Howdy, Gang, and happy 2008 to you all! Here we are with our first Whiteboard Friday of the New Year and it's one that many viral marketers out there should pay close attention to. This week, Rand discusses what it takes to make viral content and linkbait hit home with users in order to gain links to boost your rankings, rather than just landing on the front pages of social media sites.
All too often we can get caught up in the rush of hitting the homepage of big social media sites through our close-knit networks of spies, informants and Digg spammers, only to be less than impressed with the links that come out of these carefully crafted victories. Why? Well, sometimes the content just ain't link worthy. We, as marketers, know how to game these social promotion systems with the best of 'em. But what we also know, though often fail to keep in mind, is that the real value in hitting the homepage with viral content is the link volume we can get. Just remember, everybody stops to look at a crosswalk sign, but they won't tell their friends about it unless the little dude is break dancing. You can quote me on that...if you want. Most awkward analogy ever.
Those of you with an eye to production value may notice things looking a little smoother, spiffier and...umm...soundier (?) this week. As Rand mentions in the video, we've got new mics, lights, cameras, action, and a biggity big-ass new whiteboard! Hopefully some smoother camera work and better audio will help increase your viewing pleasure.
Note from Rand: I will try to finish a post on how to separate link-worthy content from visit-worthy, forgettable content for next week. Many thanks and kudos to Scott for putting together a significantly improved version of our Whiteboard Studios and upgrading the video and audio quality.
By: Scott Willoughby
Whiteboard Friday - Why Your Viral Content Isn't Working
Whiteboard Friday
The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
Like Ciaran, I haven't watched the video yet (unlike Ciaran, I will).
Just thought I'd chip in to the comments about the lighting quality / setup etc. I just wanted to say that my (layperson's) view is that Scott probably knows what he is doing and what he's talking about - he's done this at a pretty high level and I think most of the things that are getting criticised already bug him enough that he's fixing it.
Feels to me that it started at quite a low budget and only now is $ getting thrown at it to get decent equipment.
I guess what I'm saying is feel free to keep bugging scott to keep upping his game, but I feel like he has most of these things covered and they will all improve. Let's have some patience people!
Thanks, Will. Appreciated. I have done a lot of this stuff, but I always appreciate constructive feedback. I'm also the first to admit that I'm not the best at lighting design, plus we have a very difficult space to work with lighting-wise (especially now with a reflective wall). But you are right, most things people bring up are things I'm already aware of and pained by. Nonetheless, as mentioned, I have no problem with constructive criticism.
Batman could make it work.
Shhhh!
PAY-PER-VIEW SEOmoz
Scott - You've been very good, and I think Santa should have gotten you and Rand an INTERACTIVE PRESENTATION WHITEBOARD that is hooked up to a computer. I know you couldn't afford it last year, but with the new investor you can probably afford it now. Maybe it would pay for itself if it were used to create a series of videos that are pay-per-view. Not sure it would work, but I really enjoy these Whiteboard Fridays, esp. since the posts are getting so long. (Don't tell my students that I'd rather watch a video than read long posts!) Just a thought... I know it would really add a ton to your workload, so it's easy for me to say and difficult and time consuming for you to do.
Good video!
Content, content, content. That's the thing. Humor will get you exposure but top quality content will get you quality links.
I guess if you really want to build something sustainable, there is no way around it. You need good content for the search engines, as link baits and for news releases. And keeping in mind what the end goal is - why do you want that traffic?
I was thinking about linking to an article on my blog on the conversion of a viral campaign, but I don't know if I dare, since last time I got thumbed down for linking there.
Well, you can just remove it if it's unappropriate. I'm still learning the unwritten social rules here.
ps. Just thinking that maybe that second camera should have been on the left instead of right.
I am going to show some humble support for this guy because I visited his blog and he does have quite a few nice articles on viral marketing. The best question asked by him in one of his posts was "Should Viral Marketing Convert?" and I liked the idea very much.
Let's condense this valid message into the following short sentence: you get the best results when you keep the target in mind, and not yourself...what's in it for them, not me.
I'm not great at watching video content on a PC screen so as always, will commit the crime of commenting on a WBF post with nothing other than the text summary to go by.
It certainly sound interesting, but the one thing I would add even without watching is that I think it's important to differentiate viral marketing & linkbait - they're not the same thing.
One is designed to drive links for SEO purposes; the other will often be created with branding considerations in mind. Have a look at my presentation from SMX London if you'd like a more detailed definition (and feel free to get rid of this link if you think I'm being too spammy!)
;)
I am getting a 404 there, but that aside, I agree entirely with what you say here.
I also do not think that any post on viral marketing or link-bait is complete without at least a passing reference to willitblend.
... which is in his presentation :)
So it is! I was getting a 404 earlier, but I am reading it now.
Thank you for providing a link to this, ciaran. It is excellent.
I did it; I watched the video! It was great (I'm going to avoid commenting about the audio or video quality as I wouldn't want SEOmoz turn into What Videocamera or some similar site). I especially like the theme-tune.
Having seen it, I stand by my initial suggestions (although I'll accept that perhaps I'm just being too anal). Rand suggests at that start that there are various reasons for creating linkbait, including driving attention or raising brand awareness.
I disagree entirely - linkbait is designed to generate links; that's it. Anything else is likely to be viral marketing, and as such should be considered in a totally different way, dependent entirely on what your end aim is.
I realise that this is probably just semantics, but think that it's important for the same kind of reasons that Rand raises in the WBF; if people don't know what exactly they're trying to create, then they're likely to be disappointed with the results.
Ciaran - I think we've got a semantics issue. I'm basically using "viral content" and "linkbait" interchangeably and segmenting it out by the goals, rather than having separate terms for the intended goals... Not sure how that should be resolved, but just wanted to be clear that we're probably not in disagreement :)
It's almost certainly semantics - & I'm probably putting too much emphasis on them.
It's just that I think one can have a successful viral campaign without attracting links, but that's obviously not the case with linkbait. So if you sell in viral, and the client expects links, they may be disappointed.
I'm just a sucker for getting the terminology right, especially when so many people don't understand what we do!
Yay. I watched it too. Pats on the back all round.
Ciaran: I think you make valid points, but I think a lot of it does come down to semantics and I do quite like Rand's way of presenting them as two sides of the same coin. We talk a lot in the office about the 'baitiness' of viral stuff and also what we call 'linkworthy content' which I think can be summed up as linkbait *without* the viral stuff - i.e. it will get links when found, but won't necessarily do its own promotion...
Brilliant presentation Ciaran - learned ever such a great deal from that - quality work.
Ciaran - thanks for sharing link, your campaign was brilliant! We will be doing more video in '08, not sure exactly what direction we will take it, but it was great to see a how you executed your campaign.
Rand and Co. --> nice upgrade on the WBF.
Really nice Whiteboard this week, thanks SEOmoz.
Loving the new production slickness. This makes the other Whiteboards look a bit Blair-Witchy. When do we see CGI versions of Googlebot stomping across the screen?
There isn't a magic formula for creating link worthy content. It varies wildly from industry to industry. I think the old saying "the hardest way is usually the right way" rings true here. If you can identify something that is lacking within your industry because it's too much work/hassle to create... be the first to put in the work and create it. It will pay off. For example, it can be an idea as simple as creating a detailed bulb chart/guide for a car lighting site. If you can't find anything your industry lacks (there's always something though), then take something existing and do it better.
I love WBF. At least this week I can hear it (thanks Scott)!
I watched the video. (Funny that I should make that distinction) and it seems to me that Rand's recommendation for getting a link is in the part about content:
1. Statistics, facts, authority - have these and you're likely to be cited (linked to) because you'll be citation worthy. Obviously, these should be gathered from somewhere official (a .gov, patent database, legal brief, etc.)
2. Investigative Journalism - Maybe not the defacto item, but having a question and answering it is effective, and you'll likely get a lot of links from others that had the same question(s).
3. From comments: images - This reminded me of a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon that Bill Watterson discussed in the Authoritative C&H. The strip was Calvin, blowing a huge bubble, it popping, and wrapping his head in gum. He says, feeling his gum covered noggin, "I think I just blew my head inside out!" Bill's comments, "When the writing is weak, go for broke with the imagery.
Scott - Great work on the new setup. The audio is VASTLY improved. One edit quibble, I would have cut to camera two when Rand started talking about the new equipment. Other than that, very nice.
As Nick mentions below, I cut to camera 2 to help hide pans and zooms on the close up when Rand moves around.
Yeah, I noticed as he moved out of frame camera two cut in. But seriously, it was so good I watched twice.
The microphone was a marked improvement. How much extra time did shooting/editing take with the second camera added? I only ask because if it's a buttload of trouble, it may be efficient to just do the dual camera format for multi-person WBFs and for conferences and whatnot.
It only added about an hour to my editing time since there was only one person speaking. Editing two-up interviews actually takes longer.
Quick suggestions on the Whiteboard presentations:
Write bigger (instead of zooming the camera in and out)
Not all of the textual examples are necessary; viewers want to get the idea behind your presentation and focus on what you are saying instead of reading every single detail on the board. One way of tackling this would be to use icons and/or basic illustrations to minimize the amount of content on the board.
Hope this is useful.
I'm baffled... What is your recommendation on a solution for creating link worthy content for these social media sites?
Ya left me hangin'
Rand the video and sound are of better quality. Can you please tell us how to create link worthy content? Thanks.
If you want to get their attention you need to think like they do, I like your video and you are absolutely right. We need to understand what drives our ultimate audience and write for them or they won't link back to us.
Mmmmm
Maybe I should have taken a peek at this before I posted all those "Microsoft Context Matters Videos" on my Blog!
Hope you guys have recovered from Friday night!
Finding the lowest common denominator that is interesting at the same time is usually the tricky part :(
Loosing site of the end goal is never a good thing, especially when you make it to the top and don't get what you are looking for.
I love it that you did what I do all the time - wrote site instead of sight. Or cite. I probably do that once a day!
I can no longer type goggles. Go on. Try it.
This is a ridiculously good post Rand (and kudos Scott on the production side).
Too often I've had stuff go hot on SU and Digg, only to be disappointed by the amount of links that come in; this video is sorely needed to remind me to step back for a while, and change that!
Great post and thats the key that a lot of bloggers miss. I think you made it pretty simple for people to understand and check their drawing board.
Thinking to be #1 on digg, yet forgetting to attract to the "Linkerati". Hmm, interesting mistake for search marketers.
You get a thumbs up, despite not finishing your updating....
Excellent. You're right, not appealing to the "linkerati" is probably THE most overlooked thing by most people.
I like the new camera and sound. I like having two angles to hide pans/zooms in the video, which look... well... not great.
Even with a single speaker (and not a lot of pan/zoom to hide) you can do slick stuff with two cameras. Check out what Technology Review does with their video. I love those monologues that Jason Pontin does. He's the man.
great presentation. easy to understand also for not English native speakers.
well done!
Nice blackboard show, to me is way easier to read than the previous one with the lovable Vanessa Fox.
Anyway, I guees I'm going out of topic. My point is that all summarize to the same thing all over and over again. You must find a balance between spiders and users (different subjects this time). But most times is not that easy to find the balance with the force.
May the force be with you Rand (StarSeoWars).
everybody stops to look at a crosswalk sign
great analogy scott, another key to remember is who is important to us. A photo of someone picking threir nose is nothing special, but if this person is Britney Spears it is the lead story on the nightly news.
to those above me, I don't know when the note was created but I'll quote it just in case:
Note from Rand: I will try to finish a post on how to separate link-worthy content from visit-worthy, forgettable content for next week. Many thanks and kudos to Scott for putting together a significantly improved version of our Whiteboard Studios and upgrading the video and audio quality.
Anyway, I like the big whiteboard, and the sound is more audible too. To me... it doesn't make a bit of difference. As of yesterday, I have seen all the whiteboard friday episodes there are to see, and would watch them all again, even if I had to strain my ears and eyes to receive the fantastic messages within.
EDIT: hah. forgot to actually comment on the content of this video. Well I've never been on top (or been voted at all) in any of these social media sites because I've not produced any decent content yet. I'm just starting out on the interwebz. But when I do, I'd like to leave my mark, and leave it well. I'd much rather wait until that golden moment when I produce something worthy on its own, than to game the social media sites into false popularity.
Although I'm a bit worried that this approach is going to crash and burn for lack of a tactical advantage.
Good video (not too sure about the 2 angles though). Good to see video and sound quality are way up. Congrats!
(Internet Marketing Ninjas videos ould learn a things or 4 with your video production standards...)
As for getting on top of digg and then expect links: doesn't that just apply when you have linkable content? Is all viral content linkable? I would think that some viral content could be used just to create buzz/brand awareness/product awareness.
It's all good and well when you have statistics or some good original research people can link to, but when you don't have that, your content won't get many links, and that's not necessarely bad.
Very true, the most succesful piece of linkbait I have ever sorted out was for one of my clients, it never hit the homepage of digg or reddit and only did O.K on SU, but it got picked up by Neatorama and from there 100's of other blogs, it was really simple, just a load of pictures of messy desks, with the title office desks failing the tidy test, the page now ranks nearly on the 1st page of Google for office desks, I hope that in the long run it will help the rest of the sites rankings. Getting picked up by big blogs is the ultimate goal for me, sites like TechCrunch, Boing Boing or SEOmoz for instance, you will normally get a load more links out of it.
Wow. First - an astounding improvement in the audio. That alone makes the videos much more enjoyable to listen to. Secondly, I like how you've incorporated multiple camera angles Scott. Great job.
Now all they need is the little red light on the camera so Rand knows which camera to look at. :P
Nice vid -
One piece of advice; you may want to try a 3 point lighting setup to reduce the shadow cast on the whiteboard
https://www.mediacollege.com/lighting/three-point/
I'm actually using three lights, but it's not really possible to get a good backlight when we're shooting aginst a wall. It';s a very shiny wall at that, so minimizing reflection is a consideration that strictly limits light placement. I appreciate the suggestion though.
Hey Scott - what kind of camera are you using? As mentioned above the only key step missing here is the white balance. A cool trick I use is to bring in a flat plain white piece of paper into the room and tape it up on the whiteboard, then zoom in the camera so it fills up the shot on the paper, then do a custom whitebalance on that, don't use the presets.
As far as the reflective board problem, I suggest getting some diffusing gels for your lighting kit.
Also - you might want to invest in a wide-angle lens considering the dimensions of your whiteboard, I saw the you had to pan back and forth a little bit.
MARKED improvement though, great job :)
White Balance... A White board should not be red... Just a huge tip for increasing your quality.
The video quality is better, but if you want to take it to the next step, take out the manual on your camera and white balance it.
You add more light which is great but you need to white balance and manually adjust the exposure.
Yeah, yeah, I know. This was a first run with the new equipment and the video was a bit "warmer" than I'd like ideally, probably having to do partially with being back under tungsten light instead of fluorescent. I'm going to manually adjust several different settings next time around. Thanks for suggesting the instruction manual, I never would've thought to look there.
overall it was a great job, scott. marked improvement in the audio and video quality.
BHP photo video has some great tutorials on lighting for interviews as well that could minimize glare significantly:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/find/newsLetter/Lighting-for-Interviews.jsp
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/Product_Resources/lighting1.jsp
Getting links by offering a list of items or rewards is a cheap way of doing things. Getting getting quality inbound links is very difficult and this discussion did not address any methods or techniques to accomplish this other than compensation.