it, even if they are ghosts of ZeFrank. Check out their FAQ.