Ham not Spam

May 5, 2010 11:09 PM

Best way to promote a video or short film online?

We made a 48hour film this year, we've done it before (quite a lot) - we like what we make, and so to quite a lot of other people usually. Normally I'm happy to post it online and just let it make it's own way, but this year they've added an incentive... The team with the most views for the short film by the end of May received up to 10 iPhones for the team's members.

So without resorting to underhanded tactics (like this tweet from one of the other teams) - what ways can I seek to promote our short film to people who might genuinely be interested in seeing it?

We've so far done the obvious things...
1) Tweeted it
2) Facebooked it
3) Linked to it where acceptable in forums we participate in
4) Told our family and friends to watch it

For what it's worth and because it may make it more widely relevant, the film was shot on a Canon 5D DSLR and edited in Avid Media Composer 4.5

I'm interested in any places we can link to it where to do so would be relevant and appropriate, and any other creative ideas for promotion that don't cross the moral boundry into spammy or dishonest promotion.

posted by sycophant to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

For the videos that I've had become popular: Blogs. Find the most popular blogs that would fit your subject and submit them. If you're lucky other blogs will pick them up from there. (And if you're really lucky, more traditional media will pick them up.) If one popular blog picks you up all of the views from what you've done so far will look like nothing.

Are you limited to Vimeo views? Posting to YouTube gives it a chance to show up on searches, and they're generally better about internally promoting videos. (And while your'e at it, Metacafe, Dailymotion, etc.)

Also shoot it into the usual linkdump sites like StumbleUpon and Digg.
posted by Ookseer at 11:48 PM on May 5, 2010

Response by poster: It's only Vimeo in this case because that is the online copy we've nominated as our official one basically - it is on YouTube also, but for the purposes of the competition there's no point sending people there.

However I've since decided that using the YouTube video would have been a better bet in some ways because effectively every visit to a YouTube video becomes a view as they auto-play, whereas with Vimeo someone needs to visit the page and actively play the video. I'm not concerned about that as I'm trying to get legitimate views anyway, but for those that are link-baiting people to YouTube pages, they are generating a view even if someone actually navigates away fairly soon.
posted by sycophant at 12:08 AM on May 6, 2010

Mod note: removed links - put them in your profile, not here, thanks.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:11 AM on May 6, 2010

There are tons of blogs that cover indie filmmakers' content, so submit to anything that looks good to you. Customize each email, don't just copy and paste.

Also, try begging some high-profile Twitter people to retweet your link. Look for people who typically engage their followers and retweet. Maybe Roger Ebert?
posted by lhall at 10:13 AM on May 6, 2010

If it's under 8 minutes, submit it to Reel 13?
posted by fings at 10:16 AM on May 6, 2010

Response by poster: Won't add links to profile, they are not really relevant to my overall profile - was part of NZ's V48HOURS competition, and our entry called 'Professional Dancer' - Google will assist if context on the film or competition helps.
posted by sycophant at 5:24 PM on May 6, 2010