No really, it's terrifying!
Every website needs links right?
Not only are links are great for improving rankings, driving new sources of traffic and but also creating new social connections . A common problem most website owners face is, how the heck do you get them without having to beg, borrow or steal?
Today I saw any absolutely awesome example of how to attract good authoritative links using a combination of:
As a lot of New Zealand businesses struggle to build good links to their websites organically, this post gives presents you an example of how you can use the speed and reach of social media, and content based on hooks to generate buzz and build links organically to your website .
Yeah we heard it all before, content is king blar blar blar. Not entirely true. Content that engages and makes us feel something is king. So anyway I was working away at my desk today when I noticed something on Twitter that caught my attention. A tweet about a Scary Washing Machine on Trademe. UPDATE: Be sure to check out the comments – absolute gold.
Cracking up (hook = entertaining) I announced to the office: “Yo you guys seen this hilarious listing on Trademe about the scary washing machine?” Those around me jumped up from their seats and to see what was so funny. My workmate Louise goes “Oh yeah, my friend emailed me that morning!”
Being a little late to the party, I decided to investigate a little further and turned out, this listing is already absolutely fricken everywhere.
Check this out:
And to top it off, it’s about to appear on it appeared on TVNZ’s Close-Up.
Impressive for a story about a washing machine and some drawings of dinosaurs.
So is this a marketing stunt by Fisher & Paykel? I doubt it. Maybe someone else? I’m yet to find out.
Mr Vintage – now there is a New Zealand business that’s on to it, you can already buy a Scary Washing Machine T-Shirts!
This is exactly why your business needs to be creating interesting content and leveraging the power of social media.
Humour is a fantastic example of how to bait people to link to your content. As this content was highly entertaining, people started talking, sharing and passed it onto their friends. Simply because it was awesome, the Scary Washing Machine story spread faster than a chicken, cow and pig flu epidemic combined. All Michael did was put a little of thought into creating content that entertained, it stuck a cord and went viral. Why do people share things that are funny?
Think about it.
So same goes with your website. Want to gain some attention online and attract some solid links? Then create content that people actually want to share with their friends, without you even having to ask them. Get creative. Think about what triggers people to act. Get right it will spread itself (with a little help by pushing it via social media channels.)
Easy and incredibly difficult as that.
I see this story becoming another New Zealand classic. Another classic NZ viral.
UPDATE – It sure was – a website was created in it’s honor.
Over to you.
Thoughts or questions? I’d love your hear them so please leave a comment.
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True. Somebody at F & P should be moving fast to get this man a new washing machine, gotta be some traction in it . . .
@Matt spot on dude. Fisher & Paykel are you listening?
First up .. dude you LATE to the party – I was tweeting this yesterday ha ha .. anyhoo, we’ll forgive you, after all you are in the south.
So yeah, what can a business do drive traffic – well yes you can do something like this but you forgot some key points
1) this is hit and run, of the almost 100 000 visits to this listing less than 4% have commented and far far less have bid. Lesson: Traffic is not everything
2) media is fickle – this was supposed to be on CloseUp tonight, instead it was bumped for some 1 second audio bite from 15 years ago – why? Because it was some cop’s hearsay that he heard a confession in it. Lesson: don’t rely on the the media for free marketing
3) You might have the idea, others may monetize it: this chap created an auction, the questions came in resulting in him spending hours writing comments. He’ll sell his washing machine lets say he gets $500, he has a 10 day auction thats $12.50 an hour (assuming 4 hours a day for 10 days). Mr Vintage took his idea, will pay him (according to their site, $200 + $100 voucher) … they only have to sell say 15 shirts to cover that. Lesson: you might have the idea, but others (may) actually have the means to make the real $$ – think outside the square, and DON’T be scared to make great partnerships.
4) Don’t be scared to look for the side lines. The fellow here wanted to sell a washing machine – it’s currently at $150. He threw up some dino pics to support it, he’s selling them for charity they are already WELL in excess of the original auction. Blogger.com grew out of a side project, Twitter.com also grew out of a side project. Lesson: don’t overlook the small side projects (some call these distractions) .. these could actually be bigger than the original idea
Just my 2 cents
Good stuff man! The thing I think you might be missing Mr K is that it isn’t necessarily about the sale. Don’t let me pretend for one minute that I know anything about marketing because honestly I don’t but I find viral advertising fascinating and in this case the number of comments or bids on said washer isn’t what’s important.
What Fisher and Paykel get to take from this, whether they were in the masterminds behind the listing or not, is long term recognition. I’m an American living in New Zealand and I don’t know a lot of the brand names for things here. Back home F&P doesn’t exist and prior to today I had heard of them, but had no unique experience with which to connect them, no distinct memory that I could use to distinguish them from other brands. As of today that has changed.
From now on anytime I see a washing machine I’ll remember that listing and laugh. It will come up randomly over dinner conversations with friends years from now when I’m no longer living here and I will essentially end up carrying the brand with me. Why? Because it was so random, so absolutely hilarious, and everyone I know was talking about it this afternoon. Does this type of thing work on everyone? No of course not, but for people like me it’s the PERFECT way to get your product solidified in my memory for a LONG TIME.
Oh .. sorry didn’t mean to come across like it’s all about the sale
Also you all do realise this is about a washing maching by F&P’s competitor right?
My apologies, I should have been more clear in my last post. I was going on the assumption that F&P would move on this as an opportunity and as Matt said above, buy the individual a new washer. The stage is set, the story has peoples attention. That said, the time to strike is now, while the iron is hot. If Fisher and Paykel were to do something generous like that they would always be associated with this memory (as I said above). Again, my apologies. I wasn’t as clear as I could have been.
A few things MrK, I’ve just checked with Mr Vintage, and they’re not just paying him the standard ($200 + $100) for the designs. The relationship is a partnership and all they would say is that it is a joint venture and a very friendly one at that. You shouldn’t just assume to know everything without checking the facts.
From what I can tell, he is going to do very well out of this – considering he began this to purely sell his washing machine.
Cool post bro!
The interesting thing about this (and a lot of actual truly viral things) is that he didn’t set out to make it huge – he was just having some fun and it was infectious.
He wouldn’t have even thought about the idea that he would do a partnership with Mr Vintage and instantly become a piece of Kiwiana.
I brought the Triceratops and the Stegosaurus – I can’t wait, it’s going to be a great conversation starter.
Definitely agree that it is on a similar scale to the beached as video – but the only way it will get to that is through a video remix…. hmmmmm might be a good project to work on this week – I’m sure others already are!
Right – off to kick my blog into gear – I’m a testdriver for Telecom XT – got my SIM on Friday – loving it!!
James
As James Stewart points out (to an extent), these things are sometimes hard to actually manufacture but are generally better when done spur-of-the-moment.
Thanks everyone for your comments, they are actually better than the post!
Yeah I was watching this happen. Amazing stuff. Good to see a lot of charitable action came out of it as well.
P.S. Good to meet you (however briefly) today! Catch up with ya soon.
This post was actually a mini experiment. Knowing the story was to appear on New Zealand television that night (again through Social Media) I slapped up this post 30mins before it. It worked and for the next few days this post was page 1 for “scary washing machine” related queries and received a large influx of traffic. It was later knocked down due to more powerful sites picking up on the story. Was definitely an interesting experiment.