Sunday, November 18, 2012

Adobe Students Facebook Page (Jason Vizmanos)

The "Adobe Students" Facebook page is a student-oriented social media page
run by Adobe Systems Incorporated, a software developer best known for
their Creative Suite (including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere). The
target audience are young budding/hobbyist photographers, artists,
cinematographers, and designers -- groups they intend to engage by catering
to specific needs (tutorials, webcasts, etc).

Of the 4-6 types of people that typically associate themselves with a
social media page, this page consists mainly of those seeking status
association, those that have a genuine appreciation for their product,
and/or those that want free stuff. (They've done a great job moderating for
trolls, and it seems that most complaints are diverted to the main Adobe
pages.)

Looking back to the beginning of October, they have authored over fifty
posts to date to ensure a high level of content flow. The quality of
content matters, of course, and they've done a fairly good job mixing it up
with user-generated content (gallery of all the submitted t-shirt designs
from a contest earlier this fall + showcasing the portfolio pieces of
student finalists in their awards ceremony), participation (introducing
Adobe campus ambassadors + linking to and hosting live webcasts with
industry leaders + providing information on "in real life" events), and
premiums (Twitter giveaways + scholarships).

What's interesting to note is that if you were to filter the posts to those
authored by others, you can observe people sharing resources with one
another in addition to your typical customer service "portal." It's not a
very active community, but that it emerged organically and exists at all
bodes well for Adobe. At 119K likes and content that's relevant and
interesting to their audience, the "Adobe Students" page is a fairly
effective example of how to leverage social media for niche markets.

Bluefly (Lian Chen)

Bluefly Company, one of the most popular online fashion stores around the world. I think it does an effective job of marketing social media because their website is really attractive; it is filled with colorful advertisements and beautiful models wearing the most fashionable clothes. They also effectively use premiums to attract the customer. Every time customers open the website or Facebook page, they can see the new coupon or sale information clearly. Although they do not give out free products, Bluefly Company gives 25 percent off for the first order and provides new sales on particular items or brands daily. They will ask customers their opinions via Facebook, such as how do you like this item, and they always receive a lot of feedback. They do not have user-generated content in order to maintain the professional look of their website.

They have new items online everyday at 6:31 AM Eastern time. They also send new deals everyday to all the customers who purchased from the website before. Later in the day they update new photos or dialogues on Facebook. They respond to customer feedback quickly each day. Overall, because I think they do well in social media marketing, there are more than 170,000 likes and more than 4,000 people talking about this company on Facebook.

Gilt.com (Yalin Zhao)

Gilt.com

Yalin ZHAO

To be frank, I really enjoy browsing the website of Gilt, though I have nothing to buy. It gives me such a great joy when looking at the colorful and attractive pictures. I would like to say that Gilt does have down an effective job in social media marketing.

Products on sale keep being updated every day with brief tittles and proper categories. Seeing the attractive pictures as well as the huge discount, people are likely to consider buying one or two products many times in their minds, I believe. In addition, Gilt provides other premiums to attract customers.

Right on the frontpage, one thing can easily catch our eyes is that we can get 25% off sharing Gilt with our friends. It surely can be a good way to make the website more wild-known.

In order to make the customers know well about what are on sale, it requires customers’ participation. People who search the website are required to sign in with their emails. And after your information has been provided, you will receive the email sent by Gilt everyday about the new sale they offer. While checking their email box, customers are probably willing to take a look at the website incidentally.

Also, they offer an web-event called Gilt Live—a Beta that shows what people are purchasing now—that create an joyful atmosphere for shopping since people seem happy to share the products they are satisfied with.

Apple Inc. (Felix Chen)

Apple Inc. is currently one of the biggest producers of consumer products. Its products like the iPhone, Macbook, iPad, and iPod are extremely popular worldwide, and deservedly so as their designs are innovative and aesthetically amazing. So when one looks at Apple’s Facebook page, one would expect it to be as equally impressive as its success with their products right? Think again. Apple’s Facebook page has no redeeming qualities about it whatsoever. Through the lack of the features we talked about in class that make up good and attractive social media content, it will become quite apparent how Apple has failed miserably in social media marketing via Facebook.

Let’s first look at what is exactly on this page. The entire page has only a few things worth mentioning. The profile picture, which is just its logo, is trivial. There is no cover photo, and the description only contains “Computers & Electronics” and the company address. The total number of people who like this page since its creation is shown, as well as the number of likes and visits Apple has received this month. On the right, your friends that like or were physically present at Apple are also depicted. Finally, there is a recommendations section which basically allows users to post any thoughts on Apple’s wall. This is just completely awful. There are no premiums for one. Apple would greatly benefit if it announced that they were giving away free things such as iPod Shuffles. There is no sense of participation with the users. Apple should be hosting more events, surveys, games to involve the users, such as polls asking which iPhone generation was the best. User-generated content could be very useful as well: Apple could have submit their ideas for a new product and let others be able to view them. The customer-service “portal” is basically the recommendations section, but it is actually hurting the company’s image because there is a lot of negative feedback on their products ironically. As for content flow, there is not even a trace of any sort of news concerning the company or the product. Because of how terrible this Facebook page is, I am inclined to think that this is not Apple’s official Facebook page. However, this is the page with the most likes at 7.9 million, and none of the other pages in the search seem to be much better in terms of the features mentioned. This still does not take away from the fact that Apple’s social media marketing is extremely bad as Facebook is one of, if not the, biggest social media platform. Apple should either make an official Facebook page with all of the features we went over in class, or delete the unofficial pages on Facebook right now because they are actually hurting the software giant’s image in that people continually bash their products by posting negative feedback.

Renren Page for Pizza Hut (Yuhan Wang)


  Nowadays,social network plays a more and more essential role in our daily life,but unfortunately in China facebook  is not available. It is rennin,another social website,which  replaces facebook in mainland.My evaluation is about pizza hut in renren page.

   From the premiums's aspect, Pizza hut  draw a lottery in Halloween.The person who was lucky enough would be given free meal coupon and I noticed that attracted many people to participated in this part.From the participation's aspect, many interesting interaction between Pizza hut and renren users, like a riddle or something else.As to the user-genersted content,Pizza hut creates a special column to present customer's advice and the professional reply.The dialogue between each other enables a effective communication which improve the products.One last part that deserves to be mentioned is content flow, the news of  privilege is always put in the conspicuous part on the website regularly.For example,Pizza hut provides a half-price lunch, which is different everyday.  

   All in all, the renren page for Pizza hut is doing a effective job of social media marketing.

Disney (Zelin Xu)

Disney has successfully utilized social media as a marketing tool. Disney’s Facebook page, despite lacking participatory content, has done a great job in regularly updating their content, advertising for upcoming movies, bringing back nostalgic memories, or just giving away discounts, and has attracted and sustained many users through these social media efforts.

Through the Facebook page, Disney regularly provides premiums and deals to its users; ranging from giving away discount coupons, free movie passes, to promotional codes, Disney sustains returning users

Disney also maintains constant content flow, posting photos and pictures multiple times a day. These photos cover posters for new movies and events, old photos from Disney classics, or just random facts about various Disney characters.

AC Transit Facebook Page (Siyao Chen)

ASSIGNMENT #4 – Social Media Analysis-Siyao Chen

The Facebook page for AC Transit is not doing an effective job. When you first go to the page, you are likely to shut it down immediately, because the design of their page is really blank and boring and they have a bad looking cover photo.

For the contents, the page is just like a place for announcing their unattractive community events, but their official website is indeed serving for this function. The events they posted on Facebook seldom had any likes, so it seems that their Facebook page did not do a good job in promoting their community events.

They did try to use premiums to attract the Facebook users. For example, they had a raffle for those who like their page. I think this premium is the only reason why they have 1,603 likes. However, the post of this raffle—“Tell your friends! TODAY is the last day to like our page, for a chance to win a free 31-Day bus pass! Send them to facebook.com/rideact” just got 4 likes. The raffle could be an opportunity for creating participation, which is extremely important for Facebook marketing. Unfortunately, the AC Transit Company did not do well in attracting people to engage their friends and did not creating any shares in this event. There are two main reasons why this premium event is not successful. First, the prize was not big enough to grasp attention. Second, it did not have any catching slogan or interesting description. If they want to promote this raffle into a big event, they should find interesting ways to make people share the post of this event rather than writing such blank words.

They don’t have any participation or user-generated content on the Facebook page. The contents of the posts are boring and not engaging. They don’t ask fans questions, respond to any comments, or saying things in an exciting way. They do have a frequent content flow, but it doesn’t have any positive impact since the contents are not attractive.

Their page is used by people as a place to complain about their service. 13 out of all 22 comments on the page are negative comments. For the other comments, only 2 people wrote good things about it. The post that earned the most interaction on the page is the most negative comment of their service. The guy said “AC TRANSIT HAVE BAD SERVICE!!!!A BUS DRIVE KIKCK PEOPLE OUT OF THE BUSS JUST FOR BEING LOUD THATS HELLA STUPID...EVERY TIME I TAKE AC TRANSIT PEOPLE WERE HELLA LOUD I DONT SEE THE GET KIKCK OUT OF THE BUS. DONT TAKE AC TRANSIT ANYMORE THEY HAVE ANGER ISSUES DRIVER!!!!AC TRANSIT=BAD SERVICE!!!!!!” Thus, the AC Transit Facebook page is really against itself.

Steampowered.com (Triman Nguyen)

Steampowered.com



Steam is Valve’s website for distributing games which they and others make.
Steam also serves a dual-purpose as a social platform for gamers to
organize and play games with each other. Steam’s popularity has launched
Valve from a small company into mainstream gamer life.


One of the best things about Steam is their use of Premiums. Every day
there is a deal where a random game would be 75% off. In addition, there
are also Midweek, Weekend, and holiday deals and Free to Play weekends.
This encourages people to continually check the website, even if they
aren’t planning on buying or playing on that particular day since no one
wants to miss out on 50-75% off a game. Moreover, since the discounts are
so outrageous, when someone finds a deal oftentimes they will notify their
friends and try to get them to buy it also.


Steam does a phenomenal job at encouraging user participation. The sales
mentioned above helps encourage users to actively recruit more players into
Steam. Steam offers this special deal called a “4-pack” where you get 4
copies of a game for the price of 3 (more or less). Users have an incentive
to try and either gets more friends to play with them, thus getting a
cheaper game overall, or trade copies of the game with one another (Valve
still sells more games either way). In addition, the Free to Play weekends
that Steam has every now and then enable players to try the full game for
free. Undoubtedly, some end up buying a game that they would never have
otherwise. Steam also has tools to help the player play games. There is a
friends list that allows you to invite people to play with you and see what
others are currently playing.


Steam handles User-Created-Materials in an interesting way also. There is
an achievement system which lets you tell others what amazing achievements
you obtained in certain games. For the modders (people who like to edit
games), there is the steam workshop that allows people to submit and/or use
and rate other people’s work. Steam is moving towards enabling people to
charge money for their creations, providing further incentives to
user-created-materials while letting Valve get a cut of the profit).


Lastly, Steam also updates daily what games are released and featured on
their page. New games are constantly added and people can vote on what
games they would want to see added ASAP. In case users need support, there
is a support button at the top which will guide users through the support
process with clear steps and explanations about what users have to do for
each step. Thus, with their amazing ability to enable users to create their
own mods for games, constant updates of new releases and frequent sales of
games, Valve’s steampowered.com website has become the undisputed #1
platform for PC gamers.

Target Style Facebook Page (Ranny Do)

Commercial
Social media page: Target Style Facebook Page

Judging from the numerous consistent posts and incentives
offered by the Target social media page on Facebook, I feel that this
commercial page is doing an effective job of social media marketing. Within the
span of five months, Target has offered free beauty bags twice, which include
cosmetic samples and coupons, with the only requirement of “liking” the Target
page. With such a simple task required, Target is able to appear millions of
Facebook users’ news feed and appeal to them through images of new clothing and
shoes for the current season and links to the new holiday home catalog for
winter indoor décor. As of November 13, Target is also giving away a
twenty-five $25 dollar Target Gift cards daily to fans with the same and easy
requirement of “liking” the Target Facebook page. Designers display their
clothing designs on the page and their photo is featured as well. Customers
have the ability to write a post on the page leaving their thoughts, questions,
and concerns. 

The Target Facebook page is not extremely helpful with
providing a “dialogue” environment to communicate with users because millions
of users posting on the page and it is rare to receive a reply from the actual
Target media employee. Therefore the dialogue is more directed between Facebook
users themselves rather than with the actual Target employee in charge of
social media marketing. Because of the numerous Target locations and the
different availability of products, I feel that it makes sense that Target does
not have a direct dialogue service on the Facebook page. If people had a
question about products they could contact the nearest Target store and speak
to customer service. However, the content flow is engaging as pictures of
clothes and food, videos of celebrities like Emma Stone announcing their
products available exclusively at Target, and links such as Black Friday ads or
catalogs, are posted on a daily basis. Overall, I feel that the Target
commercial social media page on Facebook is doing an effective job of social
media marketing. Based off of the comments, fans are purchasing their products,
 look forward to their sales, and express
their opinion by posting. Fans are also utilizing the coupons offered in the
free beauty bags at an actual Target location to receive one to two dollars off
of the featured product. Based off of the Facebook page, there are currently
20,777,066 likes and 1,257,612 people “talking about” Target on Facebook.

Benefit Cosmetics Facebook Page (Liya Zhang)

Social Media Marketing Analysis:

The Facebook Page for Benefit Cosmetics

Liya Zhang

Granted, I began to love the Facebook page of Benefit Cosmetics at the first sight. It is really an attractive, effective social media page in addition to its website and blog.

Firstly, it is so interactive that everyone can have an access to customer service “portal”. People can make posts on their page. The page administrators may timely respond to posts, especially those refer to unhappy shopping experience or questions on products. For instance, the newest post now is a complaint about website payment. The “Benefit Cosmetics” responded it and the other additional comments in less than 4 hours. Also, the administrator gave advice as feedback. They create a “dialogue” environment to communication.

Secondly, it is participatory. It creates events, survey, games, etc. to invite customers to involve in it at irregular intervals. For instance, I began to be interested in their Facebook Page because I wanted to download the photo taken with my friend in an activity of Benefit Cosmetics. Also, I can see some customers’ participation on Facebook such as a competition named “Beauty Best… Or bust?”, a game called “play a round of they're real ‘TRUTH’ cards”, etc. Also, it creates galleries for user-generated content. An excellent example again is the “Beauty Best… Or bust?” People can submit and upload their own photos to take part in the competition or vote for those materials. It offers a showcase, putting customers in front of audiences.

Thirdly, there is regular new content, in other words, the “content flow”. Shown on the timeline, the renew frequency is about three or four times a week. The contents include photos of product, deals, videos, surveys, etc. Even, the words are vivid and entertaining, full of energy and adoration. Putting aside some meaningless and boring content, to post new contents frequently is an effective way to keep customer’s sustained attention.

Lastly, even though there are few premiums shown on the Facebook page, messages about coupons, deals, lotteries are frequently posted. Those messages are attractive enough for many customers to buy. For example, free shipping and samples of product are given away, encouraging people to buy more products on their website.

As for me, the Facebook page for Benefit Cosmetics is a success. From the start, it meant more than a process of social media. It established a bridge over the gap between products and customers and brought the products alive.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Juicy Couture Facebook Page (Lauren Morowit)

Juicy Couture

Juicy Couture’s Facebook page effectively maintains a devoted consumer base through niche marketing and successfully attracts new consumers. The page’s aesthetic presentation is characterized by glamorous photos, vivacious colors, and high fashion. Currently, over two millions Facebook users “like” this page. Often times, Juicy Couture posts VIP coupons so that their Facebook fans can receive promotions and stay informed about the latest sale events. Users can also enter into contests to win shopping sprees and other prizes. The page is updated daily with products, promotional sale codes, contests, videos, or photos. As discussed in lecture, many individuals “like” this page because they want to be associated with a kind of status or prestige. Juicy Couture is a more expensive brand; therefore, it can be inferred that even people who cannot afford the products will “like” the page and spread its popularity because it is (for lack of better words) the cool thing to do…

At least once per week, photos are uploaded featuring celebrities, models or actresses wearing Juicy Couture clothing and products in their everyday life. This relates back to the idea of status achieved from liking the page, buying the products, and wearing the fashion because it sends the message that you can feel and look like a celebrity too. Juicy Couture also utilizes the Facebook page as one element of cross-promotion and multi-platforming. Posts often redirect users to the official Juicy Couture website, offer links to hot videos, and sometimes feature a hashtag for contest entry via Twitter. However, the site lacks user-generated content as well as an effective “dialogue” portal on this page; nonetheless, in my opinion, user-generated content would actually destroy both the glamorous and professional elements of the page and would not help to improve the brand’s image. The dialogue present on the page exists in the form of comments – among hundreds for each post. In defense of this absence of consumer/brand conversation, many of the comments simply say things like: “Love it!”, “Need it!”, or my personal favorite is when girls presumably tag their boyfriend’s or husband’s name in the post in order to openly hint that they would enjoy the product as a potential gift. Juicy Couture’s Facebook page functions to keep fans loyal, happy, and eager to engage in the elusive world of shopping.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Assignment #3

Thursday, September 20, 2012

All Your Base (Li-An Chen)

When did this begin to become popular/famous on the Internet and why? Provide a context and offer an analysis of why you think this became so popular (if no obvious reason presents itself).

All you base are belong to us, often shortened to “All Your Base”, AYBABTU or simply AYBABTU, or simply “AYB”. It first comes from in year 1989, English version of Zero Wing is released in Europe, featuring a variety of Japanese translation errors. It is a broken English phrase that comes out to be a popular meme that influence across the internet at the dawn as early as in 1998.

An awkward Engrish translation of “all of your bases are under our control,” It is a opening dialogue from a nostalgic side-scrolling shoot ém up game released in 1989, Zero Wing.

Due to large amount of Engrish poor grammar, “All Your Base” dialogue scene soon become a popular discussion forums in 2000. The slogan has quickly spread to thousands of image macros and flash animations. “All Your Base” has soon be known on the website and in real life.

Because it is remarked for poor Japanese Engrish and so it soon becomes famous and quickly spread on the internet.

The details/description of the "meme," person, event, etc.

The use of game phrase and footage in meme started from a side scrolling arcade shooter, Zero Wing which has released in 1989. The quote is from the opening dialogue when the player’s enemy, the leader of CATS has appears.

Below is the opening dialogue in Zero Wing:

Captain: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Operator: We get signal.
Captain: What !
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Captain: It’s you !!
CATS: How are you gentlemen !!
CATS: All your base are belong to us.
CATS: You are on the way to destruction.
Captain: What you say !!
CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time.
CATS: Ha ha ha ha …
Operator: Captain !!
Captain: Take off every ‘ZIG’!!
Captain: You know what you doing.
Captain: Move ‘ZIG’.
Captain: For great justice.

The above poor grammar translation is an example of Engrish. It is because the original conversation was written in an Asian language but translated poorly into English.

How popular did it become and over what time span? (include "Google Insights" interest).

Its first present is hard to designate since the site has been removed; however, it was widely spread from 1998 to 1999 on the Rage Game forum, which later converted to Classic Gaming powered by IGN. It was also well-known on the Zany Video Game Quotes, which put up Zero Wang’s image on its main page.

In June 2000, Overclock.org uploaded their Zero Wing Dub Project, and also provided different version of the introduction, which was voiced by Wayne Newton. This would likely be the very first instance of a response video.
Around February 15th, 2001, Bad CRC of Tribal War released the notable music video, and it was posted on Newgrounds a day later.

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#cat=0&q=all%20your%20base%2Care%20belong%20to%20us%2Cthe%20cake%20is%20a%20lie%2C%2C&geo=&gprop=&cmpt=q

Include other memes that may have emerged from this or have been influenced by this.

Half-Life 1/Scientist Slaughterhouse remix September 19, 2012, 321,596 views

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l5X_TdczLVg

All Your Snakes Are Belong To Us (Snakes on a Plane mashup), September 19, 2012,

2,026,758 views

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ihAoSwQqo44#!

All Your Base music video Seotember 19, 268,774 + views
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k52HCHOSpr0
All Your Chocolate Rain Are Belong To Us (Tay Zonday mashup), September 19, 2012, 433,490 views
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dUyxurUWtSQ

Team Fortress 2 remix September 19, 2012 77,207 views
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=N_0dx7bT-7M
Toontown Mashup September 19, 2012, 405,356 views
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HQkccZpcvZg

All Your Base Are Belong To ORLY? (Owl remix) September 19, 2012, 100,948 views
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LP4uUnOJL2M

Include videos or images when relevant to illustrate your description –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fvTxv46ano&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTjW_FKQHFs&feature=fvwrel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfMC2aVhYuo&feature=related

Lioncash (Liya Zhang)

Meme: Lioncash

Name: Liya Zhang

Date: 9/17/2012

Operation Lioncash is an anonymous meme that involves printing a “lion” (>:3) over the face of the bill and then releasing them “back into the wild.” It started on April 17, 2008 by the member of the /b/ (random) image board hosted by 4Chan, of putting the lion smile ">:3" on the face of George Washington. It is also a global scheme to replace all money in the world with “lioncash”.

The operation stated the mission which could be concluded into only one sentence: “For each participant to print lions on as many of his or her duckets as possible, until all money is converted to lion money, thus uniting the world by breaking down financial barriers.” The reason posted on the Internet seems obvious: hope break down financial barriers with single currency. As to me, the reasons for its popularity may meet more than it.

(1) Social behavior under the context of upcoming financial crisis

During the financial crisis which was gradually starting to surface before August, 2008, Nothing seems to be going right as for many people. To some extent, doing such a simple and crazy stuff like drawing a handful of “lioncash” became a direct way to build up a “utopia” world which viewed as reasonable and rational. The so called hope or emission do bring individuals courage and passion to “save world” through replacing all of the money in the world with “lioncash” against the status they hate: single currency.

(2) Special pleasure doing illegal things being anonymous

At the beginning of the spread of meme, some worried about being prosecuted for writing on money. But more individual hold this kind of mentality- knowing it illegal but keep doing it because no one cares if it is defacing government property. “People are basically evil.” The lack of legal clarity surrounding this sort of minor alteration of paper money (There aren’t any laws that stipulate writing on dollar bills is illegal.) means it is pretty much OK to do so. In other words, people could behave improperly, with little harm, and for the most part, gaining great deal of pleasure and satisfaction. Also, the behavior on the internet, uploading the pictures or videos, as well as submitting comment could remain anonymous. No one knows who draws, uses or encourages others to do the same thing. Anonymity became worldwide, enhancing the pleasure among whom getting into the process.

Originated in 4Chan, the one who started the meme initiated others by printing the following words, “From now on I’m going to add a lion to my bills… I wonder how long it will take for another b-tard to see one… Conversely, I wonder how long it would take America to break if every b-tard put lions on bills.” According to its mission statement, this global operation seeks to convert all regional currencies into the universal lioncash, thus uniting the world by breaking down financial barriers.

(The picture below shows several samples of “lioncash”)

At the first beginning, there was only “lioncash” made on base of dollar bills, but gradually it became worldwide, spreading from North America to Asia, Europe, Australia or even Africa. Moreover, some videos, words and pictures display or analyze the “lioncash” spread rapidly through the Internet.

Moreover, the earliest usage of “lion face” as an emoticon stems from another meme popularized on 4chan’s /b/ board in 2006. However, I regret that I cannot find any other memes emerged from this or influenced by this.

When it comes to how popular it became and over what time span, from line chart named “interest over time” of “Google Insights” on the key word “lioncash” (web search), the data peaks up around April and May in 2008, then dramatically drops down to 14 in June and fluctuates slightly afterwards. The meme booming in several days but the fact of hotness period- only about 2 months or even shorter makes the meme kind of like ephemera.

Nyan Cat (Triman Nguyen)

When did this begin to become popular/famous on the Internet and why?

Posted on daily comics site LOL-COMICS on 4-2-2011. The illustrator, Chris Torres, got the idea from a Red Cross charity event where cat and pop tart were suggested. The author was already kind of well known before Nyan Cat, and the GIF got over 3000 likes/reblogs within first two weeks.

Nyan Cat exploded a few days later on 4-5-2011 when saraj00n posted a video of the Nyan Cat GIF on top of the famous Japanese song “Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya” by Daniwell-P. This video got over a million views in its first two weeks and was picked up by popular sites like Memebase, Buzzfeed, Tumblr, and Facebook starting on 4-12-2011. From there the meme spread wildly.

Provide a context and offer an analysis of why you think this became so
popular (if no obvious reason presents itself).

Awesome cat with poptart body flying through space while shitting rainbows on top of catchy nyanyanyanyanyanyan song. How could this not get popular??!

The details/description of the "meme," person, event, etc.

See above.

How popular did it become and over what time span? (include "Google
Insights" interest).

9^th place in Business Insider’s top 10 viral videos of 4/2011 with 7.2 million total views. Original video currently has over 84 million views. It spawned countless remixes and covers. According to Google Insights, Nyan cat reached its peak around late June 2011 and again in early November 2011.

Include other memes that may have emerged from this or have been

influenced by this.

Nyan cat didn’t spawn or influence any other well known memes, only parodies or remixes of itself.

Include videos or images when relevant to illustrate your description -
please try to avoid posting images or video that may be offensive.

Nyan.cat and Slowbro.org – nonstop Nyan Cat websites (repeatedly loops song and animation)

http://youtu.be/QH2-TGUlwu4 - the original Youtube video by saraj00n

http://youtu.be/8mtOdT9LBOg - nyan cat song playing on top of Slipknot’s Psychosocial music video. Spawned the Nyan Cat audio dub (playing the Nyan song on hardcore rock music vids)

Nyan-Cat.com – site listing all games about Nyan Cat

http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/135474-nyan-cat-pop-tart-cat - Youtube taking part in Nyan Cat

Kim Jong Un Looking at Things (Siyao Chen)

Kim Jong-un Looking at Things—Siyao Chen

When did this begin to become popular/famous on the Internet and why?Provide a context and offer an analysis of why you think this became sopopular (if no obvious reason presents itself).

‘Kim Jong-Un Looking At Things’ began on December 18th, 2011 on Tumblr, and it became really popular even up till now. “Kim Jong-un Looking at things” is the successor of the famous Trumblr blog “Kim Jon Il looking at things”. On December 18th, 2011, South Korea’s Yonhap News via North Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim Jong Il had passed away at the age of 69 during a train ride on Saturday December 17th, 2011. The North’s announcement of his death was quickly picked up by various news publications around the world. Within hours of the announcement, the Tumblr blog “Kim Jong-un Looking at Things” was created featuring photos of Kim Jong Il’s son—Kim Jong Un.

It is popular because North Korea has been really strict about what pictures they spread out of their great leader. The released pictures have no relevance on anything that goes on in North Korean politics. It says a lot about North Korea and how distorted their world view is. Also, the North Korean media wants to build a great image of their leader, but in reality the outcome is the opposite. That’s why people find it funny and ironic.

• The details/description of the "meme," person, event, etc.

The meme basically consists of Kim Jong Un looking at various objects. They're all snaps taken during tours around factories and so on, showing the Dear Leader casting an eye over fridges, floor, air vents - whatever you can think of, really.

Example:

looking at boot

looking at a farm report

looking at sausages

About Kim Jong Un:

1 – According to various sources, Kim Jong Un is an NBA fanatic and has had pictures taken with Toni Kukoc of the Chicago Bulls and Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers.

2 - The Chosunilbo reports a number of revelations about KJU’s formative years and claims he briefly attended Switzerland’s German-speaking Liebefeld-Steinhölzli School.

3 – It goes on to claim that “Pak Un”, KJU’s assumed name at the Swiss school, was shy and awkward around girls but became fiercely competitive on the basketball court where he was described by peers as “explosive” and a “playmaker”.

4 – The final revelation from the “Great Successor’s” school years was that despite his father’s anti-American stance – KJU had an extensive collection of Nike sneakers, according to former classmate Nikola Kovacevic, who estimated each pair to cost around $200.

5 – The U.S. and allies will be monitoring KJU’s inaugural days in power extremely closely and are said be concerned that the transition could prove dangerous if KJU seeks to assert his leadership credentials through provocative military actions, claims IndiaTVNews.

6 – The Daily Telegraph served up a number of facts on the young premier, including the revelation that his buzz-style haircut has made him an unlikely style-icon in North Korea, where young men are queuing at barber shops for what has been dubbed the “youth” or “ambition” haircut.

7 – South Korean media widely speculated that KJU underwent a number of cosmetic procedures last year in order to look more like his grandfather and founder of North Korea, Kim Il Sung.

8 – Efforts to transform KJU into a North Korean demigod in the same style as his father, have led to his birthday on January 1 being made a national holiday.

9 – In preparation for KJU’s premiership, North Korean soldiers have reportedly been shown a documentary film in recent months which begins with words: ”Following in the footsteps of the General, offering guidance to the troops, comrade General Kim Jong Un delivers a great blow to the enemy with the resourcefulness of his keen insight.”

10 – KJU can look forward to some favourable coverage from North Korean media. Among the eyebrow-raising stories written about Kim Jung Il were claims he’d set the world record for the lowest round of golf (containing 11 hole-in-ones), reports he’d become a global fashion icon and an official biography on the North Korea state website that said he did not defecate.

• How popular did it become and over what time span?

Google Insights:

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=Kim%20Jong%20Un%20Looking%20at%20Things&cmpt=q

The popularity of the meme grew over a two-week span starting from December 11th to December 25^th. The search volume becomes more stable in 2012. The posts usually have an average of 20-130 notes (reposts).

• Include other memes that may have emerged from this or have been influenced by this.

There are a lot of other memes that make fun of Kim Jong-un’s weight.

“Hungry Kim Jong-un”

On December 19^th, 2011, the first “Hungry Kim Jong-Un” Quickmeme submission was created, which featured a photo of Kim talking to a top-ranking general with the caption “What do you mean / I can’t eat America.”

“The Kim Jong Un Wanting To Eat Things Thing”

“I don’t see any cake”

Reference:

[1] http://kimjongunlookingatthings.tumblr.com

[2] http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/12/19/kim-jong-un-10-things-you-might-not-know-about-north-koreas-new-leader/

[3] http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/hungry-kim-jong-un

[4] http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-kim-jong-un-looking-at-things-meme

Planking (Zelin Xu)

Sociology 167: Assignment #2 – Know Your Memes

Planking was invented by two friends in Somerset, Gary Clarkson and Christian Langdon, in 2000 and called it the Lying Down Game. It emerged later in Australia and was nicknamed planking. Clarkson and Langdon started to lie down in public places in Taunton in order to be photographed. Then in 2007, a friend, Daniel Hoppin, took this phenomenon online. He said ‘They’d started lying down in bars and clubs to try to spin people out. So we began a Facebook group to see who could get the craziest photo’.

The British also fell into this craze in July 2009, and in September 2009, A&E staff at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon were suspended for ‘lying down’ while on duty. The term ‘Planking’ was then introduced by Sam Weckert and two other friends in the summer of 2008 or 2009. It finally blew up when local radio stations got hold of it and ran competitions.

It also became extremely famous and controversial in 2011 when a man from Australia, in his 20’s, died after taking part in planking. He fell from a balcony railing in Brisbane while a friend photographed him. There have also been many instances of celebrities partaking in this game.

I think planking became popular simply because of the simplicity of the activity as well as the bizarre, strange reaction that it would create. Why lie down? Like Hoppin said, ‘Because it’s utterly ridiculous’, ‘if you go on holiday, you take a photo of yourself in front of the Eiffel Tower or the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We thought it would be hilarious if you’re not interested and lying down instead.’ With planking so simple and radio stations holding competitions, a lot of hype is created for people to go out and try to plank at the craziest location they reach. It became a social activity for people to go out and compete with their friends to see can be the craziest.

To clarify, what is planking? Planking, or the Lying Down Game, is an activity consisting of lying face down with your hand touching the sides of the body – sometimes in unusual or incongruous locations. Some people compete to see who can find the most unusual or craziest locations to play. It can include lying flat on a flat surface, or holding the body flat while it is supported in only some regions, and suspended in other parts.

Planking was only popular for a short period of time. It became very popular and widespread in Australia in March 2011 when pro-rugby player David ‘Wolfman’ Williams planked after a try during a game. Search interest, based on Google Insights, experienced a small peak in May due to the death incident, and finally reaching a history high in July 2011. Until the beginning of 2012, popularity plummeted and since then is now barely searched for.

Since planking appeared, many other activities have erupted based on the influence of planking. These activities include ‘Teapotting’, which consists of a person bending their arms in the shape of a teapot, ‘Owling’, where a person squats ‘like and owl’, ‘Horsemanning’, when two people pose so that it appears as if there is a single body with a detached head, and many more such as ‘Batmanning’, and Football-related ones such as ‘Tebowing’, ‘Gronking’, ‘Bradying’, and ‘Griffining’.

Cinnamon Challenge (Yalin Zhao)

CINNAMON CHALLENGE

BY: YALIN ZHAO

• When did this begin to become popular/famous on the Internet and why? Provide a context and offer an analysis of why you think this became so popular (if no obvious reason presents itself).

Since the early 2000s, the game has become well known for its extreme difficulty and thousands of videos with people attempting the challenge have been uploaded onto YouTube.

Right because it is full of CHALLENGE, the adventurous minds of people drive them to try this kind of crazy things. Also, as more and more people keep taking cinnamon challenge and no one succeed, which results in even more people participate in this challenge in order to prove that “They CAN”. In addition, simply duo to one’s curiousness, as the Meme is keeping spreading, I may try it someday, lol.

• The details/description of the "meme," person, event, etc.

The Cinnamon Challenge is a popular DARE GAME that involves attempting to swallow a tablespoon of cinnamon without vomiting or inhaling the powder. The cinnamon challenge essentially consists of a group of people or an individual attempting to ingest a large dose—usually a teaspoon or more—of pure, ground cinnamon in one sitting. It usually results in the individual spitting it up, with minor to more severe spouts of coughing, spitting, gagging and sometimes even vomiting.

• How popular did it become and over what time span? (include "Google Insights" interest).

The phenomenon saw its largest resurgent yet in late 2011 when Anna Diaz recorded a video of herself attempting the challenge, which was re-uploaded via YouTube on December 14th, 2011. The video received over 3.9 million views in the first two months of upload and was covered by numerous Internet culture blogs and imitated by other YouTubers in the following weeks.

As we can see in the chart, the curve shows a sharp increase during the end of year 2011 and the beginning of year 2012, by reaching the top data of 100. And it goes down rapidly--but not as fast as it goes up—during the rest time of year 2012.

• Include other memes that may have emerged from this or have been influenced by this.

Perhaps the most hilarious memes that have emerged from the cinnamon challenge are the still images of people’s faces immediately after they ingest the cinnamon. Images of people’s reactions have been the target of lulz seekers everywhere.

Some other popular, hilarious, and arguably dark memes include: