New SSA YouTube Channel

On Monday, February 18, 2013 5:18:35 PM UTC-5, Bill D wrote:

we must have our own server where we can control the viewer's experience.

That's not how the internet works. Don't even try to herd cats.

Seriously. If you put up a decent number of clips on the SSA site AND enough people watch them over time, Youtube will LEARN the association between the soaring videos. You don't have to watch the vids all at once. Just don't delete your cookies and every time you go to Youtube, watch more soaring vids.

The problem now is that there is not enough traffic on the SSA youtube site to teach the site about the proper associations.

The fact that Youtube already understands the connection between gliders and Hitler is actually pretty impressive.

On Monday, February 18, 2013 4:26:31 PM UTC-7, son_of_flubber wrote:
On Monday, February 18, 2013 5:18:35 PM UTC-5, Bill D wrote:



we must have our own server where we can control the viewer's experience.



That's not how the internet works. Don't even try to herd cats.



Seriously. If you put up a decent number of clips on the SSA site AND enough people watch them over time, Youtube will LEARN the association between the soaring videos. You don't have to watch the vids all at once. Just don't delete your cookies and every time you go to Youtube, watch more soaring vids.



The problem now is that there is not enough traffic on the SSA youtube site to teach the site about the proper associations.



The fact that Youtube already understands the connection between gliders and Hitler is actually pretty impressive.

That may or may not be 'how the Internet works' but it's damn well not how good marketing works. Marketing is about telling a coherent story to entice the reader into becoming involved with the subject of that story. YouTube is a lot of things, but it's definitely not that.

YouTube internal search barely works. If a program is offered in a series of segments, YouTube can't even keep those segments together. If you search for current videos you won't get them in your language. If it relies on "popularity" of a video, Soaring will always lose to cats.

To tell a coherent story of soaring in the video medium, those videos cannot be on YouTube. They must be on a server we control.

On 2/18/2013 6:51 PM, Bill D wrote:
They must be on a server we control.

Yes, but how will you attract the multitudes to that backwater site?
Because "backwater" is exactly what any SSA site will be, especially
compared to YouTube.

YouTube is all about discovery. I can't tell you how many wonderful
things I have discovered on YouTube. Almost without exception, I wasn't
looking for any of them at the time.

That's the idea right? We want people to discover soaring. To do that,
you need to go where the people are. At any given moment, there are
millions on YouTube. How many are on the SSA site at any given moment?

Just as YouTube offered a clip on Hitler's gliders to the person
watching the SSA video, it's just as likely to offer an SSA video to
someone watching that Hitler glider clip. That person just might
discover soaring.

That's what you want to accomplish...right?

Agree 100%. YouTube is all about the network. A network far, far greater than a static (our own server) could ever contain. Users are intelligent enough to understand what is SSA related and what is junk. This is part of the online "world." No need to waste cycle time trying to avoid it. In general I think YouTube does an excellent job. Our channel will be the sum total of US and international pilots as they increase the amount of video the are creating.

I would say that YouTube is perhaps the MOST IMPORTANT thing that the SSA could leverage in terms of promoting the sport to newcomers. I know that is a big statement, but I am right.......... We (SSA) have a very long way to go to even begin to leverage the power of these social media tools.........

Sean
F2