Building the Brand (or Whatever)

[johngreen]

Hi, everyone,

First, thanks for starting this part of anchor-cove devoted to b2.0, and thanks for watching and supporting us. Even wixy likes us! We're honored. Covers are some of our best commenters, and have given us some of the best ideas in the show.

I'm hoping now you'll help us with more good ideas: Hank and I would really like to find ways to get Brotherhood 2.0 to a wider audience. This has been discussed a little in the "Sam Has 7 Friends" thread, but it's very hard for web shows to be noticed, because there are so many of them.

We don't really know how to use youtube to our advantage, but we'd like to have a bigger presence there and generally see if the show could sustain a broader viewership, or if we're just destined to stay where we're at.

We don't have commercial aspirations for this or anything. We'd just like to see the community grow, because we both find that part of things really enjoyable.

Do you, seasoned veterans of the first great web show phenomenon, have any suggestions?

Thanks very much,
John

[flwright]

Sorry, I can't communcate with you.

<edit> Oops, heck, I might as well go all in. We talked about this in chat last night. I'm sure somebody kept the log. Right?

Some points:
The Brotherhood has cornered the librarian viewer market and the smart, literate, nerd market.

You face the LG conundrum, how do you keep it smart and also appeal to the masses. I suggest silly dancing and eating dirt to start.

Nobody said this directly, but at least one of us was thinking that, although you are both very attractive, there is only one Yousef Abu Taleb.

Oh, and you might stick more pictures of Jessica Rose in midvid.

Other than that, use the network. And remember to be yourselves and please each other first, the rest will come along.

I await my punishment.

FLTom

[wixy15]

How unobscure as a writter are you John? I got told off for calling you obscure, sorry mate!

As for ideas? Have you tried the cheating like putting common words in the tags? Possibly make a couple of video responses to toobers at the top of the tree? I guess you need to show everyone that you're different to what is already out there, but it is difficult to persuade people to watch. I guess making a video that gets featured on the front page would be a fairly good way to get millions of views.

I'm sure the others will have many more better ideas than I my basic ones, and I would be suprised if they don't get involved.

Keep up the good work Johno!

Oh and you need to sort out your little profile picture. You need to somehow get it to have you and hank in, merge to photos together and stick the result in the middle of a video somewhere?

Wixy

[milowent]

John, i was just thinking about this last night and mentioned it in the chat. I noticed that the avg vlog gets about 1200 or so views right now, and a few have cracked 2500. i am very sure there is a much wider audience that would love your project. but a lot of that audience probably does not normally scour youtube. i have done a blog search on brotherhood 2.0 and found unanimously positive posts about it.

a couple quick thoughts:

- the main discussion on the daily vlogs occurs on the Brotherhood 2.0 website. i am sure some people happen upon the brotherhood videos on youtube, but see so few comments on them, that they are shy to go farther. you might put a link to the website in the video description.

- consider whether the tags you use on the videos could be more descriptive and snag people. i don't mean put "britney spears" (though that might work), but for "Urban Exploration," add "breaking and entering" and "detroit". i don't know how effective this would be, just an idea.

- its kind of outside the project theme, but many youtubers get noticed by doing response videos to very popular videos. [like lonelygirl15 videos, actually. plus, youtube is about a week behind on the lg15 vids, so you could plan in advance which one you would "respond" to, even if its only mentioning it in your vlog.]

- how could brotherhood2.0 not be a great story for All Things Considered? Of course, i don't pick their stories for them.

[Smashing]

Find your target audience elsewhere on the internet and make them aware of your presence, as you did with the cove.

I saw Hank talking about winning over the former Ze Frank audience. I'd suggest posting a message on Ze's forum if you haven't already. You want to infiltrate those communities/audiences that have some connection to your interests and sensibility, and leverage those existing connections.

Obviously any kind of press you can generate helps, but unless it's lonelygirl-style national press which is hard to come by, being mentioned by other vloggers/podcasters is the best way to refer people to you.

Videos that encourage othere YouTubers to make a video response to YOUR video I would guess are more helpful than your video being a response to someone elses, but either are better than standing alone.

[wixy15]

smashing said:

Videos that encourage othere YouTubers to make a video response to YOUR video I would guess are more helpful than your video being a response to someone elses, but either are better than standing alone.

Why? Surely only people that already watch *might* bother to make a reply. If the lads reply to another, very popular movie, they will get loads of people who know nothing about them watching their video. Not really sure of your logic here?

[milowent]

smashing said:

Videos that encourage othere YouTubers to make a video response to YOUR video I would guess are more helpful than your video being a response to someone elses, but either are better than standing alone.

don't know which is better, but for every response video you get, that person's subscriber base also finds out about the video responded to. "khayav" had a minor lightning strike when renetto posted a response video about subscribing to him tounge-in-cheek to "diversify" his subscriptions (khayav is black).

who would be the most popular blogger who MIGHT be convinced to do a response to brotherhood2.0? I bet they get lots of requests.

[flwright]

Mmmm,

Who is a popular YouTuber that we know?

FLwright

<edit>The answer is Bree Hardy, she is the perfect demographic for Bro2.0. Smart, literate, voracious reader. Her Mom is a librarian, you know!

[milowent]

flwright said:

Mmmm,

Who is a popular YouTuber that we know?

FLwright

<edit>The answer is Bree Hardy, she is the perfect demographic for Bro2.0. Smart, literate, voracious reader. Her Mom is a librarian, you know!

hoho. well, reports are that the product placement this week cost about $10,000. what would it cost for Bree to mention brotherhood2.0?

and how would it work into the plot? imagine a video starting with bree watching videos on the computer (something we've never seen, but we know she watches videos), and she is watching brotherhood2.0, and she laughs and says to the camera how funny it is. then she clicks to another video, which is some recent video from daniel or jonas she hadn't seen yet which she is pissed about. then it cuts to a different scene where bree talks about that for the meat of the episode.

paypal collection anyone?

[Smashing]

If you respond to someone else's video you get one extra link. If 100 people respond to your video, you get 100 extra links. When I watch a video I never watch the responses anymore, because it's mostly people reacting to the video in ways that are no more useful than glancing at the text comments. However, if I come upon a video that happens to be a response video, I will almost always watch the original video to understand the context, especially if they say in the video "this is a response to the brotherhood 2.0 video" or whatever it's responding to.

This is no secret. Look at videos (many of which have been featured because YouTube likes promoting the community aspect) like
"why do you tube?"
"What Was the Best Moment of Your Entire Life?"
"Who are you....Who, Who...Who, Who"
and "One World"
Compare the view count of the original videos to any of the responses, and it's clear to see who benefits the most.

[wixy15]

I see your point, but how do you get people to respond to it if they don't watch it first? I guess it has been proven people aren't looking to find things like this, or else the subscribers would be higher, so how will anyone ever make a response to it? If you look at the current responses they have perhaps 50 views each. Posting a response to someone 'famous' and then asking for replies to that video might be the best of both worlds?

The easest way is probably just to get featured...

[wixy15]

AND make Hank eat a teaspoon of instant coffee in revenge to him making you eat a teaspoon of....whatever it was.

[VanillaFlava]

Hey John, love the show, keep it coming!

I think the most obvious suggestion has been well-covered. YT response videos. I am not sure how well that still works these days, simply because a lot has happened in the past year YT- and web show wise, still worth a shot.

You could definately work on the YT tagging a bit as well. I would also consider just getting your show out there and putting it on different sites. Put a slide at the end of each show advertising the site, in the end, it really doesn't matter where people see you, does it?

You could also work on the thumbnail images that will be shown on YT once the clip is up. Interesting images get more clicks. I leave it up to you to decide what could be interesting. Explore your inner cheese-boundary, then push farther

Do you know anybody intersting or do you live near a well-known YT / Net personality? Get them on the show, get to be on their show. I hear the NoHos are setting up a shelter for vbloggers at their shack these days

Well, in order to grow, you need some kind of viral effect. Stuff that people talk about and then refer to their friends. One thing that probably worked really well for Ze (well besides general awesomeness) is probably his challenges. Take the World Sandwhich, for example. People don't need to know anything about Ze to enjoy watching that Vid challenge. I know I passed that around to quite a few people, simply because the idea was so cool. I know of at least three of my friends who got clued to The Show after. Think of something you could do, that would create some user content (like pics or videos) and that could make a good viral clip.

Finally, post more at the Cove. Damn, last participation was in September, that is almost grounds for smiting!

[wixy15]

Give us all a name call too.

[milowent]

i don't know if hank lurks here, but he mentioned in today's video trying to encourage response videos of people wearing things on their heads. hmmmmm, intersting idea.

www.brotherhood2.com/?p=70