Marketing with Mike Volpe

How do you get 4 million YouTube views of your new song?  Use profanity in the title and the song, and post a video of it.

The one thing that Cee Lo (half of the Gnarls Barkley group) did do which was clever is that he posted the full version of the video on Facebook, but made you "Like" his Facebook page in order to view it.  That is a good example of giving away some content for free, and then requiring something to get the more advanced content.

Warning.  These videos are not safe for work.

Original Cee Lo F--k You Video

New / Final / Official Cee Lo Video (This is the one you originally had to "Like" his page on Facebook to see.)

Source: Entertainment Weekly via Matthew Stein

Update: Here is an awesome response video sent to me by Eric Vreeland

We created a new video.  Actually 20 of them.  Four of them are in a series called Foursquare Cops.  I think the first one has a lot of potential to be somewhat viral.  Check it out.

Why does the Foursquare Cops video have a lot of viral marketing potential?  

1. Ties into an emerging trend - Foursquare is really hot right now, and there is not a ton of video content about it
2. Leverages parody - Making fun of the COPS show in a satirical way
3. No limits - Many companies would be scared about swearing or shooting in their videos, but on the internet bland content gets bland results
4. Appeals to influencers - Doing a video about a social media topic helps attract and activate the people that are most apt to share content online
5. Broad appeal - Rather than focusing on just B2B marketers, by engagding a bigger audience you can hopefully appeal more to the mainstream and drive more views
6. Exciting & Funny - Good content wins
7. Short - Keeping videos pretty short is usually important for success online
   

So far, Foursquare Cops has been a trending topic on Twitter in Boston, blogged by Mashable, and has thousands of Tweets.  We will see in the next 48 hourshow big it gets...

We tried to have a little bit of fun at HubSpot mocking Twitter in an office environment and how some companies are obsessed with it.  How did we do?  is it funny? (I actually can't tell if I laugh because I know all the people, or it is actually funny.)  Do you have ideas for another funny office video?

Let's say you are a B2B company that sells to marketers and small businesses and want to attract new prospects to your website, as well as spread your thought leadership message about inbound marketing.

What do you do?  Lots of things.  You blog, make videos, podcast, do webinars, write ebooks, be active in social media and just generally leverage inbound marketing.  As part of this, you can also try to create a viral video on YouTube.

Here is our latest attempt at making something remarkable and viral for YouTube.  And some thoughts of mine below about it.

1. A rap song is a good choice because the lyrics are usually easier to understand, so you can make your point more easily.  Rap songs are also easier to parody than normal songs, I think.
2. The song is popular, and old.  New songs might be a big hit, but the recall you get with an old song really works.  It also helps you get an older demographic (usually better for B2B), rather than just people in their early 20's.  This song was chosen after we realized it is now being played at weddings - meaning it is broadly popular.
3. Get a bit crazy.  The more uncomfortable you are during filming, the more likely it will be that your video is funny and remarkable and worth sharing.  Find the line, and then go over it.  I'm not sure we went far enough in this one.
4. Try a call to action.  You usually get very few click throughs from YouTube to your website.  You can drive more traffic by adding a call to action at the end of the video. But don't just put your logo or"visit my website".  Try somethign more subtle, we just encouraged people to Google "inbound marketing" (and we were darn sure we dominated the first page of results...)

Let me know how we did on this one.

Hat tip to Brian Thorne and Amy Burrill for starring, Rebecca Corliss for filming and editing, and me (for the script).

The Robert Scoble part is my favorite.

How do you lauch a book called World Wide Rave?

With a video that shows people around the world talking about your book.

Learn more about this and download the free ebook that tells you how David Meerman Scott did this.

World Wide Rave is an awesome book for three reasons:

1) It is very timely since creating a World Wide Rave is part of the new trend of inbound marketing

2) The book uses some great examples of smalll businesses and entreprenerus creating thier own World Wide Rave

3) It is very easy to read and approachable, so you don't need to be a viral marketing expert to learn something from the book

Download file for iTunes / iPod / iPhone (.m4v)

Valentine's Day is coming soon!

There's no better way to show you care to your favorite marketer than to send some link love.

Send some link love now! 

We've slowly been getting better at making viral videos at HubSpot, our first few got a few thousand views.  The last one has over 30,000 views right now.  I think this one is the best so far.  We took bets on how many views it would have on YouTube after 7 days.  What do you think?