1. Surprise and add elements of the unexpected, i.e., granny beating up a robber, Cookie Monster eating or saying something unusual, different colors, sounds, tempos.
2. Remember that it’s all about building an audience, not just uploading content. Building a subscriber base is key – the community aspect is more important than most people think or pay attention to. Encourage people to create new content around your content – it gets viewers excited and allows them to participate.
3. Embed, embed, embed. If people can’t easily embed your video across multiple platforms, it’s going to be that much harder to spread virally. People want to be able to grab a video and point to it right away, whether that’s a URL link OR an easy embed into their blog or other sites. Make it easy for people to capture it and distribution.
4. Metadata – make sure you create good titles and relevant tagging. Don’t try to game the system or trick people by false tagging – it only pisses people off. Use unique titles and tailor your titles for your audience. In other words, you could have the same video on Vimeo as you do on YouTube or a blog, but you may choose to create different titles for each of them because your audience may differ in each place.
5. Distribute in multiple formats and be platform agnostic.
One other thing to note was on curation. Sure, you can create great content and have the best tagging and titles in your category, but another effective way to build an audience is to be a great curator of other people’s content. There is increasingly so much content in so many categories on the web. Why not provide a great service by making it easier for your audience to find what is most relevant and interesting to them?
Below is the panel playing with the audience at the end of the session. For giggles:
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
