How can we get more views for an attack caught on video?
August 27, 2018 12:37 PM Subscribe
We posted the video up on youtube in the hopes that it would help catch the attacker, but after more than a month the video only has barely over 10 views.
Times have changed. 10 years ago I posted a video up about something random and within weeks there were over a thousand views and it wasn't even anything special. So when a friend of a friend was attacked on the subway and was told by police her light injuries weren't severe enough for the police to post the video to media (that same night there were WAY more severe attacks on the train and thank goodness she wasn't one of them), we told her we'd post the video online. We agreed it was important because this person will likely do worse to another stranger sometime in the future. I naively thought I'd get even better viewing results than I did 10 years ago which was some stupid video talking about different types of tile while this video shows an attacker picking a fight with a person for no reason. I forgot to account for the fact that youtube is much more congested today and has way more content than it did a decade ago. I it was pretty basic for any video to get hundreds or even thousands of views back then; Today it seems even outrageous videos have a hard time getting views unless people have some idea of what they are doing when posting content. I was pretty bad with computers even back then and I'm old enough that the internet still feels new to me.
Does anyone have pointers on how to dramatically increase views for this video? I think it would be a good cause to help make the world a little safer than it was yesterday, but I have no idea how to do it. Especially since I don't really have any social media presence and don't quite know anyone who does. I have a very small circle of friends and we all met at a shelter a long time back. None of us have facebook or much social media to speak of. The attacker's face and her friend sitting next to her can be clearly seen and identification would be easy if we could just get the video viewed somehow.
Times have changed. 10 years ago I posted a video up about something random and within weeks there were over a thousand views and it wasn't even anything special. So when a friend of a friend was attacked on the subway and was told by police her light injuries weren't severe enough for the police to post the video to media (that same night there were WAY more severe attacks on the train and thank goodness she wasn't one of them), we told her we'd post the video online. We agreed it was important because this person will likely do worse to another stranger sometime in the future. I naively thought I'd get even better viewing results than I did 10 years ago which was some stupid video talking about different types of tile while this video shows an attacker picking a fight with a person for no reason. I forgot to account for the fact that youtube is much more congested today and has way more content than it did a decade ago. I it was pretty basic for any video to get hundreds or even thousands of views back then; Today it seems even outrageous videos have a hard time getting views unless people have some idea of what they are doing when posting content. I was pretty bad with computers even back then and I'm old enough that the internet still feels new to me.
Does anyone have pointers on how to dramatically increase views for this video? I think it would be a good cause to help make the world a little safer than it was yesterday, but I have no idea how to do it. Especially since I don't really have any social media presence and don't quite know anyone who does. I have a very small circle of friends and we all met at a shelter a long time back. None of us have facebook or much social media to speak of. The attacker's face and her friend sitting next to her can be clearly seen and identification would be easy if we could just get the video viewed somehow.
Mod note: removed the direct link to the video - okay to ask for advice, not okay to use MeFi as a platform for this.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:49 PM on August 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:49 PM on August 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
Is there a subreddit for your community? Try posting it there.
Also post to Twitter using whatever hashtag your community typically uses. With Twitter, post several times a day for a few days, while making sure to make some other posts.
posted by JamesBay at 12:50 PM on August 27, 2018 [6 favorites]
Also post to Twitter using whatever hashtag your community typically uses. With Twitter, post several times a day for a few days, while making sure to make some other posts.
posted by JamesBay at 12:50 PM on August 27, 2018 [6 favorites]
Is there any legal reason you can't send it to media yourself? If not, send it with a press release.
posted by Mistress at 1:13 PM on August 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Mistress at 1:13 PM on August 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
It looks like you're in New York, so you might try sending the video to Gothamist. They often run videos like these. You should be able to do so anonymously (via throwaway email address) if that's a concern.
posted by halation at 1:21 PM on August 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by halation at 1:21 PM on August 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
Tweet a link to it and ask your followers to retweet (the idea being eventually someone with a lot more reach will retweet it.) If you're not on twitter, ask someone you know who is.
posted by kapers at 1:26 PM on August 27, 2018
posted by kapers at 1:26 PM on August 27, 2018
Post to local Facebook groups : "spotted in x".
It does need to be particularly compelling and clear to both go viral and be effective. In London, we had a jogger than pushed a woman in the path of a bus. Because it was shocking it was everywhere - print and online. Someone was wrongly arrested and luckily had an alibi but the real offender was never caught as the footage didn't show any detail. Good luck
posted by JonB at 1:37 PM on August 27, 2018
It does need to be particularly compelling and clear to both go viral and be effective. In London, we had a jogger than pushed a woman in the path of a bus. Because it was shocking it was everywhere - print and online. Someone was wrongly arrested and luckily had an alibi but the real offender was never caught as the footage didn't show any detail. Good luck
posted by JonB at 1:37 PM on August 27, 2018
This is definitely a Facebook thing, or at least it is in my area—lost dogs, crime stuff, etc., anything that's relevant locally. People love signal-boosting that kind of thing on Facebook, and Facebook loves people sharing content that's hosted on its servers.
Get your friend's nearest Facebook-using acquaintance to post it on Facebook—upload the video to Facebook, don't just link the YouTube video—while saying exactly what the issue is/why this is important. i.e., if you want to identify the attacker, say, "Do you know this man? He attacked my friend on Train X at [Date] and the police are saying it isn't important. Please share if you can!"
posted by Polycarp at 1:56 PM on August 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
Get your friend's nearest Facebook-using acquaintance to post it on Facebook—upload the video to Facebook, don't just link the YouTube video—while saying exactly what the issue is/why this is important. i.e., if you want to identify the attacker, say, "Do you know this man? He attacked my friend on Train X at [Date] and the police are saying it isn't important. Please share if you can!"
posted by Polycarp at 1:56 PM on August 27, 2018 [2 favorites]
Maybe try some reddit subs with an appropriately eye-catching or action-inciting title?
posted by GoblinHoney at 2:12 PM on August 27, 2018
posted by GoblinHoney at 2:12 PM on August 27, 2018
I agree with Facebook and Nextdoor but I would also send it to local news sites. They looove to post "clickbait" tweets like ATTACK CAUGHT ON VIDEO - WATCH IT HERE!!
posted by AFABulous at 7:16 PM on August 27, 2018
posted by AFABulous at 7:16 PM on August 27, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by rada at 12:41 PM on August 27, 2018 [4 favorites]