07
Smack This
Posted by Sean McAlister | Posted in Blogging | Posted on 07-01-2009
Social Media is Too Hot for Words
Hot for Words
Who is Marina - HotForWords?
Who is HotForWords? Her name is Marina Orlova, she’s 28 and she’s a philologist! Now you might be asking what the heck is a philologist? Well, it’s someone who studies linguistics and etymology.. and in Marina’s case.. she has applied her Philology degrees to specializing in word origins.
Marina has two degrees - Teaching of Russian Language and World Literature Specializing in Philology and the Teaching of English Language Specializing in Philology from State University of Nizhni Novgorod Region in Russian Federation, graduated 2002 and taught English to high school students for 2 years.
Marina burst in on the scene in mid 2007 launching her YouTube channel HotForWords, where she takes requests from YouTube viewers for words to discuss, and she releases 5-7 videos each week discussing the origins of these words, in a fun and playful manner!
Marina is the #1 Guru on YouTube, she’s consistently the most watched channel on ALL of YouTube as well - just ahead of Universal Music Group and the NBA, her videos are seen over five million times each week (She is currently at 155,004,496 video views on YouTube alone and counting!), she hosts a bi-weekly radio show on Maxim Radio on Sirius Satellite Radio, she’s currently writing a book for HarperCollins on fun word origins - yet nobody really knows much about Marina, other than what her channel states - that she is from “The Capital of the Republic of Lexicon” and her hometown is “Etymologia” 
Called the “Sexiest Philologist in the world” by New Yorker Magazine, Marina was voted the World’s #1 Sexiest Geek by Wired Magazine’s Sexy Geek of the Year Contest, she’s been on the Bill O’Reilly Factor Show on Fox a few times teaching him a few word origins :-), she was voted the 5th hottest woman on the net by G4 TV and she was mentioned in Cosmopolitan Magazine as one of the top 3 channels on YouTube! As her tag-line at the beginning of her videos states “Intelligence is Sexy” - Marina is definitely doing her part to try to prove that point! For a video recap of all this, watch this segment from G4 Television’s Attack of the Show.
Marina can be found on YouTube at www.youtube.com/hotforwords, on iTunes and her website www.hotforwords.com.
Contact information can be found here.
Written by Marina
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……So….what do you think? If you check out her site you will see that she is broadcasting on various Social Media platforms
and has had over 100 million views. This is classic Social Media Marketing and illustrates the power it can offer.
Now you tell me…Smack It or Smack it Down?
Let us know….PS….Dana has not seen this post yet so I am VERY CURIOUS as to what her take would be….
This could get interesting!
-Sean
So, I logged on to our site and realized that Sean had decided to ditch that whole silly “social media” theme and go with soft porn, instead!
Nice one.
Where’s my hot male social media dude? I see no pinup boy here!
And aside from that - nothing against the chick, she’s clearly smokin’ hot and has a great marketing gimmick - but I’m not sure how relevant this is on a site where we’re giving people social media marketing advice. She’s using her looks, which is brilliant of her her, but is what she’s doing something that can be reproduced by most of our readers? Probably not.
So putting up her picture is just an excuse for SOMEONE to stare at a hot blonde’s rack. And I’m not the one who put up her picture. And there’s only two of us who have access to this site.
Just sayin’. Don’t you have some actual WORK to do, Sean?
Are you kidding me…is this not what Social Media is about! Just look at how she has built her career.
Go ahead an post a “Pinup Boy” I triple dog dare ya! But he better have more than 100,000,000 views on his site….and not be involved in the “X” Rated Niche.
And just cause you are jealous of her hair does not give you the right to slam her like a rag doll.
As far as work….I am the only one working in this business relationship….ahem….whatcha gotta say about that!
The only one working in this business relationship - Oh, you did NOT go there!
You completely stood me up for the radio show. There I was, like a brokenhearted bride, sobbing and making excuses to the guests.
And for future reference, “I couldn’t get my hair just right” is NOT a valid excuse!
Yes, bimboy, Social Media is all about getting the viewz, BUT - again - we are here to teach people the tricks of the trade. Well, the tricks of YOUR trade might involve a tweetcorner, but we’ll just leave that be.
So my point…pointy-head…is that this particular post doesn’t teach our readers anything other than the fact that if you’re a gorgeous blonde, then you will greatly increase the odds that people will be interested in what you have to say.
I suspect our readers already knew that. Am I right, people???
I’ve watched a few episodes of the show in the past and yes, her physical attributes definitely contribute to her popularity, but there are other lessons to be taken from her show that apply to everyone.
1. Audience participation through video comments and post-episode assignments
2. The Youtube-specific subscribe notice after each show. Always good to remind to subscribe, and to customize it to the quirks of a particular video site is clever i think.
3. Distribution through multiple sites and channels. I’m not sure where she is beyond youtube exactly, but I was introduced to the show through Miro.
There’s all kinds of gorgeous women on the internet, but the ones that get a loyal audience earn it through good community building.
Oh and I came here to see what everyone was talking about on twitter, and read the whole article before i noticed the picture.
I think scantily-clad women on the internet are as frequent as banner ads and maybe in fact be as invisible.
Brent, you are a social marketing genius. I should have given Hot For Words more credit.
Making it easy for viewers/followers to find you and interact with you is very important.
That’s why we should have a consistent time for our radio, SEAN. Just sayin’.
Brent - Great thoughts! Thanks for the impartial lesson.
I was initially turned off by the ’soft porn’ angle… it instantly kills credibility in my mind.
But… I am OBVIOUSLY not her intended market.
Well, that is the thing, Cyndee - playing up the whole pinup angle is going to pigeonhole her - it’s an image that she can’t escape once she’s created it - and there are a lot of people who will not take her seriously because of it. But it’s a marketing angle, and she has her target audience, which would not be you and I.
Sean, on the other hand…is probably composing fan emails as we speak.
Where to start… On the one hand, how is this any different than the pretty people who become “news anchors”? So this happens to be pretty. And she’s using it. At least she’s using it as a tool to market her brain and some good ideas rather than literally being soft porn (or worse).
On the other hand, I have to agree with Dana. While she may be doing some great things social media wise, I think hers is more old school sex sells marketing and it happens to be in the social media realm. There are better examples of normal people excelling in social media. And while she may be doing some good practice kind of things, I doubt she came up with them or is the only one doing them.
If “ugly better” were doing this show and it wasn’t marketed as ugly betty but was marketed exactly the same way this show is marketed, would it still be as popular? If the answer is no (which I am pretty sure it is), than why feature this site or this “guru” when she is really just an old media, sex sells, pretty person who happens to be on YouTube.
Correct me if I’m wrong, of course…
For me this is a great topic…and a great discussion. Yes she is a beautiful woman, who is educated that tailors to a specific audience. She does well with it.
This was meant to be an example.
@Brent…. I agree with you totally. There are certain “Physical Attributes” of many sites that illustrate the same format and message.
To Clarify another gosh darn thing! There is no soft porn angle. Just a difference of perspective. Not to worry though cause Dana will be making a post all about herself next! Huh Dana….Im just sayin….