Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

How To Make Your Article Hit The Front Page Of Digg and Go Super Viral in 24 Hours

That was the title of a November 7th post on the blog Shorter and Sweeter. The post was more of a jab against posts that did make the front page of Digg, and provided more snark than advice.

One month later this blogger actually stumbled upon one of the sure ways to make the front page of Digg when he posted a funny e-mail he received. In this e-mail was a photo and story of a clever Christmas decoration:

The story from the e-mail:

“Good news is that I truly out did myself this year with my Christmas decorations. The bad news is that I had to take him down after 2 days. I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever.Great stories. But two things made me take it down.

First, the cops advised me that it would cause traffic accidents as they almost wrecked when they drove by.

Second, a 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house and didn’t realize it was fake until she climbed to the top (she was not happy). By the way, she was one of many people who attempted to do that. My yard couldn’t take it either. I have more than a few tire tracks where people literally drove up my yard.”

As of this writing, that post has garnered over 6100 Diggs and, 1500 Retweets, and 4700 posts on Facebook.

You see this blogger may not know it but he stumbled upon one of the three things that always goes viral in social media: Humor.

Why did he receive that forwarded e-mail? Why did so many people pass it along to their friends? Because it was a truly hilarious story and photo. I ran into this blog post when I saw that my friend Doug had it posted on his G-chat status.

If it’s funny and entertaining you bet it will quickly spread. That’s why we know who Kelly is and why she love shoes. If a video is not only funny but cute then you can expect even more hits. The cuteness doubles the effect. That’s why David After Dentist has 37 million hits. If David was a middle aged man we’d chuckle a little, but since David is an adorable 7-year-old it’s YouTube gold.

I don’t remember how I ran into this funny Thanksgiving music video but it was funny enough for me to watch to the end:

It wasn’t til the end that i realized I just watched an elaborate Muscle Milk ad. Right now the video has over 866,000 views evidence that if it’s funny enough it’ll get watched.

So we all know that if you want something viral it’s gotta be funny- what else breaks through? Mindshift, videos that give you the Oprah like A-ha moment.

In my post about personalizing Social Media, I referenced a video that applied this idea in the context of how The Internet Is Changing Advertising. An item is more likely to get passed along if it introduces a new way of thinking or a mind blowing stat. Take the video Social Media Revolution:

The video has that “cool stat” feel that will make you pass it along, most likely in the context of “wow, I can’t believe these stats.” Did You Know 2.0 is another example of presenting information in a way that makes you think and inspires you to pass it along.

The last thing that always breaks through is something that plays to your emotions. Amazing feats like dancing all over the world or Crocodiles and Lions trying to attack a herd of Buffalo. These videos play to your sense of wonder and amazement.

While it is easy to identify what breaks through, it is a lot harder to figure out how to harness it for commercial use. What makes each of these examples viral is perhaps a required element that links them all: authenticity. Out of all the videos I mentioned in this post I think the Muscle Milk ad is the one that will grow the slowest since at the end you realize it’s a fabricated event. Sure you can say Kelly’s Shoes was funny, but Liam Kyle Sullivan created it to be funny- Muscle Milk created their video to sell drinks.

What really breaks through in social media aren’t entirely new concepts, it’s the same ideas you see in commercials and we already know that commercials are often hit or miss. So how do we take what we know and apply them to all the companies that want to establish a foothold in the new world of new media?

That’s the question.

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

On the week of Christmas I thought I’d recap what’s been going on over at Metblogs.

• Recently fulfilled a big furniture need at the house thanks to Furniture For Good.
• Sneak peek at the first episode of The Real World DC.
• The Golden Triangle neighborhood in DC is screening some outdoor films.
• Me and Orson Welles starting Zac Effron and Clarie Danes opened at the E-Street cinema. I got to watch an advanced screening with Efron and Danes and also got to talk with director Richard Linklater about the film as well as Kal Penn.
• Chris Cooley feels bad about all the trouble Tiger Woods is in- and offers him support in a video message.
• Attended the National Christmas Tree Lighting and saw some familiar faces on the stage- and I don’t mean Barack Obama.
• I wrote about all the snow we had here this weekend, plus my roommate tries to deal with it using a rake.

can my ankle not be fucked up for like 2 seconds?!.....such a fun reminder of one of the worst nights of my life.

Hope everyone has been enjoying the holidays!

I'm taking a little hiatus for the next few of weeks as I work on some exciting new articles & interviews for Beyond Victoriana and catch up on some real life happenings. To tide you over a bit, check out the spiffin' new series index, featuring all of the BV posts made so far both on LJ and Dreamwidth.

Beyond Victoriana will resume fresh and dandy in the new year on January 17th, 2010.

And, as always, if you have anything to suggest, please drop me a line here or email me at attic [dot] hermit [ at] gmail [dot] com.






This entry was originally posted at http://dmp.dreamwidth.org/9033.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

After all of the bitching and complaining that I've done about John...I think that its finally time to tell everyone the truth. I'm hoping for something more with John soon. I've never felt this way about anyone before. When I look into his eyes it feels like my heart has been set on fire. I know that I'm fully committed to him. I'd give everything to him if he'd ask me to. He's made me happier than anyone else in this entire world. Not even Jamison or Gray could do that for me. They helped me do things, but they never taught me more about myself. John's completed that amazing task. He's got all of the qualities that I've been looking for: caring, intelligent, motivated, cute, sarcastic, funny, beautiful eyes and smile, probably will have a good income once he gets a job, and I know that he can be a good father if he wants to be.

For Christmas he bought my son a present. He was thinking about how Elijah doesnt really talk much, so he ended up buying Elijah some sort of Leap Frog alphabet thing. It helps him learn the letters of the alphabet. I'm guessing that it was probably around $20. It impressed me that he actually thought of Elijah for Christmas. John plays with Elijah all of the time when he's here. The only thing he doesnt do is change diapers. It's good to know that he supports me and my son.

But John is basically the person that I want to marry. I can imagine myself with me when Im older. I can imagine having another child with him once we get settled down. Im pretty sure with myself that he will want to marry me too. John understands me better than anyone else has in this entire world. Hes my best friend and my lover. Hes my favorite person ever. He gets my sarcasm. I love waking up next to him every morning. I can handle his habits. He loves me for who I am, even when Im bitchy. I love it when he holds me at night. I wish that I could live with him if I could. Im trying to save some money up so I can get an apt. If I do get an apt, I want John to stay with me. Itd be the first time that Id actually live with someone without parents around. I cant wait until the day that he proposes to me. Im absolutely sure that he will.

I hope that he knows this.

Image courtesy of cyborgnecromancer

Merry X-mas to all, and Festivus for the rest of us!

This entry was originally posted at http://dmp.dreamwidth.org/8075.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I worked today at five below. I have to admit, it was a little bit of a buzz kill to say "happy holidays" to customers cause I was all excited for christmas. I said merry christmas to some people who were clearly buying christmas stuff. I came home and we had dinner and opened presents. On christmas eve me and my brother exchange gifts and we give our parents the gifts we got them. My brother got me rainbow shooters.....FUCK YES! We went to church. I really miss going to the church I grew up going to. My family stopped going there because the newest priest is a dick.....I don't feel bad for saying that at all but sorry if I offended anyone. He put my mom through hell when she was involved with the music program there and he's driven a lot of people away. It's sad cause that's the church I went to every single sunday growing up and we used to always go to christmas eve mass there. I am not really religious, just sentimental. The church we went to tonight wasn't bad, just not....home. I realized something I hadn't before...don't worry I won't be getting all crazy religious anytime soon, it's just something I hadn't thought of until tonight. Unfortunately, I don't really have the words to share it on here. It was a pretty big realization though that really affected me.
We skyped with my dad's side of the family. My cousin's baby is soo cute! I need to meet this child in person.

So Santa's coming to my house tonight and tomorrow we will open the presents he brought and then we go to Newburgh, NY to celebrate with my mom's side of the family and give and receive way too many gifts. (It's unfortunate that gifts have become the focus of the season). It's the first christmas without Pop (my grandfather). I hope I can hold it together. Usually I am okay but sometimes I get waves of sadness when I'm with the fam. I can't handle Gram being alone. I just really hope it's not too sad. My family misses him so much.

I watched A Christmas Story tonight. For some reason I enjoyed it this year much more than I have in the past.

I sincerely hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and amidst all the hectic craziness, find moments of peace and true happiness. Safe travels if you are headed somewhere.

Merry Christmas! I love you all!

Just some of my favorite records from the past year. Hope you like!


Angelspit -- Hideous and Perfect



The Big Pink -- A Brief History Of Love



Fuck Buttons -- Tarot Sport



HEALTH -- Get Color



Ouch My Face -- Ouch My Face



A Place to Bury Strangers -- Exploding Head



Porcupine Tree -- The Incident



Rammstein -- Liebe Ist Für Alle Da



Tegan & Sara -- Sainthood

Image courtesy of Kory Lynn Hubbell

One of the interesting challenges non-Eurocentric steampunk faces is how technology can be re-imagined for peoples that did not develop industrialized technology during the nineteenth century. Case in point this week: First Nation peoples. There has also been the assumption that First Nation peoples “lack” technology, and so therefore what role can they play in any science fiction genre, nevermind steampunk?

Notwithstanding the imaginative block (and racist subtext) implied by those who say FN peoples didn’t have technology—which is argued against by Kay Marie Porterfield in her article Ten Lies About Indigenous Science – How to Talk Back —concepts like time travel, tech, and alternative histories aren’t confined to any particular culture. This week is a linkspam featuring discussions concerning First Nation peoples in sci-fi and reading suggestions to get those mental gears turning.

For research resources, I have included a selection of articles concerning FN sci-fi, history, and technology at hand; for reading suggestions, I’ve listed examples that can also be considered under general sci-fi, alternative history, or Weird West.

( Read more below the cut ) This entry was originally posted at http://dmp.dreamwidth.org/7535.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Join us in lebaneselove ♥

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

“HELLO BRAZEN CAREERIST ROCK STARS!”

Those were the words in bold that started off an e-mail I received yesterday afternoon. I don’t really consider myself a Social Media guru or a Gen-Y expert, but I think Rock Star is a title I could live with.

However it was the subject of the e-mail, not the salutation, that caught my attention: “Brazen Careerist’s Best of 2009: You’ve been nominated as Blogger of the Year!”

Me? No way.

I think 2009 has been a year of tremendous growth for my blog but I don’t really consider myself as famous as LiLu or Maxie, who can write a blog about anything and watch the comments pile on. They have also been a featured blogger on 20 Something Bloggers. I don’t get half as much local recognition as The Pumpernickel, who is regularly featured on DC Blogs or The Express’ Blog Log (not to mention her spot on Viralogy.)

I read the posts of  the all the other nominees and I was impressed. Lots of big names in the Gen-Y/Social Media world. Elysa Rice, Sydney Owen, Jun Loayza, Nisha Chittal, Elisa Doucette- all of them very successful bloggers and great writers. I’m lucky if I don’t have to correct typos on my post after I publish them. I’m even luckier if I catch all of my mistakes before it gets pushed out the RSS feed.

Bottom Line: I can’t be half as good as these people.

So with this nomination I am extremely honored to be among some of the best thought leaders and writers on Social Media and Gen-Y. Brazen Careerist has become a great community to find people like these and I know that I hope to get more involved in the upcoming months.

Who knew that a rant I wrote during production week of a musical would go so far? I wouldn’t expect that post to get nominated- then again I didn’t think my MTV Jersey Shore post would get featured either.

I think what’s really impressive about it is that not only are there people that really get it and are true experts- I’ve read other bloggers in this list that are like me- just simply learning lessons in life and just want to share it with the world.

If you are reading this- I’d appreciate your vote. Voting is open until Midnight December 23rd. People that vote have a chance to win a $20 Starbucks Gift Card. The Blogger of the Year receives a $150 Amazon Gift Card- and a cool title.

To vote, you need to tweet or re-tweet this message on Twitter:

I’m voting for @dmbosstone’s post in the #Brazen Careerist #bestof 2009 contest: http://bit.ly/2sDauw

That’s it! If you follow me on Twitter I’ll be sending out a message you can re-tweet as well. Be sure to tell all of your Twitter friends to help re-tweet this as well!

Complete rules can be found here.

So I wish everyone luck, as much as I’d love the honor of Brazen Careerist Blogger of the Year I seriously doubt I have a big enough network to compete with such big names.

But then again aren’t some of the best social media stories the one where the small guy achieves big things with just a keyboard and a mouse?

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

What did I do on my birthday? I recorded a podcast! It’s our last one til after Christmas so you have lots of time to get all caught up.

4 Sport Boston: 4SB Podcast: Rasheed Wallace Jingles the Bells

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

We all have guilty pleasures.

Maybe it’s Kelly Clarkson on your iPod or Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey on a lazy night on the couch.

For me I think it’s a MTV’s newest reality show disaster, Jersey Shore.

When I heard that MTV was making a reality show based in the popular New Jersey destination I was intrigued but not interested in watching it. Trashy reality shows have become MTV’s staple for filling up the hours, and my interest in watching Jersey Shore hovered above Parental Control yet below Real World DC (I’m still kinda excited for that to come out.) Bottom line: I had no interest in watching it.

However listening to Bill Simmon’s ESPN podcast on the show coupled with some positive buzz around the show, I was convinced to check it out. After watching the trailer I had to see more.

Last Wednesday I was talking about the show to Caroline and next thing we knew we were on the couch watching the first two episodes. We were hooked as soon as we saw Pauly D’s hair-gel stash and his tanning booth at home. What we were watching was far from quality, intellectual, programming. It was a step above trashy daytime shows and even below the petty drama that you’d see on The Hills. In fact you can say that trash of Jersey Shore counteracts the glitz and plastic of The Hills. The drama of young, rich, fake west coasters is the complete opposite of what the Jersey Shore cast stands for. Even though they enjoy blowing out their hair, fist pumping, and going into hot tubs with just underwear they do it with an odd sense of pride that is both hilarious yet fascinating.

We laugh at the drama they get into yet wonder how these people actually live their lives.

I mean take a look at the cast.

Mike aka: “The Situation” probably has the best nickname ever in reality TV. Even though his nickname is really what he calls his abs, he also refers to himself as The Situation, probably because his insecurities has grown into this overconfidence that gets him in.. well… situations. His best line ever: “The Situation is under control.”

There’s something about reality shows where your name needs to be spelled weird. Maybe it’s Jenn with 2 Ns. Maybe it’s crazy name like Ayiiia. Jenni fulfills that quota with her crazy nickname, “J-Woww.” Personally she’s more like “J-those blond steaks in your hair look terrible.” Like most reality stars she struggles with right and wrong, like the time she made out with a boy and saw his penis. Cut to confessional: “I may have just cheated on my boyfriend.” May is a strong word.

I’m not going to say a whole lot of mean things about Ronnie. Mostly because as the most juiced up person on the show- I’m afraid he’ll kill me or worse, pound me out. Ronnie taught America a new slang for sexing up a lady, “Dude I want to totally pound Sammy out.” I don’t know if that’s an endearing term or not.

I don’t know why she’s called Snookie, the rest of the cast certainly doesn’t- they mis-pronounce her nickname all the time. This short “queen of the guidettes” is a force to be reckon with. When she gets drunk she’ll make out with anyone and do basically anything. She enjoys drinking, running around in her underwear and doing this weird dance move you see in the intro.

She describes herself as, “the sweetest bitch you’ll ever meet.” What is it about that statement that tells me it’s not really true? I have to say out of the group of ladies here I think she’s the hottest but it’s not like there was tough competition.

A clean-cut 21 year old looking to enjoy his first summer of legal drinking age, Vinny’s been pretty quiet so far. However I’ll never forget the scene where he demonstrates his fist pumping abilities which then reveals his enormous pit stains. Oh ya he also got pinkeye from dancing with some old lady.

As a bartender she says she does, “great things.” I wonder what she meant by that. She was quick to call female visitors to the house whores. I think those that live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

He owns a tanning bed at home. He brought an entire bag of full of hair gel to the Jersey Shore. He spends 25 minutes blowing out his hair. If anybody has a problem with the image of Italian Americans portrayed in this show should talk to this guy.

Basically a cast like this is the formula for great television right?

Maricha came home and we convinced her to join us, who knew that a show like this would bring the house together.

After we watched the two hour season premiere I was hooked. I talked about it at work and at the blogger holiday happy hour where LiLu and I developed the Jersey Shore drinking game.

I’ve been known to embrace terrible reality shows like Armed & Famous. I thought perhaps Steven Seagal Lawman might take it’s place but I think Jersey Shore just became a new must-watch show.

It didn't even cross my mind until I was standing in the room. The room where I had showed my work to an audience for the past three years. It's a place where I had felt pride at times but frustration and stress more often. I will never forget the feeling after my first photo crit freshman year. Pure adrenaline. I had gotten an amazing critique, possibly the best one I got in all three years. I remember going to daka with kids from the class after the crit and everyone was so high. The energy was crazy. I wish this feeling had lasted all three years. If it had, I imagine I would have produced much better work.

Unfortunately, I quickly developed a burning passion of hatred for photography. Photo 1 was the only photo class that I really enjoyed and that didn't feel like work. So many tears over photo in the last three years.

I just got back from the last photo crit I will ever have at FSC. I was really impressed by the work. I was inspired by it in a way that I hadn't been since the beginning of Photo 1. Some of the work actually moved me. Mine was mediocre (it's what I do best) but I didn't get a bad crit. Throughout the crit I was getting more and more emotional. It's not so much that it was the last photo crit. That was part of it. But it is more that it's one of the first major parts of my experience at college to end. And I am not prepared to handle that at all. I am not ready for things to end or to even get into the mindset that things will end soon. Just typing that hurt. This place is my home. These people are my family. I have grown and changed more than I have the words to express. A different person lived in Aubuchon, walked through the quad and ate at daka three and a half years ago. I have met people who I cannot imagine my life without and who I want to know forever. People who have moved me and changed me for the better. Even people who I no longer have contact with have impacted my life more than they will ever know.

I have to stop. I'm going to lose it. This is way too close to accepting that things are ending and I am no where near ready for that. Maybe after I graduate I will write a lengthy entry about my college experience. I have no idea where I will find the words or the frame of mind. That will be a shit show. Haha. I still have a semester left and I plan on filling it to the brim with friends and experiences that I will never forget.

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

One of the ways I celebrated my birthday today was spend the previous night writing about the Red Sox- and how I have a feeling it’s a rebuilding year. If you are a Sox fan check it out and I’d love to hear what you think of the 2010 Sox.

4 Sport Boston: A New Age For The Red Sox (And Me Too)

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

Today I take a step close to my late twenties. Next thing I know I’ll be 30.

Three years ago I said I was a hopeless romantic.

Two years ago I said I was a mess.

Last year I said I was still a mess, but less hopeless.

Today I’m still a mess, I’m still hopeless, and I wonder if I was ever a romantic.

Hello Quarter Life Crisis. I’ve missed you.