Many saw Aaron Anglin in our Single Pointe
viral video titled – WordPressing their widgets into your Facebooks– this video was essentially a spoof on the infamous Chris Crocker video titled – Leave Britney Alone. Why would we choose this video to spoof? It’s simple- the initial Chris Crocker video nailed over four million views, was on every single television news station across the country, and even better, it made it on to every primetime glamour show, and even made the Soup on E. Jumping on this wave and the keyword Chris Crocker garnered our video nearly 3,000 views within a week’s time- although 800 of those views came after the star’s death. Needless to say, the video continues to be viewed by people all over the world.
Now, I know you’re untimately asking what’s in it for Single Pointe? Simple- credibility in the 2.0 media world with the technological generation among several other reasons, but let’s address this onefirst and foremost. Credibility in the social arena will be harder for staunch, old school brokerages. According to our off-hand studies and focus groups, folks just do not buy the lean towards 2.0 that the larger brokerages are taking. In fact, I would go so far as to say it is the equivalent of your grandpa showing up at your high school graduation after party with shorts, Hawaiian shirt, black socks and sandals. Scary. Our goal is to build a brand around our real image from the ground up- we were two-oh before it got a catchy name.
There are some folks out there that are making the move 2.socially very well; one Realtor that comes to mind is Jay Thompson. What he is doing is very subtle, but it’s very far from fake. His Facebook profile reads the way we all wished ours did- demonstrating how connected he really is. When you look deeply into his profile, you see a list of colleagues that brings him credibility as well as blog content, conversation, activity, and more- Jay can effectively give advice, and by glancing at his Facebook or the comments on his blog, you can instantly see that he must know what in the hell he’s talking about. Our goals are very much the same- we want folks to see our videos, see our copy on our site and our relationships in the social world, and understand that we’re real and what we say is much more than ‘sale deep.’
Single Pointe really didn’t have any idea how or what to do as far as our first viral attempt- and honestly, we didn’t want to. We wanted it to be real, and we wanted it to be fun. We did not keyword the video in a way that would really drive traffic towards our business, and this was intentional. This was a test as it was the first ever viral video done by a real estate company. We certainly do not want to be the last, but we wanted to talk about what our motives are, how we will measure success, and where we hope the project will go. We have a new video underway and hope to have it out in the next week. We will also continue to find waves to ride with our ‘video ticklers‘ and hope for a theme to present itself that will give long lasting ‘video threading‘ in the social media generation- and we’ll continue to report and encourage you and yours to join in.
You may have noticed the word viral is crossed out, that is because we’ve coined these types of videos ‘video ticklers.’ Video Threading is also an internal term we’ve fashioned to demonstrate our goals. These video ticklers will be around on the internet forever, and by tagging them with the timestamp of a social keyword they will hopefully thread the history of our company, and our approach to marketing. And who likes the word viral anyway- std come to mind? yuk.
Benn Rosales is the Founder and CEO of The American Genius (AG), national news network. Before AG, he founded one of the first digital media strategy firms in the nation has received the Statesman Texas Social Media Award and is an Inman Innovator Award winner. He has consulted for numerous startups (both early- and late-stage), and is well known for organizing the digital community through popular offline events. He does not venture into the spotlight often, rather he believes his biggest accomplishments are the talent he recruits and develops, so he gives all credit to those he's empowered.
