Comments on: Higher Ed TV: “RealNebraska” from UNL, an entertaining way to communicate with prospective students

By: Tommy Lee Births Vlogging at University of Nebraska « Tdawgtalks

Tommy Lee Births Vlogging at University of Nebraska « Tdawgtalks — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 02:30:24 +0000

[...] Real Nebraska series was featured in a contest on the TODAY Show in early 2007, launching it from a regional PR tool to a national recruiting juggernaut. Not only [...]

By: David

David — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 04:54:22 +0000

Interesting conversation. I’m involved with the creative team behind these videos (although please don’t hold back on constructive criticism). I agree that they are not viral but we have tried to piggy back viral efforts with the program. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lto5gg6k61E and you’ll see one attempt that hasn’t taken off yet (if it ever will). It’s a bit more “A” than “B”.

Side story. We entered our most recent video in the TODAY show “Be an Anchor for TODAY” contest and got selected. We spent six days on the show with a Nielson of more than 4 million per day. In addition to the television, the viral component to the videos took off with large circles of the UNL, Husker, and Nebraska community sending it on to countless friends asking them to vote for our persistence as there was online voting involved.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17154255/

I agree that they get the campus community charged up but we have felt a positive recruitment effect (even before the TODAY show).

By: Mike Caulfield

Mike Caulfield — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:12:23 +0000

I think you have to imagine why someone would forward this.

Things go viral because either

a) they groove into networks that have a well-defined tastes or interests (think Mac communities, or fans of particular video games)

b) They are broadly applicable — that is the humor or content in them can speak to a broad variety of people.

If relying on B, the video has to be really striking, because as Godin and others note it takes a lot of energy at the top of the funnel (yes, I hate the metaphor too…).

In any case, I don’t see enough of either a or b in this, personally. What I see is a cute way to build some community at UNL by interacting with the students and putting it up on the web. The small network this applies to is the friends and aquaintances of those interviewed — and that may be enough for their purpose.

By: Karine Joly

Karine Joly — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 17:27:46 +0000

Thanks for your comment, Robert.

I removed the link to the video you used as a good example because it was a commercial for a product (a car), which isn’t relevant in this case (besides, I don’t see why I will help promote it ;-)

And, actually, 21,000 views don’t mean a big hit when it comes to YouTube (The Machine is Us/ing USWeb done by a university professor would probably have been a better example with close to 2 million views)

Now, RealNebraska videos might be a bit too long although they don’t last 15 minutes as your comment can let people think, but between 3 and 4 minutes.

Any other ideas?

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 17:11:08 +0000

Because they are boring, too long, and despite the fast editing, actually slow-paced?

Videos that go viral often are short, punchy, and have a single gag at their centre, a single focus.

A marketing dept. might do better to produce 25 videos of 30-60 seconds each, making only one point in each video (in, ideally, a funny way), and hope that one or two go viral and then carry the rest of them up with them, than produce one 15 minute video…