Dan Greenburg, co-founder of a viral video marketing company, shared “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral†Videos” on TechCrunch. His post stirred a lot of controversy and hatred in the comments because of his techniques- he clarified later, saying that he doesn’t use all the techniques, but some do. Whether you believe Dan or not, the truth is, people do use techniques like pay per post (and not are ethical enough to clearly mark a sponsored post), creating multiple accounts to rate and comment on things, etc. (one more example of the need for information literacy…)
In the Common Craft blog, leelefever posts about “A Sickening Review of Viral Video Tactics.” He does a good job of pulling out some of the more insidious techniques. I can’t seem to get myself too worked up about Greenburg’s post or his techniques, because I already assumed that’s the way things are. Take a look at the del.icio.us page for the post- the first posters have notes like “Another great example of why advertising is a dark filthy art” but later on, notes like these start to appear: “some of these ideas can be applied to music marketing” and “How to get your video into YouTube’s most viewed videos ;)”
Whatever you think of the original post, there are some useful gems of advice in there, especially considering putting videos on YouTube, so I thought I’d pull them out here.
Content of videos
I thought some of the advice for videos was rather good (I left out the pieces that obviously weren’t, especially for library purposes, like “appeal to sex.”)
- Make it short: 15-30 seconds is ideal; break down long stories into bite-sized clips
- Design for remixing: create a video that is simple enough to be remixed over and over again by others. Ex: “Dramatic Hamsterâ€
- Don’t make an outright ad: if a video feels like an ad, viewers won’t share it unless it’s really amazing. Ex: Sony Bravia
I especially agree with “don’t make it an outright ad.” I’ve seen lots of library promotional videos that look like ads. That’s fine for a first attempt (learning to use the equipment) but why not try getting a little creative with the next clip?
Thumbnail Optimization
Have you ever uploaded a video to YouTube and hated the still they chose for the video? (I know I have!) Greenburg shared this little tip:
YouTube provides three choices for a video’s thumbnail, one of which is grabbed from the exact middle of the video. As we edit our videos, we make sure that the frame at the very middle is interesting.
This isn’t new (see a couple of older videos about it here) but it’s a good thing to keep in mind.
If you want even more control, especially for the version you embed in your own webpage, try using Vimeo instead of YouTube. Not only do they give you more thumbnails to choose from, they let you upload your own. Plus the quality is higher.
Releasing all [content] simultaneously
Let’s say you make a few videos, and a new webpage, and some other new content. You should hold back and only release a few things at a time, right? According to Greenfield, that may not be the best tactic.
If we have multiple videos, we post all of them at once. If someone sees our first video and is so intrigued that they want to watch more, why would we make them wait until we post the next one? We give them everything up front. If a user wants to watch all five of our videos right now, there’s a much better chance that we’ll be able to persuade them to click through to our website. We don’t make them wait after seeing the first video, because they’re never going to see the next four.
If people like what they see, they’re going to want more- so give it to them!
Think about tagging
The tags you choose for your video in YouTube determine the videos that are shown in the “related videos” section. So, if you have a video about a tea party the library (it could happen), it could be linked to this video. The point is, you want to think about what your keywords might link you to. Maybe do a few sample searches to make sure your keywords aren’t bringing up anything disturbing. If you want to be safe, use Vimeo or another service that doesn’t link to related content. (I don’t work for Vimeo, I just like the service.)
A technique Greenburg describes is using unique keywords to link his content together. So, you might tag all your videos with unique tags like “yourlibraryname” “libraryvideosrock” and “ilovethelibray” (I didn’t check these, they may not be unique) which will increase the probability that they are linked together in the related videos category. You should include other meaningful tags for findability, too.
I, personally, don’t see this as dishonest. Part of the beauty of tagging is that it can be used to bridge content. I’m willing to hear arguments otherwise, though.
Conclusion
When participating online, it’s good to know a few of the little tricks that marketers do. They’ll help people find you, they’ll help you get your message out, and they’ll help you avoid linking to objectionable material.
An aside: There seems to be a general consensus lately that advertising is evil. I don’t believe that’s the case. Most advertisers subscribe to particular ethics, just like librarians do. There are a few dumb people out there that ignore these ethics, but they usually come out looking stupid in the end, anyway.