The Importance Of Disney World And The Insignificance Of David Lee Roth

 

Some people think that what makes the internet special is the fact that people can have conversations.

That's wrong.

Conversation is talk radio.

I'm just David Lee Roth without the ads.

 What makes the internet special is the fact that it allows an audience to add to the experience.

They have the ability to make your content into Disney World.

Take for example Snakes On A Plane.

The movie isn't released until August. But there is little doubt it will make money because of the experience surrounding it created by the authentic audience (user generated content is sooo last week). Take a look at a piece of the Wikipedia entry:

Snakes on a Plane quickly became an Internet meme soon after Josh Friedman's blog entry ^[1]and mentions on several Internet portals. The title inspired bloggers to create songs, apparel, poster art, pages of fan fiction, parody films, and mock movie trailers.

Several independent T-shirt manufacturers have made T-shirts with graphics illustrating various humorous representations of "Snakes on a plane".

No other medium allows you to do that.

Users have turned a low budget flick into Disney World.

 

Another example is the television show Lost.

Fans of the show have created a virtual encyclopedia about the show. (Read an excellent article about Lost new media ramifications here)

Smart dude, Umair explains the real power of new media this way:

Understand that this is cheap coordination – the self-organization and regulation of complex, interdependent collective action. Further, I hope you will see that this is inevitable; it's the nearly bulletproof outcome of the economics of the edge, and market power shifting to consumers.

From an economic point of view, this is an amazing thing; I think it is almost without parallel.

This stuff is not limited to content. Look at Apple. Look at the authentic content created around it. Blogs and forums cover everything about the company unofficially.

Now as a content creator how in the world do you get your readers, viewers or listeners to create a Disney World around your content?

It's easy.

Create Fans by being authentic, emulate Ryan Seacrest and then Shut Up.

Really.

Who wants to be David Lee Roth anyway?

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