Contacting intenet honchos?
January 10, 2010 8:10 PM Subscribe
How can I get in touch with someone who works at Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Google?
I have a marketing / cross-promotional idea I want to pitch to the people in power at the above-mentioned companies. I do not want to go into detail about the idea here in a public forum, but I believe it is a reasonable idea and would like to be able to present it to people at these companies who can give me either a yes-or-no answer, or pass it along to someone higher up the chain who can give me a yes-or-no answer.
I do not know anyone at these companies, and I cannot find a normal submission channel on any website to submit such an idea. (It is not about a normal query, such as buying advertising on their websites.)
My question is, can anyone tell me a reasonable way to contact someone in power at the marketing departments of Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Google? It would not help to talk to an intern or someone "low on the ladder" in the company. It needs to be someone at least reasonably high-up who has some say over content on the websites themselves.
Perhaps a MeFite is in such a position, and can contact me by MeMail to hear me out?
By the way, I am aware that hierarchy in such companies is set up to prevent them being harassed by crazy people who babble on public buses about their "plans to re-invent the internet". But surely there must be a way for a sane outsider to make a reasonable proposal? Rest assured that I am not a crazy person, and my proposal is not a unreasonable sweeping design-change suggestion but rather a simple and straightforward proposal for these companies to host some content that I believe could help their sites.
I have a marketing / cross-promotional idea I want to pitch to the people in power at the above-mentioned companies. I do not want to go into detail about the idea here in a public forum, but I believe it is a reasonable idea and would like to be able to present it to people at these companies who can give me either a yes-or-no answer, or pass it along to someone higher up the chain who can give me a yes-or-no answer.
I do not know anyone at these companies, and I cannot find a normal submission channel on any website to submit such an idea. (It is not about a normal query, such as buying advertising on their websites.)
My question is, can anyone tell me a reasonable way to contact someone in power at the marketing departments of Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Google? It would not help to talk to an intern or someone "low on the ladder" in the company. It needs to be someone at least reasonably high-up who has some say over content on the websites themselves.
Perhaps a MeFite is in such a position, and can contact me by MeMail to hear me out?
By the way, I am aware that hierarchy in such companies is set up to prevent them being harassed by crazy people who babble on public buses about their "plans to re-invent the internet". But surely there must be a way for a sane outsider to make a reasonable proposal? Rest assured that I am not a crazy person, and my proposal is not a unreasonable sweeping design-change suggestion but rather a simple and straightforward proposal for these companies to host some content that I believe could help their sites.
Not to sound snarky but, have you actually tried googling for "google corporate contact info"? It provides some surprisingly useful info. Same for Facebook.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:36 PM on January 10, 2010
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:36 PM on January 10, 2010
While these companies are generally not responsive to their user base, they have tons and tons of sales people all ready to jump on people like you :-). Google has hundreds of offices around the world of which most are filled 90% by sales people. If you find the most rudimentary 'contact us to advertise on this site' form, I guarantee you'll be contacted by someone in the their sales dept who can get you in the info you want within a day.
I work for a media agency, and I literally work with 10-20 different people on the Google side assigned to my agency alone. Just reach out, they'll get back to you.
Here's YouTube's contact info for starters. Here's Google's. Here are some email addresses for Vimeo, and here's a form for Facebook.
Happy hunting and memail me if you're not getting the response you need - I'll get you some of my sales peoples contact info for all of those sites.
posted by jourman2 at 8:50 PM on January 10, 2010
I work for a media agency, and I literally work with 10-20 different people on the Google side assigned to my agency alone. Just reach out, they'll get back to you.
Here's YouTube's contact info for starters. Here's Google's. Here are some email addresses for Vimeo, and here's a form for Facebook.
Happy hunting and memail me if you're not getting the response you need - I'll get you some of my sales peoples contact info for all of those sites.
posted by jourman2 at 8:50 PM on January 10, 2010
Response by poster: jourman, thank you very much for your helpful and enthusiastic response. I left my question open to misunderstanding because I didn't emphasize my words carefully enough. What I said was "It is not about a normal query, such as buying advertising on their websites", emphasis should have been that it is NOT about buying advertising on their websites.
In brief, the query is not one that is likely to be fielded by a salesperson since it wouldn't ideally, involve an exchange of money between myself and the company.
I might as well be more specific about what I intend to ask them, which is: how can I put some content on such sites (YouTube, Google Video, Vimeo, etc.) that is LONGER than the 10 minute limit that is imposed on most videos? I have seen, for example on YouTube, some channels host hour-long-plus content. I am presuming that YouTube et al. filter this and decide what content is worthy of such promotion, and I would like to be able to present MY content to a person at these places who can make such a determination.
I want to convince them on the quality of my content, and have them host it because they believe it would help drive traffic toward their site. (For example, I could agree to host it exclusively on one of the major sites.) I do not want to have to pay a special fee to host a longer video although if that is the normal way such things are done I would also look into that. No amount of googling I have so far done has shed light on this.
I am also looking to have the promotional weight of such a company behind my content, ie that they will agree to host it and to "feature" it on a front page because they believe it worthwhile and likely to garner a lot of views.
posted by meadowlark lime at 9:01 PM on January 10, 2010
In brief, the query is not one that is likely to be fielded by a salesperson since it wouldn't ideally, involve an exchange of money between myself and the company.
I might as well be more specific about what I intend to ask them, which is: how can I put some content on such sites (YouTube, Google Video, Vimeo, etc.) that is LONGER than the 10 minute limit that is imposed on most videos? I have seen, for example on YouTube, some channels host hour-long-plus content. I am presuming that YouTube et al. filter this and decide what content is worthy of such promotion, and I would like to be able to present MY content to a person at these places who can make such a determination.
I want to convince them on the quality of my content, and have them host it because they believe it would help drive traffic toward their site. (For example, I could agree to host it exclusively on one of the major sites.) I do not want to have to pay a special fee to host a longer video although if that is the normal way such things are done I would also look into that. No amount of googling I have so far done has shed light on this.
I am also looking to have the promotional weight of such a company behind my content, ie that they will agree to host it and to "feature" it on a front page because they believe it worthwhile and likely to garner a lot of views.
posted by meadowlark lime at 9:01 PM on January 10, 2010
I gotcha, I think what you're looking to do is either buy a brand channel or becoming a partner on youtube, vimeo, etc... I work with a lot of brands who have bought a brand channel, which allows them to install google analytics, put HD content up, put hour long clips on, etc...
A partnership is when you're a content owner and you'd like to host on the sites in which you share ad revenue, etc... I believe then you'd be able to upload longer and higher quality clips, but you'd agree to let youtube sell ads around your content.
Vimeo, on the same page has links for adversing and 'partnerships'. I believe that the partnership concept may be what you're looking for. Reach out, I think you may find this process easier and more well traveled than you think.
posted by jourman2 at 9:11 PM on January 10, 2010 [1 favorite]
A partnership is when you're a content owner and you'd like to host on the sites in which you share ad revenue, etc... I believe then you'd be able to upload longer and higher quality clips, but you'd agree to let youtube sell ads around your content.
Vimeo, on the same page has links for adversing and 'partnerships'. I believe that the partnership concept may be what you're looking for. Reach out, I think you may find this process easier and more well traveled than you think.
posted by jourman2 at 9:11 PM on January 10, 2010 [1 favorite]
My question is, can anyone tell me a reasonable way to contact someone in power at the marketing departments of Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Google?
Use Google to find the name of the head of marketing (or someone influential in that area) at each.
Find friends of friends in common on LinkedIn and ask for an introduction.
posted by zippy at 9:26 PM on January 10, 2010
Use Google to find the name of the head of marketing (or someone influential in that area) at each.
Find friends of friends in common on LinkedIn and ask for an introduction.
posted by zippy at 9:26 PM on January 10, 2010
I think a sales person is the right person to talk to here. Unless your content is something pretty astonishing, you will probably need to pay for this. But even if it is astonishing, sales people will know the right person to talk to, and if you craft the possible-illusion of spending money in the future, they will try to help you out extra.
posted by smoke at 9:33 PM on January 10, 2010
posted by smoke at 9:33 PM on January 10, 2010
If you get a director's account on YouTube you can host things that are longer than 10 mins. My friend has such an account for a short film he made and I don't think it cost him anything.
Also I think things get featured on the front page of such websites largely through community power, rather than efforts by people within the company, unless it is a specific partnership project.
posted by divabat at 2:59 AM on January 11, 2010
Also I think things get featured on the front page of such websites largely through community power, rather than efforts by people within the company, unless it is a specific partnership project.
posted by divabat at 2:59 AM on January 11, 2010
Just so you know, you can already upload videos longer than 10 minutes to Vimeo. You get 500MB/week of free upload bandwidth, or 5GB/week if you pay 5 dollars a month for a "plus" membership.
Google Video has completely shut down except as an aggregator of other sites' videos.
posted by teraflop at 6:08 AM on January 11, 2010
Google Video has completely shut down except as an aggregator of other sites' videos.
posted by teraflop at 6:08 AM on January 11, 2010
and have them host it because they believe it would help drive traffic toward their site.
Sorry meadowlark lime, but this is a crazy-person-on-a-public-bus flag here. Google and Facebook don't need to have traffic driven towards their sites, they already have the world hammering at their doors. (The sorts of things that deliver traffic volumes they'd be interested in are out of your league -- think "the BBC" -, because if they were in your league your organisation would already know how to reach them.)
I think you need to aim much, much lower. Like jourman2 and smoke are suggesting, get in touch with sales people or start nosing around parternship opportunities. You do need someone low on the ladder, sharing like this is a low-level deal.
posted by bonaldi at 7:26 AM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]
Sorry meadowlark lime, but this is a crazy-person-on-a-public-bus flag here. Google and Facebook don't need to have traffic driven towards their sites, they already have the world hammering at their doors. (The sorts of things that deliver traffic volumes they'd be interested in are out of your league -- think "the BBC" -, because if they were in your league your organisation would already know how to reach them.)
I think you need to aim much, much lower. Like jourman2 and smoke are suggesting, get in touch with sales people or start nosing around parternship opportunities. You do need someone low on the ladder, sharing like this is a low-level deal.
posted by bonaldi at 7:26 AM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Vimeo is by far the smallest and most accessible of your list. I have gotten prompt, personal responses from people there for support issues, just by replying to "@vimeo" on twitter.
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:23 PM on January 10, 2010