Usually for viral Friday I post up something funny or bizarre.  Today it’s something that is touching.  I saw this over at 1TimStreet and agree with him that it will go viral. It’s not always the humorous or strange that spreads like wildfire on the internet, very often it’s something as human as two sisters giving advice to two others.  This is worth 3:30 of your day no matter what you feel about the recent election.

Letter Between Presidential Daughters

I couldn’t get the video to embed for some reason, but you can click on the image to be taken to it. I would love to know what you think about this.

Since @brooksbayne has convinced half of Twitter (including me) to change our avatars to ’80s pics for the day, I thought the video for the day should stay with that theme.  This made me laugh, it’s A Ha’s “Take One Me” only with a catch…what if the lyrics matched what was actually happening in the music video?  My favorite line, “I’m gonna kick some ass with my own pipe wrench”.

Okay, this isn’t new, and it’s really not all that viral, but just made laugh! :59 of Aunt Mildred playing Halo in her mind.

A lot of people play Guitar Hero, the uber popular video game.  So what do you do if you love it so much it hurts, and you have too much time and chalk on your hands?  You create Bike Hero.  Apparently this took several days. 

Below is the video for “Prisoner of Society” by The Living End.  It’s done on expert mode, but not exactly the way you are used to seeing it. It gets really good at the end, so make sure you watch the whole 3:36. I really want these guys to do this with Freebird next.

RSS Subscribers: Video Embeded, go to original post to see it.

I’m listening to Viva La Hova while I write this. It’s a mashup mix of Coldplay, one of the greatest rock bands in the world, and Jay-Z, one of the greatest hip hop artist in the world. “A Spy’s Prayer” is playing much louder than I should probably play things while I’m trying to work, butI just can’t help it.  What a great song.  What a great mashup album! I started hearing some buzz about it a week ago, and I finally downloaded it today.  I’m pretty sure I will do the digital equivilent of wearing this album out (remember that with cassette tape? ha ha!).  Haven’t heard of it yet?  You will.  I think that in the next few days it will trend on Twitscoop, I think it’s picking up some momentum.  Why?

It’s Free.

Yes, the great minds that put this together, Mick Boogie and Terry Urban, are giving their music away.  You can go download it right now, DRM free, no strings attached…all 20 tracks. I wonder how hours they put into this project? I wonder if they were tempted to try to sell it? What kind of buzz would they have if there was any cost involved to the consumer?

I have lost track of how many business owners and managers have asked me to create “something viral” that makes money for them right away.  They want visible, tangible results that they can track on Excel, sort of the equivelent of a coupon that tracks sales of a product.  Here’s the thing…you won’t always see immediate results, but if you can break free of the traditional business model of cashing in on the first step, you will probably do better in the long run.  I don’t know what the future holds for Boogie and Urban, but I think they are going to do well. Buzz about this project will continue, people will download their work for free, and they won’t make a nickel off of it at first glance.  But…they will make money.  Publicity, offers, promos…

In your next team strategy meeting, will you try to figure out something that you can give to your customers and fans free of charge? Don’t add conditions and hoops to jump through, just give it away. The loyalty and buzz you create will likely produce more long term gain than anything you can gather in the short term.

I should probably note that before you download the album, the language is, well…hip hop.  If you are not familiar with Jay-Z and are easily offended, you may want to proceed with caution.  Consider yourself warned.

I tweeted about this earlier today, but I think it deserves its own post.  I love fresh and creative ways of spreading content around the web, and AC/DC has put out one bizarre and intriguing product: a music video down in Low Definition Excel!  Yes, that Excel, the spreadsheet program from Microsoft.

I downloaded the .xls file just to see if it work…and it does!  I think this has viral written all over it.  If you don’t have Excel or don’t want to download the file you can watch it on YouTube as well. I’ve embedded it here for your viewing pleasure.

It’s nice to see a band that has been around for a while coming up with really new and creative ways to get some buzz going about their music!

I’ve had more than one head of company ask me if I could “make something viral” to promote their service.  I wish it was just that easy.  The buzz of “viral” is one of the most abused terms around, and although many people strive to make a viral video or email or sound clip, very few succeed.  Why?  Because it’s not a company that makes something viral, it’s the community.

Case in point: I love this video from The Natural Confectionary Company!  My friend James Whatley from Spinvox pointed this out to a group of us at Blogworld Expo 2008 and we just couldn’t stop laughing.  Why?  I don’t know…it’s a ridiculous script with gummy animals making no sense.  It’s brilliant.  It’s too bad their website isn’t equally brilliant, unfortunately it’s as far to the other end of the spectrum as you can go.  TNCC: if you ever want a redesign let me know!

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