OK GO: Social Media at Work
Ridge Sampson, CEO
Anyone who knows Ozone Online knows that we’re a dog-centric company. Dogs are amazing creatures. Mine, Luke the dog (aka Cool Hand Luke), is a working dog who delivers newspapers and performs tricks for unsuspecting tourists and clients.
What you may not know is that I’m a reluctant adopter of social media. From the start, I’ve struggled with the notion that it may all just be a fad. I’ve also wondered, how does social media actually help our customers grow their businesses? Do people really have time to consume all this content? Do these little blips of information really make any difference?
But over the past few weeks, I’ve been converted from “reluctant adopter” to “rabid fan” ...with the help of a bunch of dogs.
It all started two weeks ago when I decided to follow Luke one morning as he was making his rounds to say hi to everyone in the office. During our rounds, Vanessa called me into her office to show me a video. Lo and behold, there was Luke up on the screen! While Luke and I were wandering around the Marina over the weekend, someone had taken a short video of Luke doing what he does best: performing a few tricks. The video was now posted on this guy’s humor blog. That began my transformation.
In addition to being a project manager, Vanessa happens to be our Social Media Analyst. Within minutes, she had posted the video link to our Facebook page and Twitter feed, and added it to Luke’s bio on our website.
“Great,” I thought. “That was fun. It’s a topic of conversation, and now it’s out in the Twitterverse, whatever that is.” But then it was out of my mind. Yes, I could see that social media is entertaining... but is it useful? I still wasn’t convinced.
This past week, my outlook changed. All that social media stuff triggered one of my friends to send me yet another dog video (they all like to send me dog videos). This one was an amazing video by the band OK Go! Knowing dogs as I do, I can appreciate what an impressive feat it was to get numerous shapes, sizes, and breeds to perform so well together – and with a band, to boot. But to top it all off, the entire video was shot in a single take. Robert Altman would be proud! I recall the opening scene of The Player being around 8 minutes long. One of the actors actually comments on the length of cuts in the scene.
I’ve since learned that OK Go! has a unique style that combines the zaniness of a Rube Goldberg performance with great music. Needless to say, I started sending the link out to everyone I know. I also fired up iTunes after realizing I liked the song almost as much as the video. I sampled a couple of tracks, and I bought an EP and a couple of singles.
Wow, social media works! Not only that, but it worked on me.
I had never even heard of OK Go! But now I own a bunch of their music. A viral video convinced me to buy, but that would be a boring post if it ended there – unless you watch the video.
Another thing most people know about me is that I am an Apple fan (OK, fine. A fanatic.). So of course, I also “liked” the songs on my Ping profile in iTunes.
I told Vanessa the story today, and she pointed out how effective social media is and how comfortable with it I have already become without even trying. The first key to this story was that I am a follower of the people around me both online and offline, so when Vanessa showed me the blog with Luke, I was listening to an advocate I trust.
Next, when we tweeted the blog posting, we as Ozone amplified the message. Because my followers now knew that I had a preference not only for dogs, but for dogs doing tricks, they reflected back a viral video to my preferences. The video was not explicitly an advertisement, but it drove me to purchase.
Lastly, Apple made it possible for me to create a follow-up message for my Ping followers to find next time they logged in, when they could see I “liked” OK Go!
It would be interesting to know exactly how many sales eventually result from the cascading effect of that original video of Luke doing tricks. How many people will ultimately end up becoming OK Go! Fans? Out of those, think of how many will continue to amplify the message. Remember those Breck Shampoo commercials? “...and she told two friends, and they told two friends, and on, and on...” That was sort of a caveman tutorial on how to be viral – and, I guess you could say, social.
So, I now must admit that social media is here and it works on many levels. It has the ability to drive sales, and to build new brands or support existing ones. Our social media team officially gets to say, “See, I told ya so.” Of course, I’m a sucker for a good dog video, so the deck was partially stacked. But now look what they’ve done – they’ve actually got me blogging!
Share your comments and tell us how you liked OK Go!
Categories:
- Personal
- Dogs
- Social Media
Sign up for regular updates from Ozone Online.
|
Ridge Sampson, President & Founder Ridge is an established entrepreneur, having founded three successful companies prior to Ozone Online. In 1993, he co-founded Ozone and serves as President and CEO, growing the agency's billings to multi-million dollar levels. His clients have included AOL, Autodesk, Netscape, Intuit, Phonak and Del Monte, as well as many Silicon Valley start-ups and icons. Email Ridge. |
