For the last few weeks, I've put on my Marketing hat and have been working on user acquisition with a combination of viral and WoM (word of mouth) shoe-string plan. I've been testing the waters with text (IRC), pic (Flickr) and video (YouTube) viral marketing (using existing social networks to spread the word about a service) along with Google Analytics (thank God for GA). For the last week, I've been going to sleep dreaming about traffic and conversion numbers so much so that Friday night my throat started to scratch. As of this post, I have some sort of a VIRAL respiratory throat infection.
Sunday and Monday nights were hell. Every time I swallowed it felt like i was swallowing broken glass (to give you an idea). Tylenol PM, Theraflu, even good 'ol trusted NyQuil (which would knock me out into a bliss) didn't do any good. toss and turn toss and turn. Plus fever, plus chills, etc. Tonight, its less fever, less soar throat but more classical runny nose and sporadic deep coughing. I took NyQuil and an hour into it, nada - i am not knocked out - i am writing this blog entry. Sigh!
I plan to update this post with my flickr, youtube and MySpace numbers... daily for the next month... a snapshot taken at 7PM everyday.
I've been on flickr since May 2006; youtube since July 2006; MySpace since June 2006.
Feb 20, 2007 F: 12,849 YT: xxxxxx, MS: 151
Feb 20, 2007 F: 12,690 YT: 25,935 MS: 144
Feb 19, 2007 F: 12,621 YT: 25,800 MS: 142
Feb 18, 2007 I wasn't able to log numbers.
Feb 17, 2007 F: 12,479 YT: 25,493 MS: 136
Feb 16, 2007 F: 12,375 YT: 25,359 MS: 134
Feb 15, 2007 F: 12,313 YT: 25,202 MS: 130
Feb 14, 2007 F: 12,224 YT: 25,081 MS: 121
Feb 13, 2007 F: 12,037 YT: 24,937 MS: 116
After being on the sidelines for a long time, I finally began uploading pictures and videos online - the feeling of sharing is great!
As of this post, I have 62 videos on YouTube with the first one uploaded July 2. The traffic at this place is simply phe-no-mi-nal!
A favorite 10 second break activity is to visit YouTube and check my stats! If I had a timer at the corner of my screen, I bet it would be turning in real time (like your home electric meter, all bet it slow but alive). Mind you that my videos are nothing special. They are vacation videos and a few marginally interesting things. I just cross the 5,000 view mark in about 8 weeks. That's an average of 90 views a day and more than 3 views an hour. The most views I have is 360 (the long tail of the long-tail).
Here are a couple of random data points that to me illustrate the power of the traffic going through YouTube.
When I posted this clip I got a comment within 24 hours from someone congratulating me for having posted a video from an event that he also attended. So you might be thinking "so what's the big deal?". The big deal is that the event in question was an Opera ballet that I attended in Yerevan, Armenia, at the end of June that this same person was at. Not only those astronomical odds, but that he/she found the video of said event on YouTube and commented on it. What are the odds? Coincidentally, this is my most viewed video following by this unscripted moments from my last trip to Yerevan, Armenia.
Yesterday, during our weekly weekend ritual at a local computer enrichment center that we take our sons to, the teenage coach there asked my oldest (Aram) whether we had videos on YouTube. Apparently, he and his friend was searching around for a few choice tags and they stumbled on this clip. Again, what are the odds?
By comparison, flickr is slower going. As of this blog, I have about 1,400 photos on there - again mostly vacation stuff. My flickr is pushing 3,000 views.
I also took a step with Revver. As of 5 weeks ago, I uploaded about a dozen of the videos on YouTube. As of this blog, I have $11.10 in shared revenue which tickles me pink! However, something happened and the revenue stream hasn't grown this last week. I don't know if things are getting berried by new arrivals or what...
Here is the video I'm currently rooting for to push 300.
The feeling of being connected and sharing is just amazing and inspiring! Its a quiet euphoria when someone comments on a video or ranks it. This must be what it feels like when you're in the middle of a revolution.
On a related subject. Check out this from Blog Mavrick "when is a view a hit?" (good question - I don't know the answer).
The Net-Net:
1. I'm working on a NetVibes-ish front end for the various photo and video sharing services out there. Something that would let me tag and comment once. Also, something that summarizes the usage stats in one place.
2. I'm also interested in geo-tagging video. Search for the tags nahabedian and driving on YouTube for a hint. If you know of anything similar, drop me a line.
