A. Cadieux Blog #3

1. Identify a personal weakness in your usage of social media. It can be specific to your film project or a more general issue. How will you address and correct this issue? List some short term and long-term goals for this mission.

The biggest weakness in my marketing plan is that I wont be building an audience early enough. Of course “early enough” is contingent upon my goals especially since goals set the method of measurement for conversion rates. For example if I want to have 300 subscriptions by the end of launch week it is fair to say that I am not starting early enough. For my purposes, my project is not seeking funding and is not asking for anything except perhaps ad engagement. Originally this was my reason for being fine with the idea of doing an all in one release. The reason for this is an attempt to be artistically free from monetary limitations and also to relieve the burden of ideas like what is right and what is wrong to do. I’m also banking on the idea of a gift economy, which the free and open Internet is. And if Google continues to develop in the direction they are going it will only become freer and more easily accessible.

To address this weakness I will make 10 tutorials earlier than planned. In my marketing plan I intended to release tutorials alongside my animation. Now I would like to have Flash tutorials prepared as early as November. This will be my gift to my potential audience and create opportunity to have community dialogue.

Short Term Goals

-Research high viewership Flash tutorials

-Write Flash tutorials based on research. Provide more clarity and higher video quality.

-Develop a document for an intensive character animation tutorial

-Be reflexive about tutorial criticisms

Long Term

-Develop and shoot character animation Tutorial

-Gain insight into YouTube channel trends

-Move to AS3 animation

I have mixed feelings about this issue. On one hand some researchers insist that early engagement is crucial to building a sustainable audience that will result in positive conversion rates. On the other hand there is no reason to use social media tools when you have no original content. Without original content I think you are posting web hash. For example I can share non-original content but I would simply be farming by redirecting from the original post or linking to the original post thereby directing the viewer away from my site. Many people make money this way. For example some well-known visible ones are the spam channels on Facebook. They may contain a universal message or simply a repost of something viral from Digg or YouTube. In a way it is often just plagiarism designed to get subs, likes, views and such. In the end they appeal to human emotions to get a share or view but they are cheap tricks that can take something real like a Buddhist tenant or good life advice and turn them into fortune cookie messages. If however I shared a scholarly article about Michael Mann(The Hockey Stick scientist) and then provided scholarly commentary about my understanding of climate science, complete with sources and I link in such a way to cite the original article(a true share) then I have created new content and promoted a knowledgeable scientist. But then we are back at this idea of original content as my commentary and insight is original whether it confirms or challenges Mann’s work.

I think that early engagement can be done properly but we must acknowledge that you would simply be farming and if you are doing it fairly then you run a risk of them clicking on your page and then proceeding immediately to the original. So what’s the point and what do they mean start early? If I make original content now then I’ve started and if I haven’t then I’m most likely exercising bad Internet conduct. So by the definition laid out in the blog series at The Collaborative, Social Media Basics, early engagement is the idea that you should create content before you ask for things.

This blog series is a good example of how some ideas about social media are paradoxical in concept. For example everyone knows you are selling a product or looking for subscriptions or simply viewership, so it is important not to try and disguise a push or share as engaging content that simply promotes your product. The author makes this point and reminds us that viewers can see through it. The author calls this “advertising” in Myth #5 of The Myths article. What they are actually describing in Myth #5 is disruptive ad placement. In reality disruptive ad placement is simply a type of practice included under the whole umbrella of advertising and not actually advertising itself. In Myth #1 the author reminds us that social media engagement is a form of advertising, which is a direct contradiction to what he says in Myth #5 unless of course you address the difference between ads and disruptive ads.

The article makes some really good points but also expresses some dogmatic ideas about social media. When we talk about social media we are talking about organic trends in human behavior. Not one human but many, many humans. When you look at success online whether it is Freddie Wong, Felicia Day or a Nike viral video, they all arrived at a place of success by very different methods. Only Nike had a fully funded and seeded advertising campaign while Wong half rode video game endorsements and worked his ass off in After Effects and Day just made a YouTube show. 

2. After reading a third article of your choice from this series: either Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter - outline a plan for how you will utilize that media outlet in your own project, as a tool for distribution specifically. If you haven't blogged about it yet, include any marketing you have already done on the site and what you will do in the next 1 to 2 years, using that site. 

2) YouTube will be my primary tool for distribution. First we will start cold by setting up a channel possibly called Flash Action Hero. The channel will be oriented around one purpose, Flash Professional animation tutorials. When the channel is launched it will have ten videos ready for implementation about common misconceptions about Flash. We will invite users to request topics for future videos. Research indicates that the comments will likely be flooded with several types of posts. Most commonly they fall under video criticisms, content criticisms, “please help” appeals about specific software questions, topic suggestions, thank yous and trolls. This will be a good way to begin dialogue and show viewers we are ready to move forward with more free tutorials on topics they vote on. This research will help with the much more intense and difficult to organize character tutorials.

After viewership proves to be a thing we will begin announcing the actual animation and entice people with a preview and other art materials. Once the first few animation episodes are in place we will launch them simultaneous to a tutorial and animation advertising campaign described in previous posts.

Ultimately I believe the tutorials may always receive more viewership than the actual animation. If the animation receives positive feedback the two-year plan involves the development and completion of additional script pages.  

 We plan to utilize playlists to header topics with an original video and then point to numerous examples. For example a playlist may begin with, The Principles of Animation and then have a list of five videos of beautiful animations. The playlist will also be a way of endorsing affiliates and two endear other indie developers in animation to endorse our project as well.

Ultimately there will be one channel with as much semantic design built in as possible. The goal is to redirect users to the website, a playlist, video channel or affiliated channel as much as possible.

Regular protocol

-One time, 3 month add campaign

            YouTube Partners, Bling, Yahoo

-Daily comment response

            Each video will come with a promise that any relevant question posed within two weeks of a video publication will receive a response. This will encourage subs.