An Example of the Importance of Timing

With the current internet meme of Rebecca Black's Friday YouTube video staying popular and finally starting to peak as it is reaching maximum market saturation.  All memes have a life cycle similar to a product life cycle. Like most internet memes when something new comes focus transfers from this meme to the new thing, as described in Brand Value - It Changes with the Tide post. The remixes, parodies, and covers are still being introduced on YouTube.  With the videos starting to die down in popular as this meme comes to an end it is being revived.  Both by FunnyorDie's April Fool's Day gimmick of turning it into Friday or Die and by Jimmy Fallon with the help of Stephen Colbert, The Roots, and Taylor Hicks.  Extending the life cycle long enough for this to be in my opinion awesome.

YouTube Videos keep on being removes you can see just the video here or the full story and more videos on the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Blog.

Why this is better and being blogged about is more about the back story of how this happened because over $26,000 was raised for charity.    They timed the release on the end of the Memes life cycle more likely because of scheduling.  Luckily Rebecca's Black Friday is still popular and being consumed by the masses so this video has an additional audience.  In addition to being part of Friday's episode of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon with Stephen Colbert both things would gather a large audience to consume this media.

So if this video was made in a month would it be as popular?  Doubtful because it is likely that the "Friday" meme would be over.  It would still be popular because of who is doing it, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon.  The added views and popularity of the timing would help this get more views, attention, and word of mouth than being released to some other meme or at another time.

Added bonus get your QR reader out at 3:47 for another special bonus message.
Spoiler for those who can not read it, it takes you to a bonus thank you video you can see here.


Some previous similar blogs include  Time Sensitivity and Importance of a Timely Response.

Do you think the timing of this video will help?  How so and by how much?  Does what the video is of help it, if they sung a different song would it be as popular?  Anything you would like to add?

5 Easy Ways to get me to follow you on Social Media (Twitter)

My followers on Twitter have been steadily increasing, mostly with spam bots and people I have no interest in following or don't know. That and my twitter time line (Twitstream) is pretty full especially when I get to it at lunch break. Usually I don't have time to read all the posts but I do click on a few of the people I follow to see what they posted. A few that I always read include Coalesce, FitMke, Tom Snyder (triveraguy), and Jim Raffel. The reason why I check these 4 before any others is they tweet great content and links about Marketing and Social Media and for Fit Milwaukee they offer great tips for running. They pertain to me and my interests and are not cluttered with a bunch of Foursquare check ins or blip songs. This list is also great suggestions for Follow Friday.

Now on to the ways for me to follow you and to get my attention

1. Follow me first- This is a basic start, but just because you are following me doesn't mean I will follow you back. I follow about 1/3 of the people who follow me mainly because I don't have time to read thousands of tweets. I also only check my followers once a week to see if I have any new followers.
2. Have a logical reason to be following me- If you are following me you should be doing so for a reason.
   A. Are in my geographic location (Milwaukee or Appleton, Wisconsin).
   B. Have a common interest whether it is video games, sports, G4, Olivia Munn (OMFG), or some other commonality.
   C. Like my awesome, witty, hilarious tweets. Which I am sorry have been lacking a lot as of late.
   D. Or most importantly are in the marketing or a similar industry.
   
3. Don't have half your tweets be from apps- I had a hard time wording this but in lament's terms don't have most of your feed be filled with foursquare check ins or similar programs (gowalla) and to a much lesser extent songs from Blip or what video you rated on youtube. Now don't get me wrong its fine to use these apps and post where you are or what you are listening to I just don't want that to be all you do or tweet about.
   
4. Have quality tweets in your timeline- This goes back to point 3 but if you are a new follow the last 20 or so of your tweets determines if I am going to follow you back. Comical tweets are great for a follow but tweets that have information and something I can learn from is best. Have a reason for me to follow you.
   
5. Have a conversation with me- Reply to one of my tweets let me know you are following me and reading what I tweet. Let me know that you exist, this is one of the main ways I follow you.

Do you have any other ways or rules for following someone? Do you agree with this list? Do you follow me on twitter? Do you have someone who I should be following?