Viral video of girl licking bird poo: Real or fake?

By now, 2.9 million people have watched the video “Licking bird poo and wearing it too”, featuring a girl at Auckland’s Mission Bay, getting pooped on.

If you haven’t, here it is:

So it went off. It was covered by a host of outlets including Japanese TV, Huffington Post, and The Mirror, and featured on Reddit’s front page, Shock Mansion, and Break.

The big question is: Is it fake?

Yeah. Yeah it is.

Sorry about that, but Jono and Ben had this whole thing planned from the start, pulling a Kimmel on the world. #boom

YouTube’s 2013 mashup is amazing!

Featuring Jenna Marballs as Miley in Wrecking Ball, Kid President being rad, Smosh in their undies, and Epic Meal Time hanging out with Overly Attached Girlfriend, prepare for some epic-level awesomeness from YouTube’s 2013 mashup.

Also featured: Prancercise wonders what the fox says, if you’re looking carefully, you’ll spot GloZell in a horsemask, and there’s cameos from Jimmy Fallon, Macklemore, Jamie Oliver, and the Cookie Monster.

Enough of the writing, time to get watching!

And check out all the behind-the-scenes action here:

NZ’s most watched YouTube clips of 2013

What were New Zealand’s most-watched YouTube videos this year?

10 – Te Ao Te Huia’s X Factor NZ audition:

9 – UGA men’s swim teams’ Harlem Shake

8 – Ashley Tonga’s X Factor NZ audition

7- JGeeks’ The Best Day I Ever Had

6 – The Lonely Island’s YOLO

5 – Harlem Shake the Army Edition

4 – Drug Driving’s Blazed ad

3 – Guy finds his house plumbed with beer

2 – How animals eat their food

1 – Ylvis – What does the Fox Say?

Bonus: YouTube’s 2013 mash-up!

Which have been your favourite YouTube clips of 2013?

One simple diagram for getting your brand’s social content right

So you have a branded social media account, and you’re following the first rule of social: Don’t be a dick. Good, but now what?

There’s lots of advice floating around about what content works well on which platforms – making sure your Facebook status is “likeable”, joining in on a Twitter conversation, hashtagging your Instagrams up the ying – but for me, it boils down to this wee venn diagram:

social-venn

The red circle is about finding out what your audience likes – seems straightforward, but are you sure you know what they like, and not what you think they like? What is it about your audience that is unique?

The blue circle is about being on brand. It’s about promotions and marketing. It’s about the look and feel of updates. It’s about getting the core message of your company across.

The yellow circle is about what works best online. What topics are going off at the moment? Where is the conversation – what is it about? What are today’s memes?

A lot of companies stay in one content type. They may even cross over with another circle, but spend a lot of time delivering one sort of update, to the detriment of the community or their brand. Your brand should never just live in one of those circles. If your marketing push doesn’t exist for the community, it’s not right for social. If your viral content is totally off brand, you’re wasting your time.

Doing updates from sections 1, 2, or 3 is a slightly better option.

Living in section 1 means the content they’re using is engaging, and their fans like it, but it doesn’t reflect the brand. Generic status updates like this are fine, but often your brand can get lost, or there may even be a conflict between the values of your brand, and the content you’re posting.

Section 2 is where you’ve found the niche in terms of what works for your brand, and your audience, but the content isn’t necessarily viral. This is a good place to be in terms of brand hygiene, but not so much in terms of outreach, and fan endorsement.

If your updates are in section 3, you’re producing on-brand content that ticks the box in terms of being viral or engaging in nature, but that doesn’t resonate with your fans. It could be that you’re using the meme too late (remember all those brands that put out Harlem Shake videos the week after everyone declared it dead? Yeah, that.)

The golden space is section 4. You’ve found content that fits with your brand, your audience loves it, and it’s positioned well to go off. And it does! Well done, you. Hope your boss recognises how hard it is to find that sweet spot!

So… How did that happen?

  • You know your brand – it has a clear voice and take on the world, and you’ve stamped it onto your update.
  • You’ve identified what it is about your brand that your fans love and delivered it to them.
  • You’ve reflected the sentiment of your community in a timely manner, or rarked them up in a good way.
  • The community can take ownership – you just got the ball rolling!

Yes, it’s simplistic, but it works.

Video through time

Awesome video alert time! Here’s 32-year-old film-maker Jeremiah McDonald talking to his 12-year-old self via video.

“Look at you!” cries McDonald jr, burping.

“Charming,” the elder says. “No wonder I’m single.”

Enjoy!

Where the hell is Matt?

There’s nothing like a video of people doing crazy dancing across the globe to remind you that we’re actually all just human beings.

According to his website, Matt is a 35-year-old “deadbeat from Connecticut” who’s friend started taking video while Matt danced. Badly. In Hanoi. The video viralled, Matt got a sponsor, and all of a sudden, he’s making videos of his dancing all across the world.

The original now has almost 3 million views

And then he repeated the experience in 2006.

Now, 2012, and there’s a brand new Where The Hell Is Matt? for us to enjoy.

Creative covers of Top 40 hits

Longtime readers (and followers of me on Twitter) know I can’t resist a good YouTube clip, or a good tune. And sometimes I find something that meets both of those drives.

First up:

cdza create what they call “musical video experiments”, and here’s one called Pianists in Paris – seven players, one piano. Enjoy!

Kindof reminds me of the Walk Off The Earth version of Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know

And while you’re checking out unusual covers of modern songs, check out Aston – here they are covering Katy Perry’s ET.

If you’ve discovered some amazing covers, I’d love to take a look – link me up in the comments! x

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

I think it’s awesome when people re-tell classic stories. I don’t even mind a modern twist or two.

How about when one combines two of my favourite things: Amusing YouTube clips and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice? Yes please! So you know I’m going to love The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which is basically a modern take, with a gorgeous Lizze and her two sisters (the older, Jane, a doting sweetheart, the younger, Lydia, a loveable “whore”.)

Episode 1: My Name is Lizzie Bennet

Episode 2: My Sisters: Problematic to Practically Perfect

Episode 3: My Parents: Opposingly Supportive

Episode 4: Bing Lee and his 500 Teenage Prostitutes

Episode 5: After the Wedding: The Real Bing Lee

Episode 6: Snobby Mr. Douchey

Episode 7: The Most Awkward Dance Ever

Episode 8: Charlotte’s Back!

Episode 9: Single and Happyish

You can subscribe here. Get amongst!

The Adele Butter Dance explained

Adele Butter Dance

There’s a video that’s in the beginning stages of viral – and it won’t be too long before it becomes a fully fledged “thing”.

The reason for the viral is partially because the video is very funny, partially because it’s very odd.

An Indonesian woman dances in heels and a short skirt, on butter, to Adele’s Someone Like You.

Just watch the video.

Confused?

Melati Suryodarmo is a performance artist. In the original piece, she dances for 20 minutes on 20 blocks of butter to Indonesian shamanistic drums. When a YouTuber got hold of the clip, he replaced the original music with Adele, and so a viral video was born.

Here she is, dancing to Skrillex. It’s not quite as poignant though.

And incase you were wondering, here’s the original butter dance, complete with all the, erm, natural sound effects.