Looking for the super-connectors
By Simon Fuller. Not too long ago in these very pages, Claudio Branno, head of seeding at viral vid experts The Viral Factory, told us just how to go about starting up and then monitoring a viral seeding campaign Well, at brand-e’s Buzz about the social media buzz event, which took place last Wednesday in London, Branno was again on hand to delve a little deeper into the mysteries of the seeding world.
It turns out it’s all about three big groups of users online. There are super-connectors, who are the big dogs who write blogs and upload vids to YouTube, Plus connectors, who are pretty active online and form a core audience for the output of the super-connectors. And finally, there are the connected, the rank-and-file of the social media world who hit Google to go looking for information or watch a vid after being recommended to do so by their mates on Facebook.
“The super connectors and connectors allow the connected [to get access to content],” said Branno. “They allow the expanding of the audience, across the platforms which reach people online.”
And Branno was also keen to explain just what the seeding process can be used for. It seems that as well as spreading the content out to video platforms, key blogs and so on, other components of a seeding strategy include geo-tracking and the accumulation of feedback.
“Seeding is good for spreading content fast across the web, [sparking] conversation about a product,” he explained. “Seeding is not so good for direct influence on client sales; it’s more about image. And seeding is not so good for driving traffic to client websites.”
Finally, it appears there’s some debate among seeding experts as to what the best method of video seeding is. Is it a video sharing platform like YouTube and its ilk? Or a bespoke video player?
“The video sharing platform is more spontaneous, it moves at viral speed and allows for spontaneous re-seeding,” said Branno. “But it relies on the metrics of the viral sharing platform. The bespoke on the other hand is more reliable, the metrics are precise. But doesn’t really allow for viral spread.”
