Virability

Got a newsletter from Powderhouse Hill recently that reminded me of the power of this medium (these media). Our little Powderhouse Hill, which we coined as America's Smallest Ski Resort last March got on the media list on December 26. When everybody needed that little story to make us feel good. Thought I'd re post it here from our YouTube account.



We've had modest success with virability. Our biggest player, to date, is a five-minute clip we crafted about Bode Miller with selections from Bode NAKED, CRASHING, LAUGHING, BREAKING STUFF, you know, a basic day. We didn't post the clip but a commercial outfit put it up on YouTube and GoogleVideo to drive traffic to their site. As we were not capitalizing (at that time) on such posts we let it run and see what the numbers were. Got to about 50,000 before it was pulled for the copyright violation that it was (of our rights). We'll soon be returning an updated version of this and other clips, but not before we understand more about how and why to drive traffic.

During the 2006 Olympics we had about 500,000 visitors to our FlyingDownhill.com Seeing that traffic come and go I vowed that we will know more about how to harness interest, not just how to get it.

And that's the big adventure we all have to learn. I don't know whether it matters if Andy Warhol was right or not that "In the future [aka NOW] everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes."
Having seen how fame has treated Bode and many others, fifteen minutes could be a relief.

Getting our audiences to know who and what we are is key. But the other key is being something REAL. That's what drives the numbers. And that's the prospect of this media. We can get audiences inside the experience.

But virability is not just about being good and true, bad and interesting. It's about appealing to a wide swath of people at a particular moment. And finding a way to connect.

So email your friends this Powderhouse YouTube clip. I just posted it and there are 0 views. The url is above. I've got to think that a clip with nobody naked, no explosions, no fights over the rope, and just the minor controversy of the bald-headed claim/question of "America's SMALLEST resort" is not going to be too viral. But virability? Like a lip-syncing middle-aged dancer!

Here's the url which you can get (or the embed code if you want to paste in a clip). You can watch the clip, copy the url or get the embed code at YouTube:

Holiday Break

The holiday break began a touch prematurely when I got the flu on Tuesday and spent Wednesday on the couch, less potato than wet rag. I did get out of the last minute shopping spree that is my typical practice.

But today it's back to work and the job at hand is a re-release of our Bode Miller film, Flying Downhill. We're focused on a version for Europe and looking to integrate those things we've been talking about for years. We opted for self-distrubution and though we had offers I'm sure that we would have made even less had we accpeted the offers we received.

Beacause building sales is all about esablishing contact with your customers and there is a direct way to do that with the web. The issue is, of course, getting the expertise to present yourself well and to keep the follow-through that let's your audeince know who and what you are and what you've got.

I've always been a creator and not a marketer which takes other ideas and audiences and plugs them together. But I, like so many other film and media makers, are realizing the creativity available directly on the web.

But its like learning to be a filmmaker – at least how I learned – which is by putting images and sounds together and learning from others. Takes time, process of creation, results, relearning, creation.

This very blog is a way to train and learn by experience. And for me the adventure is getting feedback, learning how to promote sites, learning how to make sites more compelling.

For our new Flying Downhill site we'll be using more short clips on YouTube. We invite you to comment on the clips, send them to friends, post them wherever appropriate.

The good news is this can be done on the couch, or in the office, or like today, at my office at home. And at the heart of this work is the heart of our work: being alive today and responding to what we see and hear, reflecting it back to one another in a fresh and honest way. It's about us – all of us – and how we go through our world together.

December 26, 2008

Bald Guy 025 The 236 Diner

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Bald Guy is hungry again. How about a local diner. He's heard of the 236 Diner. But where in the world is it? And do they have meatloaf?

Bald Guy 024: Simply Green!

Bald Guy continues to drive, but at least he can handle a little of the guilt by looking for a conGREENience store. What's congreenience? Watch and learn.

Woven Voices Gift

Artist and friend Sarah Haskell just came over with a gift of a beautiful prayer flag woven from messages she has received from around the world. Here's the handover.

Spinning Fast

This is for my son. He had one of those great lines this morning and I told him I'd spin it into a blog entry.

"You get very dizzy because the world is spinning very fast." -Miles Lee-Rogers

I have been dizzy, lately. Absorbing how to do this new stuff, tools to communicate faster, maybe simpler, but new, more, connected. Each day I'm learning basic stuff about how to connect with others through Facebook, Blip, Google tube...

I had a meeting with my web guy on the Bode project and he said how kids should be your testers. How easy is it to get stuff from your site. But adults should be asking the same question. How do we allow others to connect with us?

We had half a million hits on our Bode Miller Flying Downhill (www.flyingdownhill.com) site. But how many come back? How many return to do more than satisfy a random curiosity? In re-doing the site, in re-releasing the film in Europe, that's what we want to be ready for. One of our clips was put onto YouTube by someone else. We let it fly, let it stay there and before it came down 50,000 people had seen it. We need to find a way to talk to those people. As the world spins we've got to find a way to deepen our connection. Understanding is the way I get less dizzy.

But the world keeps on spinning and we've got to keep learning. Thanks, Miles, for letting me know why I get dizzy.

BG 022 Insulation

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Sometimes the climate change solutions are not in your proverbial backyard, but in the literal front yard. So found Bald Guy when his neighbor started blowing shreds into the attic.