Re: [videoblogging] Re: viewer feedback
Hi, Just so you know, whenever someone watches a videoblog in the TVTonic interface, there will be a prominent link to your homepage (specifically the link URL specified for that item in your RSS). Sincerely, Andre Sala TVTonic Team On 2/9/07, J. Rhett Aultman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It makes me feel good to hear this. I often feel like, when I just ask people to email us or to friend us on MySpace, that I'm screaming into the void. I know I have an audience, because FeedBurner stats show the subscribers. I also, as far as I can tell, have never grown my audience through word of mouth from one viewer to the next. Early stats on Google Analytics show that most people who visit the website are new users who don't come from a search engine or directory. So, we're winning viewers largely by getting our URL directly in new hands. This all runs curiously contrary to how I thought things would go. Yes...Freetime is still just a toddler of a vlog, but I somehow expected the viral effect would be in stronger force. I think part of it's content, too, though. I've noticed on LiveJournal, friends of mine with the largest friends list are generally quite controversial. They give people something to argue about. I'm beginning to wonder if vlogs that don't give people a reason to regularly pound their keyboards in discussion just don't fan out. I see similar things happening in text blogs. Also, I wonder if the aggregator makes a difference. A lot of my audience comes from TV Tonic, and I didn't see ways for people to access comments, leave reviews, etc, using the TV Tonic software. -- Rhett. http://www.weatherlight.com/freetime Speaking only from my own experience, it's a very small minority of viewers who comment and interact. On one of my shows I developed an extremely active, interested and vocal audience who have created a project inspired by my efforts and tangential to it. They remain a minority of my audience, however. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[videoblogging] Re: viewer feedback
I have gotten a lot of viewer feedback when the content conveys edge content and/or espouses a clear point of view. Women's Rights: A Worldwide Horror Show, a talk by a female bioethicist about how women are used and abused from the Middle East to polygamist colonies in Utah Arizona, made some Muslim male viewers mad they left comments attacking Western attitudes toward women. That made women who had lived in their part of the world angry and they counter- commented. Once viewers become personally emotionally involved, they also tend to give your video a 5-Star rating (or 1-star if they dislike the message). Randolfe (Randy) Wicker [EMAIL PROTECTED] Hoboken, NJ
Re: [videoblogging] Re: viewer feedback
Study Ze Frank. J On 2/9/07, Bill Cammack [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, bestdamntechshow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: how do all of you feel about the user feedback that you get? is it enough (like there is such thing as enough), or are you concerned that people are just watching and not getting involved. how do we turn that trend around? what type of tools do we need to really break the wall down and gain one on one relationships with the people who watch our videos? _drew www.pluggd.com That's an interesting question. I think we have to start out with the understanding that anywhere you go on the net, there are WAY more lurkers than posters. I think I read somewhere that the circulation for this list is something like 2500, and there aren't even 30 people that post on a regular basis. Even if you try to make a claim that there are 100 people that post, it's still a horrible ratio. I would suspect that the relationship between hits on a site and comments won't be changing any time soon without some sort of restructuring of the blogs themselves. On top of that, I think a lot of blogs are closed-ended, by which I mean there really isn't anything in them that calls for discussion or debate. It just IS what it IS. I'll watch Scriggity to see Shauna's antics, and I'll watch it to see your editing. By the end of the show, I feel a statement was made, and I watched the expression of that statement, and I don't have anything to say about it. There are other shows, like this one about a chick that lies to every guy she ever meets and then wonders why she can't get a decent guy, where I don't have anything POSITIVE to say, so I just skip it. :D Increasing viewer feedback is a tall order for both of those reasons. The video itself would have to prompt discussion, and then the viewers would have to actually participate... most of whom are lurkers, who don't participate practically by decree. This is why our friends inside YouTube have so many hits. The culture over there is to watch something and then comment on it and then tell your friends or your groups about it and have them comment on it as well. Now, they have video comments, so by commenting, you're creating another branch that's going to spawn the same type of responses. Also, the whole I'm sitting in my room in front of my webcam with nothing better to do than make videos for YouTube mentality is a sort of cry for help. It begs for someone to respond to it, and other people sitting in their rooms in Arkansas with a webcam can empathize with them and feel the desire to respond. That won't happen outside of social sites, because there's no community like that. It's like David said, it's random viewers pressing random buttons and very seldom latching on to anything. I think Zadi Steve have some good ideas @ JetSetShow, like having their viewers send in items that they actually use on the web site. I'm sure it makes the viewers feel like they can be a part of the show instead of just watching it. Actually, the whole format of their show invites teens to get involved and make media, either for their own purposes or to submit to JetSetShow for possible 'airing'. -- Bill C. http://ReelSolid.TV Yahoo! Groups Links -- The Faux Press - better than real http://fauxpress.blogspot.com
Re: [videoblogging] Re: viewer feedback
When asked about this once, Ze Frank was quick to say that it's only a very small percentage of his audience -- a fringe, really -- who interact with the show. But it's enough to be a really vibrant part -- and it ebbs and flows who participates, and he really cultivates it. The thing that I really like about this medium is the opportunity to work the audience in more. That said, it's not unique to vlogging... the Colbert Report uses some of the best tricks, too. (more here if interested: http://blog.nextnewnetworks.com/index.php/2006/12/13/an-evening-with-the-colbert-report/ ) Sometimes it's just your friends, or the real nuts, who comment or send things in at first... but the people like Rocketboom and Jet Set and Ze who have worked them into a big part of what they're doing usually find it builds up. We don't get many comments on Frederator and VOD Cars -- people still usually use the 800-number and email to talk to us, and they're a definite minority every time -- but when we saw all those people come to our party last month, we realized they really were out there. A lot of people just like to watch. On 2/10/07, Jan McLaughlin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Study Ze Frank. J On 2/9/07, Bill Cammack [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, bestdamntechshow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: how do all of you feel about the user feedback that you get? is it enough (like there is such thing as enough), or are you concerned that people are just watching and not getting involved. how do we turn that trend around? what type of tools do we need to really break the wall down and gain one on one relationships with the people who watch our videos? _drew www.pluggd.com That's an interesting question. I think we have to start out with the understanding that anywhere you go on the net, there are WAY more lurkers than posters. I think I read somewhere that the circulation for this list is something like 2500, and there aren't even 30 people that post on a regular basis. Even if you try to make a claim that there are 100 people that post, it's still a horrible ratio. I would suspect that the relationship between hits on a site and comments won't be changing any time soon without some sort of restructuring of the blogs themselves. On top of that, I think a lot of blogs are closed-ended, by which I mean there really isn't anything in them that calls for discussion or debate. It just IS what it IS. I'll watch Scriggity to see Shauna's antics, and I'll watch it to see your editing. By the end of the show, I feel a statement was made, and I watched the expression of that statement, and I don't have anything to say about it. There are other shows, like this one about a chick that lies to every guy she ever meets and then wonders why she can't get a decent guy, where I don't have anything POSITIVE to say, so I just skip it. :D Increasing viewer feedback is a tall order for both of those reasons. The video itself would have to prompt discussion, and then the viewers would have to actually participate... most of whom are lurkers, who don't participate practically by decree. This is why our friends inside YouTube have so many hits. The culture over there is to watch something and then comment on it and then tell your friends or your groups about it and have them comment on it as well. Now, they have video comments, so by commenting, you're creating another branch that's going to spawn the same type of responses. Also, the whole I'm sitting in my room in front of my webcam with nothing better to do than make videos for YouTube mentality is a sort of cry for help. It begs for someone to respond to it, and other people sitting in their rooms in Arkansas with a webcam can empathize with them and feel the desire to respond. That won't happen outside of social sites, because there's no community like that. It's like David said, it's random viewers pressing random buttons and very seldom latching on to anything. I think Zadi Steve have some good ideas @ JetSetShow, like having their viewers send in items that they actually use on the web site. I'm sure it makes the viewers feel like they can be a part of the show instead of just watching it. Actually, the whole format of their show invites teens to get involved and make media, either for their own purposes or to submit to JetSetShow for possible 'airing'. -- Bill C. http://ReelSolid.TV Yahoo! Groups Links -- The Faux Press - better than real http://fauxpress.blogspot.com Yahoo! Groups Links -- --- Tim Shey http://nextnewnetworks.com/ http://shey.net/
[videoblogging] Re: viewer feedback
--- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, T Shey [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: When asked about this once, Ze Frank was quick to say that it's only a very small percentage of his audience -- a fringe, really -- who interact with the show. But it's enough to be a really vibrant part -- and it ebbs and flows who participates, and he really cultivates it. That makes sense. Ze Frank gets enough traffic that the small percentage of viewers who interact end up making a large enough group to create activities and contests with... like this, from the wiki: = http://www.zefrank.com/thewiki/the_show_with_zefrank Power Moves Main article: Power Move Sports Racers are encouraged to develop and submit Power Moves (often, but not necessarily, a short martial arts-like movement), some of which Ze will occasionally showcase during the show. A sports racer with an awesome power move is sometimes given a sports racer name which - presumably - means induction into The League of Awesomeness. Ze's own Power Move, Thunderclaw, is a simple but graceful maneuver that he demonstrated in his April 6, 2006 episode. Ze continues to showcase power moves submitted by viewers, betraying an underlying feeling of compassion for those brave enough to subject themselves to international ridicule. See also: * List of Power Moves * Sports Racer Power Move Gallery = -- Bill C. http://ReelSolid.TV The thing that I really like about this medium is the opportunity to work the audience in more. That said, it's not unique to vlogging... the Colbert Report uses some of the best tricks, too. (more here if interested: http://blog.nextnewnetworks.com/index.php/2006/12/13/an-evening-with-the-colbert-report/ ) Sometimes it's just your friends, or the real nuts, who comment or send things in at first... but the people like Rocketboom and Jet Set and Ze who have worked them into a big part of what they're doing usually find it builds up. We don't get many comments on Frederator and VOD Cars -- people still usually use the 800-number and email to talk to us, and they're a definite minority every time -- but when we saw all those people come to our party last month, we realized they really were out there. A lot of people just like to watch. On 2/10/07, Jan McLaughlin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Study Ze Frank. J On 2/9/07, Bill Cammack [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, bestdamntechshow bestdamntechshow@ wrote: how do all of you feel about the user feedback that you get? is it enough (like there is such thing as enough), or are you concerned that people are just watching and not getting involved. how do we turn that trend around? what type of tools do we need to really break the wall down and gain one on one relationships with the people who watch our videos? _drew www.pluggd.com That's an interesting question. I think we have to start out with the understanding that anywhere you go on the net, there are WAY more lurkers than posters. I think I read somewhere that the circulation for this list is something like 2500, and there aren't even 30 people that post on a regular basis. Even if you try to make a claim that there are 100 people that post, it's still a horrible ratio. I would suspect that the relationship between hits on a site and comments won't be changing any time soon without some sort of restructuring of the blogs themselves. On top of that, I think a lot of blogs are closed-ended, by which I mean there really isn't anything in them that calls for discussion or debate. It just IS what it IS. I'll watch Scriggity to see Shauna's antics, and I'll watch it to see your editing. By the end of the show, I feel a statement was made, and I watched the expression of that statement, and I don't have anything to say about it. There are other shows, like this one about a chick that lies to every guy she ever meets and then wonders why she can't get a decent guy, where I don't have anything POSITIVE to say, so I just skip it. :D Increasing viewer feedback is a tall order for both of those reasons. The video itself would have to prompt discussion, and then the viewers would have to actually participate... most of whom are lurkers, who don't participate practically by decree. This is why our friends inside YouTube have so many hits. The culture over there is to watch something and then comment on it and then tell your friends or your groups about it and have them comment on it as well. Now, they have video comments, so by commenting, you're creating another branch that's going to spawn the same type of responses. Also, the whole I'm sitting in my room in front of my webcam with nothing better to do than make videos for YouTube mentality is a sort of cry for help. It begs for someone to respond to
Re: [videoblogging] Re: viewer feedback
Good question; I think I'll vlog it today! Meanwhile. I love knowing the data about the huge percentage of watchers as compared to inter-actors. And it makes sense when I observe my own behavior - I LOVE to interact, and yet I don't comment on most of what I read or watch. I would stop if I felt pressure to respond. So as one who delivers content, my intent is to release my audience from having to comment. No pressure - as Beach Walks is in large part about de-stressing. When people do comment, I am thrilled. When they email me, I am more thrilled. When they take time to fill out a survey, I am ecstatic! It took me a while to get confident in this early on - as so many have stated here what we are doing takes time and effort and cash of varying amounts. I try to focus on what I am getting out of it, and letting that feed me. I learned some bad habits around give to get and really want to stay away from that. Instead, I focus on making it easy for them to interact (and want to do a lot more) but once I've posted the show - It's out of my hands. So far, so good! aloha, rox On 2/10/07, Bill Cammack [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, T Shey [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: When asked about this once, Ze Frank was quick to say that it's only a very small percentage of his audience -- a fringe, really -- who interact with the show. But it's enough to be a really vibrant part -- and it ebbs and flows who participates, and he really cultivates it. That makes sense. Ze Frank gets enough traffic that the small percentage of viewers who interact end up making a large enough group to create activities and contests with... like this, from the wiki: = http://www.zefrank.com/thewiki/the_show_with_zefrank Power Moves Main article: Power Move Sports Racers are encouraged to develop and submit Power Moves (often, but not necessarily, a short martial arts-like movement), some of which Ze will occasionally showcase during the show. A sports racer with an awesome power move is sometimes given a sports racer name which - presumably - means induction into The League of Awesomeness. Ze's own Power Move, Thunderclaw, is a simple but graceful maneuver that he demonstrated in his April 6, 2006 episode. Ze continues to showcase power moves submitted by viewers, betraying an underlying feeling of compassion for those brave enough to subject themselves to international ridicule. See also: * List of Power Moves * Sports Racer Power Move Gallery = -- Bill C. http://ReelSolid.TV The thing that I really like about this medium is the opportunity to work the audience in more. That said, it's not unique to vlogging... the Colbert Report uses some of the best tricks, too. (more here if interested: http://blog.nextnewnetworks.com/index.php/2006/12/13/an-evening-with-the-colbert-report/ ) Sometimes it's just your friends, or the real nuts, who comment or send things in at first... but the people like Rocketboom and Jet Set and Ze who have worked them into a big part of what they're doing usually find it builds up. We don't get many comments on Frederator and VOD Cars -- people still usually use the 800-number and email to talk to us, and they're a definite minority every time -- but when we saw all those people come to our party last month, we realized they really were out there. A lot of people just like to watch. On 2/10/07, Jan McLaughlin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Study Ze Frank. J On 2/9/07, Bill Cammack [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, bestdamntechshow bestdamntechshow@ wrote: how do all of you feel about the user feedback that you get? is it enough (like there is such thing as enough), or are you concerned that people are just watching and not getting involved. how do we turn that trend around? what type of tools do we need to really break the wall down and gain one on one relationships with the people who watch our videos? _drew www.pluggd.com That's an interesting question. I think we have to start out with the understanding that anywhere you go on the net, there are WAY more lurkers than posters. I think I read somewhere that the circulation for this list is something like 2500, and there aren't even 30 people that post on a regular basis. Even if you try to make a claim that there are 100 people that post, it's still a horrible ratio. I would suspect that the relationship between hits on a site and comments won't be changing any time soon without some sort of restructuring of the blogs themselves. On top of that, I think a lot of blogs are closed-ended, by which I mean there really isn't anything in them that calls for discussion or
[videoblogging] Re: viewer feedback
Speaking only from my own experience, it's a very small minority of viewers who comment and interact. On one of my shows I developed an extremely active, interested and vocal audience who have created a project inspired by my efforts and tangential to it. They remain a minority of my audience, however. Several of those viewers (I don't like calling them fans for some reason) have written into my website several hundred times each. They have formed friendships with each other around the world and work together on various endeavors. What has surprised me is the lack of word of mouth, organic audience growth that I would expect to occur as a result of such a dedicated community. My audience, despite great loyalty and enormous enthusiasm for my work, never brings me another viewer. Okay, that's not their job and I value them for the appreciation that they do give me. The reason I'm sharing these observations, however, is that I see a corollary problem to the one you raise. Or maybe it's not a corollary, maybe it's a precedent problem, which is this: people are not, in the main, following independent shows whether journalism, diary or entertainment vlogs online, save a couple of the lucky standouts we all know and love. Consumption of internet video is a desultory affair for most people. I'm deducing this from my own experience and from viewing statistics on YouTube. I'm not saying it's entirely this way, but in the main it is. Why, I wonder? Well it seems there's something about chilling out in front of the boobtube that remains appealing, despite the myriad undiscovered gems that exist online. Passive consumption of long-format stories has its appeal, even for me, an active participant in this community. There's never anything on the vast wasteland. And so we re-watch things. Instead of seeking out something fresh online, many of us re-watch old favorites. I just re- watched the movie Network recently (which I highly recommend to anyone since it's a work of genius). I'm not proposing we ignore the issue you've raised. Maybe getting people to interact will go a long way to enticing people to watch vlogs in a dedicated, serialized way. But I think even that may not be the silver bullet. I think there will always be lurkers, people who want to consume but not to participate. I'm broaching what I think is a topic we need to discuss. For example, it may be that people are only watching in a scattershot way because they are unaware that there are continuously updated, serialized vlogs out there, whether artistic, journalistic, DIY, educational or fictional. Maybe the word isn't really out yet. Or maybe the experience of searching and finding this independent media is still a little bit too much, a little too annoying or enervating and so people continue to prefer to just pop a brewsky and zone in front of the boobtube. -David --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, bestdamntechshow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: how do all of you feel about the user feedback that you get? is it enough (like there is such thing as enough), or are you concerned that people are just watching and not getting involved. how do we turn that trend around? what type of tools do we need to really break the wall down and gain one on one relationships with the people who watch our videos? _drew www.pluggd.com
Re: [videoblogging] Re: viewer feedback
It makes me feel good to hear this. I often feel like, when I just ask people to email us or to friend us on MySpace, that I'm screaming into the void. I know I have an audience, because FeedBurner stats show the subscribers. I also, as far as I can tell, have never grown my audience through word of mouth from one viewer to the next. Early stats on Google Analytics show that most people who visit the website are new users who don't come from a search engine or directory. So, we're winning viewers largely by getting our URL directly in new hands. This all runs curiously contrary to how I thought things would go. Yes...Freetime is still just a toddler of a vlog, but I somehow expected the viral effect would be in stronger force. I think part of it's content, too, though. I've noticed on LiveJournal, friends of mine with the largest friends list are generally quite controversial. They give people something to argue about. I'm beginning to wonder if vlogs that don't give people a reason to regularly pound their keyboards in discussion just don't fan out. I see similar things happening in text blogs. Also, I wonder if the aggregator makes a difference. A lot of my audience comes from TV Tonic, and I didn't see ways for people to access comments, leave reviews, etc, using the TV Tonic software. -- Rhett. http://www.weatherlight.com/freetime Speaking only from my own experience, it's a very small minority of viewers who comment and interact. On one of my shows I developed an extremely active, interested and vocal audience who have created a project inspired by my efforts and tangential to it. They remain a minority of my audience, however.
[videoblogging] Re: viewer feedback
--- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, bestdamntechshow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: how do all of you feel about the user feedback that you get? is it enough (like there is such thing as enough), or are you concerned that people are just watching and not getting involved. how do we turn that trend around? what type of tools do we need to really break the wall down and gain one on one relationships with the people who watch our videos? _drew www.pluggd.com That's an interesting question. I think we have to start out with the understanding that anywhere you go on the net, there are WAY more lurkers than posters. I think I read somewhere that the circulation for this list is something like 2500, and there aren't even 30 people that post on a regular basis. Even if you try to make a claim that there are 100 people that post, it's still a horrible ratio. I would suspect that the relationship between hits on a site and comments won't be changing any time soon without some sort of restructuring of the blogs themselves. On top of that, I think a lot of blogs are closed-ended, by which I mean there really isn't anything in them that calls for discussion or debate. It just IS what it IS. I'll watch Scriggity to see Shauna's antics, and I'll watch it to see your editing. By the end of the show, I feel a statement was made, and I watched the expression of that statement, and I don't have anything to say about it. There are other shows, like this one about a chick that lies to every guy she ever meets and then wonders why she can't get a decent guy, where I don't have anything POSITIVE to say, so I just skip it. :D Increasing viewer feedback is a tall order for both of those reasons. The video itself would have to prompt discussion, and then the viewers would have to actually participate... most of whom are lurkers, who don't participate practically by decree. This is why our friends inside YouTube have so many hits. The culture over there is to watch something and then comment on it and then tell your friends or your groups about it and have them comment on it as well. Now, they have video comments, so by commenting, you're creating another branch that's going to spawn the same type of responses. Also, the whole I'm sitting in my room in front of my webcam with nothing better to do than make videos for YouTube mentality is a sort of cry for help. It begs for someone to respond to it, and other people sitting in their rooms in Arkansas with a webcam can empathize with them and feel the desire to respond. That won't happen outside of social sites, because there's no community like that. It's like David said, it's random viewers pressing random buttons and very seldom latching on to anything. I think Zadi Steve have some good ideas @ JetSetShow, like having their viewers send in items that they actually use on the web site. I'm sure it makes the viewers feel like they can be a part of the show instead of just watching it. Actually, the whole format of their show invites teens to get involved and make media, either for their own purposes or to submit to JetSetShow for possible 'airing'. -- Bill C. http://ReelSolid.TV
