THE SOCIAL TIMES — Yesterday Cisco paid homage to Old Spice’s recent response campaign with their own YouTube response project, featuring ‘Ted From Accounting.’ Just like Old Spice, Cisco announced the campaign in the morning, asked people to send in tweets, and posted a number of personalized videos throughout the day. However, unlike with the Old Spice campaign, you probably had no idea anything out of the ordinary was going on yesterday. With a mere 2,750 views on 18 videos in the first 24 hours, the campaign paled in comparison to Old Spice’s 40 million plus views. So where did Cisco go wrong? Before we get into the specifics of how and why Cisco failed with their ‘Ted From Accounting’ campaign, let’s just take a quick look back at what happened yesterday, for those of you that missed it...

THE SOCIAL TIMES — One of the things that differentiate YouTube from other forms of visual entertainment, like television and film, is the fact that the platform closes the gap between viewers and content creators by opening up channels of communication. Communicating with your viewers not only leads to a much more personal viewing experience, but also gives you the opportunity to listen to viewer feedback and improve your content accordingly. However, a lot of YouTubers aren’t taking advantage of the perks of the platform and communicating with their viewers...

MASHABLE — You know those YouTube videos with that manly Old Spice guy and his hilarious responses to Twitter fans? Of course you do. So does everybody, it seems, because Old Spice body wash sales have increased 107% in the past month in part thanks to that social media marketing campaign. We already published stats from video analytics company Visible Measures that made it clear that the Old Spice guy was a hugely successful initiative from marketing firm Wieden + Kennedy, achieving millions of viral video views quicker than past hits like Susan Boyle and U.S. President Barack Obama’s election victory speech. The statistic of the 107% sales increase over the past month comes from Nielsen, which also revealed that sales increased 55% over the past three months...

DIGITAL INFLUENCE BLOG — The Ad Council and Google DC recently held its latest Seminar Series briefing, Online Contests: A New Way to Raise Awareness and Engage Audiences! The content was pretty 101 for anyone who’s been a Facebook Page administrator but several panelists and attendees offered great tips for video contests I’ve compiled them below with attribution...

THE SOCIAL TIMES — Kia Motors has already conquered YouTube with their viral Kia Soul hamster commercial, and now they are taking things to the next level with a new YouTube talent search. Kia Motors, along with YouTube celebrity judges ShayCarl, Lisa Nova and SMOSH, are looking for the next big YouTube star in Kia’s ‘Who’s Next?’ competition. Contestants are asked to submit videos showcasing "a new way to roll", and Kia will fly two finalists out to Los Angeles where the winner will receive a generous $10,000 prize. Kia’s success with the viral Kia Soul video has inspired the company to move forward into the realm of social media, according to VP of Marketing & Communications at Kia Motors, Michael Sprague...