Grasshopper -- the virtual phone company (focusing on small business / entrepreneurs), who released the Entreprenuer video I posted last week, has a new viral video hit.

New Dork

Entrepreneur State of Mind 

Parodying Jay-Z and Alicia Keys: Empire State of Mind, New Dork, Entrepreneur State of Mind pokes fun at the internets and showcases famous entreprenuers.

Brilliantly Stupid + Viral = SUCCESS

Brilliantly stupid -- the perfect combo to make you smile and forward to a friend. Which means VIRAL success for Grasshopper! This video shows how a company who does hit it virally can make a name for themselves.

Using YouTubers with Previous YouTube Success

Grasshopper used Pantless Knights to create this video. This looks like a new trend: companies using YouTubers / videographers with an established audience and a record of success and sponsoring a video. See State Farm sponsoring OKGO, This To Shall Pass video post.

Current views (as of this post) in the 1 month Grasshopper posted this video: 490,997

And for giggles, the OKGO Video, which I posted about on March 4 -- at the time had 2,095,808 then, today has 11,708,228 views.

This Week in Viral Video

In other viral video buzz, I’ve been forwarded, read tweets or Facebook posts on the other 2 videos numerous times the last few days:

Iggy Investigates an iPad

(Cat and the iPad)

4,155,083 as of April 20th -- this posted on April 13th!

Unicorn After Wisdom Teeth

986,923 views as of April 20 -- posted a month ago

What is your favorite viral video?

A few days ago, I received 2 emails forwarding the new OK GO -- This To Shall Pass video. Their inital viral video sucked me into being a fan. This band gets it. Viral videos can make you. And they don’t just do it, they go ALL out.

When I initally showed this to my husband, I noticed it only had 78,000ish views. I told Sean, let’s check it in a few days. Well here I sit, writing a blog post and watching Anderson Cooper -- he just mentioned this. I went and watched again -- WHAM 2,095,808 views! And by the time I post this -- that number will rise even higher.

Having a husband and son who LOVE Rube Goldberg machines, made this video even more popular in our casa. My 4 year old watched it at least 3x, paying attention to each detail and making silly comments. My husband it busy trying to figure out how a effects b -- and as for me and Z, we just love the music.

Syyn labs, a creative engineer group helped put this together, as well as SUPER clever marketing sponsor State Farm. Notice the truck in the opening?

State Farm logo, then the thank you at the end. Brilliant partnerships all around, but State Farm, who would of thunk they could make this fit? Taking chances with unlikely partnerships pays off!

If you haven’t watched the first huge viral video from Ok Go -- check it out here. This launched their career, sold millions of records and who even knows how much money they are making from YouTube marketing. This video currently has 49,925,634 views!

If you are going to do it, go all in or stay home. Everyone wants this type of success -- but it takes risk and not conforming to the man to make it happen.

YouTube allows millions of people to discover, watch and share original video content.

Interesting fact: 20 hours of new video is uploaded to YouTube every minute

What does that mean? Your video is a needle in a haystack. If you are going to utilize this platform to increase SEO and awareness of your brand, learn how to better optimize your videos for maximum play.

Here are a few videos from Greg Jarboe, from SEOPR on how to make your videos known:

Optimize YouTube vidoes and 3 key steps on how to do it

YouTube Optimization techniques

Optimize YouTube videos and how to share them

Do you run a small business? How are you connected to social media?

I think there are 2 different mind sets when it comes to small businesses. There are those who want to grow and become a larger business, and those who are content. But thinking about that – isn’t that how most people are?

Both of my parents run small businesses. Both are NOT connected to social media – nor care to. While this saddens me, I have to realize – they do not want to grow.  So much opportunity with minimal costs, but being content is more of their style rather than evolving with the times.

While I don’t mean to cast a “if you are not connected to social media, you will not grow” statement on all small businesses. I do cast the statement: “Small businesses do not know what they are missing by not utilizing social media platforms.”

Social media is a diverse, minimal costing marketing effort. While it requires love and a little bit of knowledge of how to leverage it, the rewards can be remarkable for growing ones customer base and customer service.

Here is a great example of how a once small business, Sprinkles Cupcakes has utilized social media to grow their base.

Reporting from San Francisco– Charles Nelson, president of Sprinkles Cupcakes, the Beverly Hills baker to the stars, doesn’t have a Facebook profile. Nelson, who works seven days a week, has no time for chatting online with Facebook friends.

But Nelson is logged on to Facebook all the time. That’s because more than 70,000 people have declared themselves fans of Sprinkles’ Facebook page, which has its own “vanity URL” at www.facebook.com /sprinkles.

Each day on the website, Sprinkles announces a secret word, such as “ganache,” or “bunny,” or “tropical,” or “love,” and the first 25 or 50 people to show up at any of its five stores and whisper that word get a free cupcake.

“On Facebook, we can ask our customers what’s the next location they want,” Nelson said. “What do they think of our next flavor? It’s an amazing way to communicate with our fans.”

Facebook is not just for friends anymore. The free social networking site — blocked in many workplaces as a potential time-waster — is increasingly becoming an inexpensive marketing tool for small businesses.

Sprinkles is among a growing number of mom-and-pop businesses taking advantage of a relatively new program on Facebook, one that allows them to claim their name, become visible even to folks who aren’t on the site, and stay in close contact with their customers. The business, in effect, can act like any other person on Facebook, posting status updates and seeing what its fans are doing.

Read the full article here…

How can your small business utilize social media? The opportunities are endless. I’ll be going thru several techniques in the next few weeks on getting started on several different social media platforms.

Stay tuned!

Yesterday Sean and I went to a specialist for a hi-def ultrasound of Itty Bitty. Dr. P (my obgyn) suggests at between 11-13 weeks going to do this for screening for any abnormalities.  We had about 30 minutes with the ultrasound tech -- watching the screen as she checks this and that.  Itty Bitty looks beautiful! All tests were passed with flying colors. We would love I.B. regardless -- but knowing we have a healthy baby is sigh of relief.

After the tech was complete, the Doctor came in and did his screening and then asked  if we wanted to know the sex. After much debate, we decided the best way to go was to have it written down, put in an envelope and then find out as a family what the sex of our new addition is.   Some how we managed to wait 24 hours.  So, this afternoon, we gathered around the couch and did the big reveal. Of course I had to capture on video. Let’s just say E’s reaction is priceless.

Watch and see:

If you know me, you know I have an OBSESSION with Wisps. It’s sick, I have one of these things hanging out of my mouth everyday after lunch or breakfast. If you REALLY know me, you should know I LOVE infomercials (R.I.P. Billy Mays). So, when I just forwarded this video, I HAD to share. It’s as if my 2 loves mated. And the above is the baby.

A few years ago, my j-o-b  gave up the $1,000 month bill to a streaming video service and we switched strictly to the social media outlets for hosting our videos.  Since YouTube is the biggest and most well known, thought I’d share a few of the YouTube hacks that I’ve learned as video. Plus this way I have them all in one spot for reference.

Embedding a YouTube Clip:

You can scrap most of the code when embedding. Here is the before and after.

Before:

<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>

After

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

 

Autoplaying YouTube Videos:

Add &autoplay=1 to the end of the source file

Before

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

After

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1&autoplay=1” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

Removing the Title and Rating Overlay on YouTube Videos:

Add &showinfo=0 to the end of the source file

Before

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

After

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1&showinfo=0” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

Want to Loop a YouTube Video?

Add &loop=1 to the end of the source file

Before

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

After

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1&loop=1” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

Embed High Quality YouTube Videos:

Add &fmt=18 to the end of the source file

Before

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

After

<embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/rfqNXADl3kU&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=18” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed>

Playing YouTube Videos in Word Press Self Hosted Blogs:

There are numerous YouTube video plug-ins now for Word Press. On all of my blogs, I use  Smart YouTube.  It’s SUPER easy to use.

Install the plugin. When you want to place a YouTube video on your page – just copy the URL of the YouTube video into your HTML and place a v in the http.

Playing YouTube Videos on a WordPress.com Blog

Just follow the link – wordpress.tv has a great, easy to follow video on how to embed your YouTube videos into a wordpress.com blog.

How To Download YouTube Videos:

• Find your favorite YouTube video


• Visit: http://videodownloadx.com


• Paste the video URL into their download box and hit download


• You will see a screenshot of your video and  >>Download Covert Record Stream – left-click on the word download and save the flv file

There you have it.

Enjoy!