The Internet: From Pornography to Charity

I saw a video in Facebook about how flood invaded the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center complex. Through Facebook sharing options, the video became viral.

The video, by the way, is hosted by YouTube which has channels for different Ondoy-related videos. YouTube embedding options made it possible for these videos to be posted in many blogs.

Readers of blogs can tweet or plurk what they read or saw.

Speaking of Twitter and Plurk, it is a trend to ReTweet or RePlurk the different ways how one can help. Imagine how this 140 character statement, like the UERMMC video, can become viral.

Wiki Spreadsheet

My Twitter and Plurk timelines are full of these kinds of tweets and plurks. What caught my attention were the wiki-type platform of Sahana Disaster Management System and Google Spreadsheets. They have different, free, sociable mechanisms to help people help other people.

Ondoy might have threatened or taken the livelihood and lives of many but social media exists to resist this threat and, more importantly, save threatened lives.

For Hotlines/Directories and Ways on how you/different institutions/individuals can help, you can see Inquirer’s and/or Yahoo!’s compilation.

Take care everyone!

I will be showing a step-by-step guide on how to make a Social Media Release:

Identify the need. Of course, you won’t be releasing an SMR just because. There must be a concrete and sensible rationale why you are doing so. Remember, even though using the new social media requires only a small amount of monetary resources, it could require time and effort. More importantly, it could spell difference in your credibility as a company. In Biokleen’s case, they wanted to target big institutions such as malls and offices of established companies. Biokleen wanted to market their products and services to the said organizations and prove to them that the company could do it even though it is relatively a new one.

Social Media Release Page 1

Mind the mindset. SMRs should not sound a TV advertisement or an Insurance Plan Agent; SMRs should not be vain. The mindset should be You-Will-Benefit-From-Our-Products rather than I-Want-Money-So-Buy-My-Products. The new social media is about the audience and not about the publishers. In Biokleen’s case, they wanted to take advantage of the Swine Flu Epidemic and how it could help companies prevent outbreak. The mindset here is helping and not selling—or the latter could be a secondary, discreet mindset.

Build the bridge. Be sure to place contact details on strategic locations. In the SMR I did, I placed the contact information beside the company’s logo because it is logical to do so. Moreover, I placed the same information below after the body because SMR readers, if they are satisfied and convinced, would look for the contact details after reading the text. Moreover, I placed subscribe to future Press Releases so that interested parties could be informed about new things about the company. Links to more, relevant information are also placed on the sidebar. Lastly, popular sharing options are also placed on the same location so that readers could share the article to perceived interested individuals.

Social Media Release Page 2

Simplify things. If you look at my sample SMR, it is really simple. Don’t try to complicate or over-sophisticate the aesthetic value and/or the content because people would get tired reading it. Follow the basic paragraph construction of intro-body-conclusion. Place few pictures so that readers could visualize what you are talking about. For the conclusion, answer the question so what? In my sample SMR, I placed it under the heading “The Lowdown”. Lastly, included in simplifying things is introducing your organization. Biokleen is a young company so a bit of storytelling would make the readers know what the organization is all about.

There is no hard set of rules in making a Social Media Release but considering the behaviour of people in the internet, there are core principles that SMR writers should consider. The bottom line of these standards is to make the SMR easy for the readers. “Easy” pertains to many aspects: from content to aesthetics and from the mindset to the sharing options. Make it easy and achieving goals would be easy for you.

Download Biokleen Care’s sample Social Media Release

About the video

Here is our Viral Video Blog for our OC 152 class. What we are told to do is video blog that would become viral or is perceived to become viral. The topic that we chose is about sex though it’s not your typical, brainless sex video. To make it more interesting and to put an academic sense in it, we made it informational.

About the concept

We wanted a simple video blog. Actually, we have decided to just include pure animating text. Some popular video blogs in YouTube just include such content. Moreover, our group wanted to put an “aww” factor in it. In other words, we wanted the viewers to feel a sense of awe. This kind of feeling would push them to share the video, making the video viral.

About the initial reception

When you take a look at the other videos in our class, we could say that this vlog is the unique one though I liked all the other videos too. If you like this video, please share it to your friends using the share options below this post! Alternatively, you can share the URL of this YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnMwTdMXgj0

Video Transcript

In Australia, Australian Aborigines show friendship and goodwill
Through exchange of wives

Lesu Children are not only allowed to watch adults to copulate
They could also watch their parents have sex

The Ila people of Africa are devirginized at an early age
There are no virgins within them over the age of 10

Priests from some Hindu sects officiate marriage…
Through having sex with the bride

The Aweikoma of Brazil has the same words for “sex”
And “eating”

The Lepcha of Sikkim has not concept for “flirting”
If you want have sex, then ask for it

If a Goajiro woman trips a man during a ceremonial dance
She is required to have sex with him

When a Hidatsa woman reaches the latter stages of her pregnancy
Her husband is allowed to have sex with his wife’s sister

It is normal for the Aranda of Australia to have multiple rounds of sex every night
From three to five rounds of sex

In Lebanon, men are allowed to have sex with animals
As long as these animals are female

Some men in Guam have nice full-time jobs:
To have sex with virgins

In Hongkong, a betrayed wife can kill his husband
Only with her bare hands

In Cali, Colombia, honeymooners should have sex
With the bride’s mother watching

USA has the most sex-regulating laws
Compared with all EU laws combined

In Minnesota, it is illegal for any man to have sexual intercourse…
With a live fish

In Florida, it is illegal for any man to have sexual intercourse…
With a porcupine

In Washington DC, there is only one legal sex position
The Missionary (How do they monitor it?)

In Utah, having a sex with an animal is illegal
Unless it is profit-oriented

Percentage of French men and women who had group sex:
A whopping 41%

In Paramaribo, Suriname, a man who rapes a single woman won’t be punished
if he marries the victim

Japan may have the most successful Porn industry
But Japanese people are the least sexually active people in the world

Young men of Etoro Tribe must do something in order to achieve manhood:
Ingest the semen of their elders.