Becoming A Featured Video | CerealWednesday.com

Becoming Featured

Recently there was a post over at TechCrunch that caused quite a stir. It was called The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos and it was authored by Dan Ackerman Greenberg who is a co-founder of The Commotion Group, a viral video marketing company. The methods he proceeded to describe caused quite a… well… commotion, since most of them are viewed as spammer methods.

So I figured I would give you a brief look at the three Cereal Wednesday videos that have been featured at Yahoo! Video, and what being featured has done for the number of views.

Krusty-O’s

Krusty-O’s was done to purposely make use of The Simpsons Movie marketing buzz to garnish some extra views. It was also the first video that I used TubeMogul for to upload the video to numerous sites instead of just on YouTube. The fact it was featured on Yahoo! Video showed me that the combination of timely relevance and decent content can get you seen on the smaller video sites, whereas with YouTube you always seem to get “lost in the sauce”. In one day, Krusty-O’s was seen over 8,000 times on Yahoo!. That was, and still is, astounding to me.

BooBerry Cereal

The BooBerry feature completely caught me off guard. Having already been featured once on Yahoo!, I didn’t think it would happen again. Why was this featured? I would think it has to do with two reasons: A) Timeliness of the video as we approached Halloween with Halloweenesque content and B) My special guest Poppy definitely gave the video that extra “pop”. In fact, as evidenced by the chart, BooBerry remained quite popular for some time, so even though it only received half the featured views of Krusty O’s, it had more staying power in the minds of viewers.

Honey Nut Cheerios Milk’n'Cereal Bars

When it was decided that my friend would dress up in the bee costume for Honey Nut Cheerios, I wanted to maximize my use of the opportunity. So we also shot the Marbits segment for the cereal bars. I honestly thought that if any video had another shot at being featured, it would be Honey Nut Cheerios. The combination of a solid product, the Queen Bee’s sex appeal, and the very special ending should have equaled gold. Surprisingly, the shorter video is what landed on the front page of Yahoo! Video once again. The short attention span of viewers was also addressed by them featuring this one instead of the longer one… which is something I’ll admit I really hasn’t thought too much about.

Yahoo Video Vs. YouTube

While it is hard to compare Yahoo! Video to YouTube in my case, since when I went into season 2 I started a new YouTube account specifically for Cereal Wednesday, it is obvious that being featured has helped on Yahoo!… alot. By December my Yahoo! views will equal or surpass YouTube. Considering that my Yahoo! account is only on for six months, and my YouTube over a year… being featured probably more than doubled my view count in less than half the time.

NYCWD’s Not So Secret Ten Tips For Videos

So here are 10 quick things you can do to get more views on your videos without resorting to shady spammer like tactics:

1 ) Have a running theme.
2 ) Be consistent in the timing of posting your video, whether it be once a week or once a month
3 ) Back your video with either a website or a blog and be sure the URL is prominent on the video itself. Also make sure the URL is in the description.
4 ) Due to the short attention span of viewers, make sure some of your videos are short and to the point. Doing Viddler’s 120 Seconds is a great way to get people introduced to your videos… which hopefully will lead them to watching your longer ones.
5 ) Use TubeMogul or another mass uploader. This saves you time and gives you greater exposure.
6 ) Don’t be afraid to switch things up, like locations or having special guests. Variety is the spice of life.
7 ) Try to participate in the communities that revolve around the video sites, such as leaving comments and rating videos. No one is saying be full of roses, but honest constructive criticism will usually see a return. A little participation can go a long way.
8 ) Ignore the trolls. They will talk smack and yet have no videos of their own… because they are just that… trolls.
9 ) Make sure you give credit where credit is due if you use something someone either gave you the idea for or said. What’s right is right… and chances are they will then become a loyal viewer.
10) Have fun… and don’t worry about reaching the “100,000″ view mark. If you film it, they will watch. It may just take a little longer.

Bonus Tip!

Finally… the absolute no brainer tip is… if you know any really hot girls, talk them into dressing up in a sexy outfit for the video. The majority of video viewers are males, and sex does have appeal. This isn’t a black hat or spam tactic… its human nature.