Friday, June 5, 2009

Some Thoughts On Lolcats And Internet Marketing

If you don't know the term lolspeak, or have never seen an lolcat, then, for shame. I also extend my pity to you professionals in web marketing. You have missed the evolution of a phenomenon that demonstrates how one talented and driven individual can take an idea on the web and make it grow and pay and eventually even extend to the physical world.

First off the name Lolcats and Lolspeak has become recognizable to a large group of surfers and they are a surprisingly diverse crowd.
The idea of captioned cute kittens or other animals was not his own. They have been passed around on boards and emails for a little bit of forever in scattered collections or odd posts. It's what he did with the idea and that makes the site memorable even if you don't fall for those big eyed kittens doing impossibly cute kitteny things. If you don't observe Caturday or subscribe to the existence of either basement cat or ceiling cat this site is still incredibly notable due to the way it is optimized and utilizes every social bookmarking and web 2.0 concept he can find.

I mentioned the idea of such cuteness did not originate with the site owner. It was floating all over the web and tough to find though. It's what he did with the idea that matters. He took this scattered and uncategorized collection of cuteness and built a site. Good idea huh? Great and a super name for it. Tagged after a super cute cat too the name is Icanhascheezburger.com. The lolcats as they are called were categorized, tagged, dug, tweeted, rssed, and marketed well. Even his photo names are search engine friendly and of course the ever present viral marketing where he hosts the photo at the price of leaving a link to Icanhascheezburger.com in place. Marketing done right works, and this marketing has been done right.
He has an uploader in place where cat photos can be uploaded and captioned by users though I suspect most of the very memorable catchword cuteness might come from his own or his staff's brains.

As you may suspect already I am a huge Lolcat fan and though I find the lolspeak rather difficult to use, I still appreciate it.
I have followed the site from the days when the ads were much fewer and no big names advertised there in fact it seems there were google ads at one time (I could be wrong), and there was no lolcat game sponsored by Walmart. In other words from the small days and I must admit not only the cuteness draws me but his astuteness in building and marketing and utilizing every tool available to a reputable website.
Yes there are actual real world occurences of lolcats people loved them, love them still and the craze grows instead of fading. There are lol gatherings, art shows, t-shirts and other things. In some places online and in the real world to say "I can has *fill in the blank*" elicits not only a burst of laughter but perhaps a response like "I has a bukkit". Trust me, he has done his job well and many online marketers could do worse than to study his methods.

I have no insider knowledge of his site just observations by a fan and a few scattered tidbits picked up here and there in various places. However what he has done and how it is presented is evident to anyone just by viewing his site. After all this build up and talking about this unknown to me, person's efforts and successes it is only fair I also put in a link. Yes, an organic, unasked for, unpaid, unreciprocated, natural link to his site - oh I know, he has plenty of incoming links, but he worked hard for them. So here's my favorite lolcat of the hour. Enjoy and maybe learn something from this incredible marketer with a great sense of humor and horrid spelling.

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

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