"World's Largest" Counts for Something

In model Airplanes, I mean to say.

In my previous post, I described the awesomeness of one my all-time fave YouTube videos - the infamous "We've Got That B-Roll!" clip. But I was dismayed when, in the same night, I discovered that while my dearly beloved favorite video production-themed clip had a mere 350,000 views - this other clip I practically stumbled upon had well over 5 million views...

I have to say, I think this plane is really cool. But come on! For most of the video, it's just sitting on the ground, taxiing around, etc.

Yet, just now, when I searched for this clip to capture the embed tag, the most recent viewer comment was from only an hour ago and there were several more within the past hours.

This video has had a steady stream of visitors around the clock for more than 2 years!

A few things are noteworthy, here. First of all, the B-Roll video is only a few months old, whereas this video was posted a little more than 2 years ago. So perhaps the B-Roll video will grow exponentially.

But the obvious question on my mind was who sits and watches something like this? I posted on my facebook for an RC enthusiast to get in touch with me and one did. Here is our pseudo-interview.

Here's what I learned:

JOE: How often do you go on YouTube?

EZRA: PRobably a couple times a week.

JOE: When you go on YouTube, how often would you say you search for content related to RC Airplanes?

EZRA: Just about every time I go onto YouTube, I find myself watching some videos of RC airplanes.

JOE: How often would you say you look up content unrelated to RC Airplanes?

EZRA: Only once in a great while I will find myself watching something other than an RC airplane-related topic.

JOE: If you were to guess, how many people would you say videotape their planes in action at events?

EZRA: 1 out of 10.

JOE: How often do you get sent a video of RC airplanes?

EZRA: It happens several times a month. Usually I get them from the leader of one of the clubs I belong to.

The B-Roll Teaches Us About Viral - Sounds gross!

I shall preface this by explaining that in video terminology (by today's standards) B-Roll refers to stock footage clips that you shoot or buy to fill space in a video that illustrates a concept, sets the mood or just generally breaks up the monotony of listening to someone gab on.

Well, one producer thought it was so funny how generic most stock footage is (and he's totally right) that he made THIS:

Okay, at current count, the number of views on this singular post are 390,193.

Underneath the video on this YouTube page you will find the Statistics that show exactly where the lion's share of these views are coming from.

On NOV 29th, the video was posted onto YouTube and since then, 67,650 people have either found it in search results, been forwarded the video in emails or like me, heard about it from a friend (in my case my business partner Paul Hudson - who saw it on DVXuser.com, a forum dedicated to video production), and one night I even saw it on the Comedy Central Tosh.0 Late Night cable program.

The next day was the first time someone referred to it to on Facebook. Since then, it has been viewed 15,266 times from Facebook. Not bad, but dwarfed by comparison to the first figure.

But three days later, someone actually copied the Embed Tag and embedded it into Facebook and since then it has drummed up 24,746 views. Apparently Facebookers are too lazy to click on links to content or they are drawn to clicking on something that they can see - hmmm. Lazy internet-browsers or visually-stimulated browsers? Maybe a hybrid of the two.

A few here and there websites like bestofyoutube.com, boingboing.com and even Twitter all yielded something, but the real impressive output was Reddit.com with a whopping 35,923 views.

What the heck is Reddit.com? It's a Social Network like Facebook or Myspace but instead of posting what you're doing while waiting at the clinic (or not doing, like thinking about some of your choices in life) you post a link to something on the internet and your fellow webnauts bump the links up or down in an Adam-Smith-inspired "invisible hand" of internet Democracy for what is the coolest content on the web.

What do we learn from this?

1) Know your audience

2) Catch their eye by embedding the video, not just linking to it

3) Encourage your viewers to embed it in Social Networks, particularly Reddit.com if it is funny or generally likely to withstand the harsh and critical sieve of Web-surfer democracy.

The Video Snowball Project

Here, I shall chronicle some of the details of my latest project: Video Search Optimization. I will dedicate some time to regularly post information about my research into the topic of using online video aggregators like YouTube in conjunction with Social Media sites like Facebook to enhance your business exposure online.

The company that I partner with, LizardLand Video in Phoenix, AZ, is the premier Phoenix video production house. I am proud to be working with LizardLand and Niche Media to pioneer this exciting new hybrid system in marketing and eCommerce.

Read our press release about Video Search Optimization:

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2010/01/04/4555199.htm