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Viral Means Fleeting
The next big thing on YouTube will be forgotten in a month. Do you remember the last video you sent to a friend or colleague? How about the one before that?
Things make us laugh, they move us, or they stir us in other ways, but in this fleeting age of information overload, it's not often that we hold on to much. We've all opened our emails to find some late comer to the game, forwarding us a link to some video we saw two months ago and we reply, "Ha ha, yeah - seen it." And we likely don't go back to watch it again.
Don't Fake It
If you hope to be "viral," (since that's the buzzword du jour) please don't try to hide behind a proxy or surrogate and pretend as though you had nothing to do with the promotion of your video. When people find out the truth, and they always will, the backlash will be worse than having admitted it up front.
Accept Other People's Stuff
Suppose you have a huge fan of your products or services who has "endorsed" your company with a video that portrays you in a good light. Let's even suppose that the video is not the type of material suitable for PG audiences on prime time television. Do you run from it? Not wise. Look how long it took the Coca-Cola Company to jump on the Diet Coke + Mentos thing. That hurt them. Had they not waited three months to acknowledge that the press was good for Diet Coke, they might've got some mileage out of it. As it turned out, they jumped on the bandwagon just as the bandwagon was grinding to a halt. People had moved on.
What if They Malign My Company?
Now let's suppose someone has created a hilarious viral video at your expense. Let's suppose it's been seen on YouTube 3 million times in the last 24 hours. What do you do? Demand that YouTube take down the video? Do you sue? Again, not wise. Get on the comments section and start to do damage control.
- Address the issues brought up in the video
- Be light-hearted
- Assure the creators that you understand their concerns
- Promise to rectify the situation
- Turn it around and sponsor a contest
And keep in mind - Viral is Fleeting. This will pass. You'll have some clean-up to do, but the memory of the offending piece won't be with the public for very long.
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