Is Humor a Weapon of Mass Distraction or Attraction?

By Carl Weiss

The Good Humor logo used until 2000 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the big questions you see marketing people debate is whether humor improves the sale of products or detracts from the sales of products. Even in our firm, we debate this issue. I believe that done properly, it does both. People are always looking for that magic bullet to get an edge over their competition and I should know.  

Being an Internet authority means speaking in front of groups of business people from time to time.  Whether the topic du jour is related to search engine marketing, blogging for business, social networking or the ins and outs of pay-per-click matters not.  What is a certainty is that as soon as the presentation is finished I will find myself buttonholed by someone who wants to know the secret of success online.  It’s as if my dissertation was meant to be an appetizer and the real meat and potatoes of online marketing could only be revealed to those bold enough to corner me after the fact.  “Okay, you got me.  If you really want to generate a million clicks, this is what you have to do...” As much as I wish there were three-magic-beans that could magically transform a stale web presence into a rock star, for the most part there is no such animal.  (As I like to point out to a number of people, I am a technician, not a magician.)

How to Work the Web Gangnam Style

By Hector Cisneros

By hector Gangnam Style

The YouTube video, Gangnam Style went viral, catching the imagination of millions of people worldwide. As a marketing professional, I endeavor to understand why such marketing events happen. What is the special spark that makes a video, podcast or eBook go viral? Where does it all start? Who influences the play and the spread of your message? Does it all happen organically or is there some technique for propagating the spread. In this article, I will provide a number of useful tips as to why internet posts go viral. I will provide a list of elements that all viral posts have in common and I will provide you with a roadmap so that you can create your own viral post. Soon you too will be working the web Gangnam Style.