{"id":20304,"date":"2011-06-13T16:55:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-13T16:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/2011\/06\/13\/authenticity-in-social-media-dont-get-mad-get-youtube\/"},"modified":"2020-02-20T01:39:53","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T01:39:53","slug":"authenticity-in-social-media-dont-get-mad-get-youtube","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2011\/06\/13\/authenticity-in-social-media-dont-get-mad-get-youtube\/","title":{"rendered":"Authenticity in Social Media: Don\u2019t Get Mad, Get YouTube"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recurring theme of Amber Mac’s keynote presentation at SES Toronto<\/a> today was how companies need to face up to the challenge to authenticity that social media presents. The companies that were online, listening and responding to their customers were the ones best placed to avoid a costly hangover from a social media PR disaster<\/a>. One of the key factors Amber Mac<\/a> identified that made social media truly shareable was the quality of authenticity – real people demonstrating their own products. She noted that part of the appeal and success of the famous Will it Blend<\/a> videos from Blendtec<\/a> is the fact that it is the company’s CEO that maniacally blends everything he can get his hands on.<\/p>\n

Similarly, what works for companies in social media also works against them – they have to deal with the “realness” of their customers – which reminded us of some funny stunts recently pulled by the disgruntled common man.<\/p>\n

These days, if you need to fight city hall or battle corporate bureaucracy, then don\u2019t get mad, get the YouTube<\/a> community on your side.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at three examples of brilliant YouTube protest videos. A New York City police officer recently gave Casey Neistat a $50 ticket for riding his bike outside the bike lane. Casey tried to explain that the bicycle lane isn\u2019t always the safest place to ride, but the officer said that didn\u2019t matter. You always had to stay in the bike lane.<\/p>\n

Now, some New Yorkers would have gotten mad. But Casey is the \u201cCasey\u201d from the TV show \u201cThe Neistat Brothers.\u201d It\u2019s on Friday nights at 12 a.m. EST on HBO.<\/p>\n

So, on June 7, 2011, Casey made a \u201clittle movie about a ticket i got for riding my bike not in the bike lane.\u201d The 3-minute and 4-second long video, \u201cbike lanes,\u201d and it had more than 1,750,000 views as of this morning.<\/p>\n