If you want to build your brand or generate revenue for your business, make sure you check out Mediabistro’s Social Media Marketing Boot Camp online conference and workshop, starting tomorrow, Thursday, June 7. You’ll learn how to launch a social media marketing campaign and measure its results. Read more

Nowadays, everyone wants more for less –  newspapers without paywalls, every book ever published available for free on Google Books, and consumers who are such fanatics for your brands that they’ll do your marketing for you.  (That’s what Twitter and YouTube are for, right?)

Well, Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer says the quick and easy way isn’t always the best one.

“If you’re using [a viral strategy] as code for ‘I don’t want to spend a lot of money to get a lot of reach,’ then you’re going to be out of luck,” he said in the final installment of our Media Beat interview. “What we’re finding is one thing can help get more content seen by more people (and it’s the same thing that’s always helped get more content seen by more people),  and that’s money –  paid distribution.”

“If you really wanna guarantee yourself a lot of viewership, just pay for it. You’re already paying for a lot of other things.”

Part 1: Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer: ‘We Struck Gold’ With Mad Men Yourself

Part 2: Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer: ‘We’re Hiring Creatives At Every Level’

Ian Schafer talks about best practices for social media marketing in his keynote presentation at Socialize on April 1 in New York. You can also watch this video on the mediabistro.com YouTube channel.

Well, at least one major agency’s awake during the holidays. Oklahoma City Thunder small forward/shooting guard Kevin Durant is a blossoming NBA superstar, and as the very young face of a fairly new team located in the middle of nowhere, Durant is looking more and more like the anti-Lebron James. Oddly enough, W+K and Nike seem to be playing up Durant’s “man of the people” persona in contrast to the brand’s recent campaigns featuring James.

Using Durant’s Oklahoma City neighbor and Thunder superfan Mathias Murphy to give a candid, low-budget look into the opinions and personality of the NBA talent, Nike and W+K have turned Murphy’s Twitter and YouTube profiles into an interactive fan forum. As seen above, Durant openly gives his neighbor an honest opinion on the Dallas Mavericks’ star Dirk Nowitzki in preparation for last night’s game (which the Thunder lost despite Nowitzki leaving in the second quarter with a knee injury).

Since the campaign launched in late October, Murphy’s YouTube has seen over 4.4 million views, he has over 10,000 followers on Twitter and the newest NBA Jam videogame features Durant and Murphy as an unlockable team, proving that having an NBA player as your next door neighbor can be an ideal living situation if he’s not a jerk.