Top Video Bloggers: A great public relations use of new media

I recently received an e-mail from a colleague that had this written in large type, as if like a headline: "Cat Fight Between Top NY Times Video Bloggers David Carr and David Pogue Exposed on DSSimonVlogViews" Then there is a link to a blog, with a video on it. This plays out a "feud" between two video bloggers who, frankly, I haven't heard of before. This video is interesting in that it manages to repeat the phrase, "top video blogger," as well as "cat fight" several times. My guess is there is much more search volume for "cat fight" than for the much more dignified, "feud," but that's just me. The point is there will now be a "cat fight" between "top video bloggers" where there wasn't anything before. The message goes on to instruct readers to, "pick their favorite" between these two cat fighters. This is where the ultimate brilliance of the e-mail campaign is found:

People know that video is "big" these days, and getting bigger all the time.
They also know they don't know very much about this new, big thing.
By e-mail blasting a video that says, "Which do you like? Coke or Pepsi," people are informed that in this new, big world of video blogging, there are two champions at work, and we should all be aware of their greatness.

If you don't question whether or not either gentleman is a qualified candidate for this "top video blogger" honor, then both of these gentlemen must be pretty darn important video bloggers. I mean, if it is up to us to pick, these guys must be neck and neck! Since many people will gladly vote on something, but tend to prefer making an educated vote if it is easy to do so, the door has been opened for readers to now seek out these two gentlemen and get to know their video blogs better. This is a great "push" mechanism for search. With the real growing importance of video, and the relative inability to properly index what those videos contain, this really is a brilliant tactic.

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)

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