DoneBy

Content Sharing and Discovery for Professionals

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Web series vs ‘traditional content’: 10 questions to ask yourself

So, should you make a web series instead of pitching a TV series to a network? Should your story be told in a medium like film and finding a traditional distribution deal, or is it better to break it up into mini-story arcs and distribute it yourself? Anna Kerrigan, creator of the fantastic web series THE IMPOSSIBILITIES knew it was right for her.

She wrote a very interesting piece on her decision-making process behind creating a web series vs. opting to create an indie film - the latter being more costly and requiring a level of risk/reward that may not be suitable for every project. So, what are the key considerations for creating a web series vs. creating a longer form project, requiring more traditional distribution methods?

Here are 10 questions Anna asks herself before deciding whether to execute material for traditional film and TV, or self-distribute a web-series via the digital industry?

1. Do I have a clear vision that might not be conventional?

The only people you answer to are you and your collaborators. You don’t have to attend countless meetings with executives to sell the idea, justify casting choices, or do rewrites based on network notes. You have the freedom to stick to your pure, unadulterated vision of the project.

2. Do I love my collaborators and want to work together for a long time?

You and your central collaborators will have to field many challenges together and you have to have that fundamental respect in place in order to constantly make great content. If you team is communicative, talented and want to invest in a project for the long haul, a web series is for you.

3. Do I want to showcase something unique?

This one extends to writers, directors, and actors especially. If the traditional film and TV industry isn’t giving you the opportunity to display your talents the way you know you can, then you create that opportunity by making a web series on your own.

4. Do I keep dreaming up countless adventures for my main characters?

If the arc of the story doesn’t come to you as a discrete, self-contained story, and the journey is about following the two lead characters through their various mishaps and triumphs (like THE IMPOSSIBILITIES), then web series it up!

5. Do I want total flexibility?

On small budgets, if an actor or location falls through, you have to think fast and come up with solutions. Doing a web series is far more flexible than indie film for example, as the medium can truly absorb creative limited budget solutions and add to the charm. Changes are also less deadline-dependent.

6. Do I mind taking on multiple roles?

The tradeoff for creative freedom is that you may not have a ton of cash to pay for a large crew. You need to be flexible and willing to lend a hand wherever it’s needed. Even though you’re not a grip, you might have to pack up those C-stands. Even though you’re not a PA, you might need to go pick up lunch. There are many benefits to a smaller crew. Everyone is busy all the time, so there’s less boredom on set. Mobility is easy. And there’s more of a family feel.

7. For the project, do I want SAG actors but don't have a lot of money?

Paying your talent something, if possible, is always the best way to go. Under SAG new media agreements, there is initially no minimum rate so a web series can be a great way to cast from a deeper pool of actors. If you do sell your series to a platform of some sort, you will need to pay ‘em some sort of deferred fee…fair enough though right? Even if you don’t sell, people still want to work for a credit. On DoneBy, you can credit them and yourself to get you exposure.

8. Do I want my format to be unusual/experimental?

For a web series, the length, scope, and narrative of your episodes is entirely up to you. Each episode can stand alone as a character portrait. Or maybe you want it to be a more sketch-based. There are no rules on the web.

9. Do I only have nights and weekends for production?

Many people making online series are shooting on an episode by episode basis whenever they can. Since you're creating your own deadlines/release schedule, you can make it work around your existing commitments.

10. Am I comfortable finding my own audience?

If you decide to self-release your series, you may want to do it because you want it to be free and/or to maintain creative control. Or you have another reason entirely. The tradeoff though is that you are accountable for growing your own audience. If you’re comfortable with that, start on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and engage your cast and crew by giving them credit on DoneBy getting everyone involved sharing your fantastic work.

The above blog piece was rewritten from the original IndieWire article by Anna Kerrigan.

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How to Make Your Content Go Viral

Having a piece of content go viral is like winning the Internet’s version of the lottery. It’s nearly impossible to achieve and tricky to replicate. For every viral video success, there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of failures. Upworthy only has 0.3 percent of posts going viral. So, what steps can you take to improve your odds of viral success? We’ve assembled a few tips from opinions from across the web, including a guide from content creator Karen X. Cheng who wrote about her viral video success on her blog a while back.

Be. Short. You’re creating content for a generation with limited attention spans. You have to plan for that when creating any content. Over 19% of people abandon videos after 10 seconds. By the 1 minute mark, the average video loses 44% of viewers. In our DEMO REEL TIPS post, we advise putting your most interesting, fascinating, funny, or surprising information first and foremost in your video. The very first thing people do when they play a video is see how long it is. It helps them decide whether to watch it. 10 minutes??!?! No way. 2 minutes?!? Meh, maybe I’ll watch. 30 seconds! Hit play!

Upbeat wins The most sharable content evokes strong emotions in the reader or viewer. Happy emotions tend to outperform sad emotions in the world of sharability. Ask yourself why people would share your video? People share things when they feel emotion. What emotion will your viewers feel? Some emotions spread better than others. Emotions that spread: awe, excitement, amusement, anger, anxiety. Emotions that don’t: contentment, sadness.

Current events spread If your content is not timeless, creating content that hooks into an existing Internet meme or popular topic increases the odds your content will be viewed and shared by those already interested in the topic. People want to be in the know, and look like they are in the know. The latter of which is critical to virality. This doesn’t have to be news. Just look at how many parodies of popular entertainment like Game of Thrones exists on video channels. If you speak the same language as your audience and present interest in the same topics, they’ll be more likely to share your content.

Teach your audience something Your audience is always searching for new info and better ways to perform everyday tasks. If your video content is interesting and informative, it is also highly sharable. Everyone wants to learn something they don’t already know. Videos are a great tool for putting together quality information and delivering it quickly.

Don’t be embarrassed doing “marketing” Put together a marketing plan. Yes, telling people about your video could be embarrassing if the video flops. But in the noisy world where everything is competing for your audience's attention, not doing marketing is not an option. Give your work a fighting chance. Put together a marketing plan for our content if you want it to be seen. And remember, even if you fail, you’ll learn how not to do it for next time.

Viral videos have a short shelf life. You have 15 minutes of fame. Your job is to open as many doors as possible in those 15 minutes. Create as many opportunities as you can. Respond to emails and tweets. Make sure the media can get a hold of you. Media interview requests may come in. If they do, accept them. And feed the media beast by preparing for inbound interest. Create and maintain your DoneBy profile. A complete profile makes it easy for fans, media, collaborators, and hirers to see all of your work, who you’ve worked with, and complete stats from all your projects on your own channel and others’ channels. Showing who you’ve worked with also benefits you when their work gets attention.

Learn from other content that goes viral on the internet Here a graphic of how Karen X. Cheng’s video, Girl Learns to Dance in a Year went viral:

Day One: 80k views. She first posted to Facebook/Twitter, submitted it to Reddit and Hacker News. Then asked her friends to share it, tweeted it at well-known dancers, and emailed bloggers who had covered other viral dance videos. Of all the things she tried, Reddit paid off. Your big break may come from somewhere else, so try everything. Day Two: 800k views. Bloggers who had seen it on Reddit started publishing articles about it. First was leading blogger Kottke. Then blogs like Mashable, Jezebel, and Huffington Post. Blogs drove a lot of traffic. Each blog is a giant marketing engine with millions of readers and twitter followers. Day Three: 1.8 million views. It made the YouTube front page. Blogs were sending it so much traffic that YouTube’s algorithms picked up on it.

Timing is everything: Release Monday/Tuesday People watch YouTube videos when they’re at work. Weekends are speed bumps. Release your video early in the week to give it as much time to gain momentum. Hopefully there isn’t any major breaking news that day, which can swallows people’s attention. Releasing on a slow news day will help you. And it may sound obvious, but don’t release when people are out due to a national holiday.

Figure out who has a stake in your video If your content blows up, who are all the people or companies who might want a piece of the action? Get in touch with them as they can help promote your content further by sharing it with their brand-loyal followers. Consider this carefully though, as inauthentic product placement can turn off viewers. Karen contacted people at Lululemon (the outfit she was wearing), creators of the Lift app she used to track her dancing, the BART train station she danced at, and the creators of the music she danced to. Some of them shared, some of them didn’t. Try them all.

Write a viral title Here’s a quick test. How would you finish this sentence: “Hey did you see the video of __________” Fill in the blank. That’s your title. Karen first wrote a bad title: My Journey of Dance, a Year of Movement Better: I Learned to Dance in a Year Even better: Girl Learns to Dance in a Year Best: Girl Learns to Dance in a Year (TIME LAPSE)

Get Involved Engaging with an audience can lead to loyalty and interest. After all, everyone likes to be heard. This is the approach taken by companies like Old Spice in several of advertising campaigns. At one point, the Old Spice man, played by actor Isaiah Mustafa, answered fan questions on social media in short YouTube videos. Adding an engagement portion to your videos, like answering viewer questions, can give your content a boost and make it more shareable. Day one: The Old Spice commercial -- in the first day alone -- the Response Campaign generated 5.9 million YouTube views, more than Obama’s victory speech had achieved in its first 24 hours. Day two: Old Spice YouTube channel owned eight out of the 11 most popular videos on the web at that time. Day three onwards: Views had risen to more than 20 million, a figure that doubled within a week. During this same period, Twitter followers of Old Spice increased 2,700 percent while Facebook fans rose 800 percent—from 500,000 to 800,000. Subscribers to the brand’s YouTube channel, meanwhile, more than doubled, from 65,000 to 150,000.

None of this matters if your video isn’t good

You can get your friends to share. But only the strength of the content can get their friends to share. Be serious about making good content. If you content strikes a chord in viewers, those same viewers are far more likely to share the content with their friends. And their friends share it with their friends. And so it begins…

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Hater gonna hate: 12 Tips to Deal With Trolls

If you’re a content creator, you’re dealing with haters. If you are producing a constant amount of work and putting things out there for people to see, you will almost have to deal with them on a daily basis. Even if you do everything right, and you start to get a following from a bunch of people who think you're amazing and await new videos every week, most of them will love you, but there will be a dark side: the trolls.  They are people who have misunderstood the intention of your content so completely that they feel the need to be offensive in their comments. After our last post discussing HOW TO MAKE YOUR CONTENT GO VIRAL, we wanted to publish a post about Dealing with YouTube Trolls the Correct Way. But after some research, simply put, you can’t. There is no ‘correct’ way. When you fire back and let them know that in some way, what they said was able to hurt you, you have lost the war already. When people are either ignorant or hateful, you can't do anything about it. One of the easy things to do is to simply ignore them. But what kind of fun is that? Commenting back is like creating even more content for the channel. So, if you want to keep your online reputation intact and create a thriving online community that is friendly and engaging, you have to learn to deal with trolls. Here are twelve ways you can accomplish just that. 1. Establish a Policy When dealing with trolls, the first step is to establish a policy for user comments. These policies should clearly detail what kind of comments are allowed and be outlined on your website and social media accounts. If you want an examples of solid comment policies, check out what the Content Marketing Institute, Huffington Post, and Mother Jones have created. 2. Never, ever say something hateful back. Once you "step up" to somebody by saying something equally ignorant or stupid, then you've started a war that will likely never end. It becomes a boring war of words, and it will likely involve your mother at some point. Coming back with negativity just means they got to you.  That’s what they want. Don’t feed the trolls. Even if you have the best slam in the world, it just means their intent to rattle you worked. 3. Ignore Them Trolls want attention. They want to get you angry, frustrated, or uncomfortable. No matter how difficult it might be, simply ignoring a troll could your best tactic because when they don’t get a response, they’ll most likely go away. In fact, according to the Pew Research Center, 60% of respondents opted to ignore online harassment. 4. Agree with them, but be humorous about it This is an art form. Because when you do this, you will still be dealing with them, but in a more clever, interesting way, and your followers will respect you for it. When you make light of a troll’s tweet, you simultaneously acknowledge and defuse the situation. If someone writes something like "Your next video should be called, 'I never get laid and I'm a stupid c***.'" …these comments are the absolute best. Absolutely ignorant hate is easy to digest. They don't know you. You realize after a while how silly these comments are, filled with filthy language, spelling errors, and incoherent thoughts. It’s best to laugh it off. Or maybe respond, "Yes!  I've been waiting for a long time to make a video about my love life! And, I especially like the 'c***' part, can I steal that for my title?" And if the comment involves your mom at some point like, "You should do a video about how ur mom's a whore”, write back, "We're doing that one in a few weeks, but we have to do a few other ones first before we get to that. Thanks for the input. We love our fans!” There is little they can say back that will be funny or make them look good. 5. Unmask Them, But Don’t Shame Them Trolls thrive on anonymity. By taking away that power, you may make that troll think twice about leaving nasty comments on your website, blog, or social media account. You don’t have to uncover and reveal their name and address. But you may be able to “turn your rage into pity”. For example, someone who constantly criticizes your writing could have a laughable blog. If their content is terrible, it is guaranteed to make yourself feel better, and gives you good fodder for a reply. But remember to unmask them carefully. Don’t shame them, they may start a war...or worse, it may turn your real fans against you. 6. Don’t Provide a Platform If you happen to host your own website, you don’t have to approve offensive comments. You can also delete these comments or ban members. Or, disable commenting from your posts to prevent trolling altogether. The only problem with this is while you’re preventing trolls in the first place, you’re also preventing discussions among your online community. 7. Use Moderators and Online Tools If you have the resources, you may want to consider hiring a team of moderators to monitor activity on your site, blog, or forum. These monitors have the power to approve or remove inappropriate comments. You can also use disemvoweling or stealth banning tools or plugins to battle trolls. Other powerful ways to handle trolls are making use of the Robot9000 tool or the SMC4 software. 8. Let your fans handle it If you have a loyal online community you may not have to worry much about trolls since the members will monitor themselves. If you’re fortunate, your content may get way more likes than dislikes, so for the most part your fans will deal with the troll. They will "down vote" stupid comments and make them go away, or attack that person with gusto. Unfortunately, relying on them completely may cause more trouble. If your supporters aren’t well trained in the troll-battling arts, things can spiral out of hand quickly. So, be sure to keep an eye on your troops as they lay siege to an attacking troll. 9. Listen It’s a basic, yet helpful reminder: Listen to what is being said about your brand. If the online troll is really just a customer complaining, know the difference and listen. Parlay this into a way to improve. Sometimes people just want to be heard. Hear them, try to help, and they’ll almost always thank you publicly. 10. Fight Back With Facts If you become the target of rumors or misinformation being spread by trolls, you may want to fight back…with facts. Address the issue head-on with cold hard facts. If you are at fault, make the proper corrections, admit there was an issue and that the issue affected very few people, and point to the solution. In doing so, you deflate any further controversy. Let the person who wrote the complaint know you have corrected the error and explain what you did. Most times, you’ll never hear from the person again, but the individual will appreciate that he heard directly from you. And, if you are not good writing in a charming manner, simply state the facts, emotion-free. 11. Comments Can Be Fun: Use Them For Good It's a known thing that commenting early on your videos after launch helps it in search. It’s sort of a "signature" that helps the search engine realize you're legit. Starting a conversation is a good way to interact with your fans, who are the first ones to watch your videos. You create a community with your channel by being accessible.  And, we know from our members’ experience that diffusing situations rather than exacerbating them is appealing to their followers, i.e. when they offer humorous "bonus" content within comments, even to positive responses, they show they are positive about themselves, not negative. 12. Learn from the best Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, made headlines when it was reported that he made about $7.4 million in 2014. The number is hardly surprising, considering he manages an account with more than 37 million subscribers and 9 billion views. Even so, the gamer had some things to say to those upset by the figure. In a masterful response to haters, PewDiePie released the video below, thoughtfully taking on the subject by saying he likes money because he is human, but it's not as important to him as having a good time making content for his fans. He delivers it in a matter-of-fact tone, even jokingly admitting to making lame sex jokes. And he thinks he looks good in a bikini.

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10 TIPS ON HOW TO GAIN MORE VIEWS OR PLAYS

Stats are an ongoing concern for any content creator. If you are putting stuff out there to be seen, view and play counts are vital. They are vital to your own professional brand, the success of your marketing and SEO campaigns, they garner you industry attention, and drive collaboration opportunities. Which is why Facebook is in trouble after Hank Green called them out this week for inflating their numbers just to claim their video content is watched more than YouTube’s. With Facebook’s ‘auto-play’ feature for native videos, and manufacturing their own definition of when they counts as a view, content creators are freaking out.

Ironically, in the very same week, DoneBy launched a feature that allows you to truly own the aggregated view and play counts on content you’ve worked on across multiple platforms, all your channels, AND all work that you’ve collaborated on. This brings you another step closer to truly representing yourself using your DoneBy profile. So now that you can get credit through views for your work across the web, we’ve compiled some tips on how to gain more views or plays on your content: 1. Make it discoverable Think about who you want to reach, then think about what they would be searching for when searching for your content. Then use those kind of words in the title, in the description, and as tags. Use the most important keywords first and then use a more descriptive text. If you start picking up some views, plays, ratings and embeds along the way, this is highly important as this will give you a better chance of ranking high on Google. AND DON’T FORGET to use a word to describe the kind of content it is as the word right next to your most important keyword, e.g. “Video”, “Music”, or “Commercial”. People search for things such as “fashion video”, “monster truck driving video tutorial”, “Imagine Dragons music”, “Nike commercial” etc. 2. Post it everywhere 80% of all views on videos posted on YouTube are seen outside the YouTube website. This means you should embed your own content and encourage others to embed the content too. So regardless of whether you have a lot of readers or not, you should post your work in a blog as it will become more valued in search. 3. Share the blog post on Twitter and Facebook Once you’ve published your stuff, attract some visitors to your blog as well as pick up some additional views/plays. Share your post on Twitter, on Facebook, on StumbleUpon, on Tumblr and all other places where you can share content. and if you publish directly on your own Facebook or Twitter page, people tend to like it better and they also tend to consume the full content as they don’t have to do anything but sit back and enjoy. 4. Ask people to subscribe/favorite/comment IN THE END FRAMES OF THE VIDEO If your content is a video, ask people to subscribe to your channel in one of the last frames. If you know that you publish videos on a certain frequency, then you should also tell your viewers in one of the last frames of the video when they can expect the next one. Also!! You should try and ask a provocative question or a question that requires reaction. Make a statement of some sort and then ask the users to comment on it. 5. Post it as a reply Post a video as a response to another video of yours. It’s guaranteed to pull in some views. 6. Use a good thumbnail icon that is representative of the content on your channel Think twice about your thumbnail. It will get clicked more if it is interesting, provocative, clear or illusive. Think about your thumbnail when you cut your video as it is important that it ends up at either 25% 50% or 75% of the video. NOTE: If you pay for a branded channel you will get some more options on YouTube, but note that if you then share that same video on Facebook from your branded channel, then your specially created thumbnail won’t follow. A good thumbnail also gives you a better chance of ending up in the “related videos” pane to the right of the video you have posted the response to. 7. Use the URL as your IM status If you’re using Skype or MSN, posting in your IM status field will alert the people you know of your status. People actually read what it says next to your name. Write something like “Cool!″ followed by a URL to your DoneBy content page, and you’ll pull some views from that as well. 8. Find blogs with a lot of readers and post a “sibling” video as a comment This is something you should do if you have a channel that has a lot of related content on it. Paste your content within the comments of another popular blog. If the readers of the original blog’s comment find that first video interesting they will probably watch one of your other videos. It must be relatable though...otherwise that’s just spam. 9. Use seeding services TubeMogul allows you to create your accounts once on the different services where you want to upload. Then you just have to post your content once, and it is sent everywhere!! You can then use your DoneBy profile to easily aggregate your views/plays across all platforms. Remember though that adding your content to multiple platforms means you’ll have to monitor them too as you will get a wider range of trolls. 10. Create playlists Playlists are a highly unexploited area on YouTube ranking. Playlists have a huge benefit as they show up in the top of the search results of YouTube. Put your video amongst other already popular videos on the same topic, and you’ll see that your video will start receiving some nice, “mistaken” views.

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NEW FEATURE: Aggregated Views/Plays We’ve launched a feature that finally allows you to TRULY own the aggregated view and play counts on content you’ve worked on across multiple platforms, all your channels, AND all work that you’ve collaborated on on other channels. How it works Adding work to your profile increases VIEWS/PLAYS in real time. A higher count helps you get work & collaborators. Enter your own channel URLs to display the channel’s total VIEWS/PLAYS. You can then add select work that best represents your skills while displaying your total count. Then boost your VIEWS/PLAYS by adding work from other channels using the new Quick Add feature. Or you can do a deeper search for your projects using the FIND / ADD MY WORK button at the top of every page. And when you add work to your profile, the totals update immediately. For the work and channels you already have on your profile, the stats are updated weekly. Why we did this If you worked on it, get credit for it! Some people, such as Ashley Clements (The Lizzie Bennett Diaries, @LOFT) who has worked with famed producer Bernie Sui, do not have their own channels. Ashley would have had to visit all those videos, add their view counts up, and by the time she was finished, they would have changed. Now she can add those projects to her page, and DoneBy updates the stats automatically. Think about that, if you have collaborated with creators and makers, starred in their videos, done the camera work for them, designed fashion for them, you can legitimately tally and claim their views as well as views for work you’ve produced and uploaded on your own channel. For example, if you have worked for Toby Turner, Chester See, or Taryn Southern as a writer, or a set designer, your work has been seen by millions of people. Adding that work to your profile, and crediting yourself, your view count reflects the work you’ve truly done. To add individual work, use our new Quick Add feature. Drop the YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, SoundCloud URL onto the page, and you can quickly add the work, colleagues, and views to your page. • Showing your best work from your channel There may be some work you don’t want to show from your own channel, but you still want to display all the views your channel has gained over the years. With this feature, you can display the total counts but not all the work from every episode or track that you did. Remember this only applies to work on your channel, you’ll still need to show the individual pieces of work you’ve done on your page if you want to show those views. • Views are a Google Requirement for SEO Strategies We optimize each page for search engines like Google. That process is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). So if you have to have many views or plays, in order for your search engine ranking to go up, post your most popular videos with high view counts, and ensure your channels are linked (if you have channels). Getting your name out there and recognized is very important, and it is also vital to also have more traffic to your work.  When you post content, you have the potential to reach a worldwide market. Higher view counts adds to more exposure, so if you have videos on YouTube that are seen by many people and that have the views needed for higher search rankings. • Featured Content is Popular We constantly feature high profile work and people. If you want to get noticed within the DoneBy network, your view/play counts are a way we look at what content and which videos to feature. If this doesn’t make sense then consider this, most people will watch what they think everyone else is watching.  When you get more views on your videos, our algorithm automatically lets us know who to feature and rank higher within the network, and will likely feature you so there is a chance of being discovered by even more people.

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12 tips on networking

Last week we launched a new feature allowing you to more easily create those you’ve worked with. This doesn’t only benefit you though. It helps them raise their profile in our rapidly growing network of makers. From there, networking becomes simpler. On DoneBy, you can always send a creator a direct email using the SEND MESSAGE feature, but you can only do this once until they respond. It’s far more effective when you know someone in common. Someone they’ve WORKED WITH, who you’ve WORKED WITH. Your connections can be found by clicking WORKED WITH on your profile page. Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn’s founder wrote: Suppose you have 40 friends, and assume that each friend has 35 friends in turn, and each of those friends of friends has 45 unique friends of their own. If you do the math: 40 x 35 x 45 that’s 54,000 people you can reach via an introduction. Assuming your connection follows through with the intro, you could have access to a LOT of people. But what does it take to get them to help you? You have to be impressive to your 1st-degree connection so they will make the initial introduction. Then they need to ask that 2nd-degree connection, who does not know you and has never met you, to help you. We suggest approaching your contact like this: "Hey Becca - I just noticed that you’re connected to Brendan Bradley through the Assassin’s Creed Musical project you did together. I'd really love to work with him on my new web series. Would you be willing to introduce me, so that I can share our project?" Simple. But that’s just our example. True networking occurs when there’s an understanding that everyone ‘in the room’ has equal value. In its purest form, it’s about people enjoying other people, communicating passions and connecting with others who share those passions. It’s about listening, figuring out what others need and connecting them with people you think can help, without any designs for personal gain. The most successful networkers build genuine relationships and give more than they receive. They go beyond thinking, “What’s in it for me?” to ask “How can I help?” To follow their approach, here are eight ways to network successfully and have fun doing it. 1. Start networking before you need it Seasoned networkers can smell the stench of desperation. People can sense when someone is only out to help himself. Tip-offs ranging from a panicked look to verbosely worded emails will send the person you want to meet running in the other direction. On the other hand, by networking when you have no ulterior motive, you can begin to build relationships and a reputation for being generous rather than self-serving. 2. Have a plan Since every person has value, it’s essential that you know what yours is. Before you send that email, get clear on what talents, strengths, skill sets and connections you can bring to the table. Then ensure that your DoneBy profile is up to date with you most recent work and collaborations, which will in turn show your total VIEWS/PLAYS. Map out what you want to talk about, particularly how you may be able to help the person you’re contacting, either now or in the future.

3. If you’re shy, start small If the idea of approaching people you don't know intimidates you, begin your networking efforts by seeking out people you’ve worked with on your projects credited on DoneBy; you can find your colleagues by clicking on the WORKED WITH tab on your profile. A series of successful conversations will build your confidence in preparation for approaching less familiar folks. A logical next step after talking to your colleagues, reach out to people they’ve worked with. This is the power of your REACH. Your 2nd degree network can be a gold mine of connections. DoneBy exists for the purpose of networking, so contacting a collaborator out of the blue shouldn't feel like a cold call. After all, they joined DoneBy to find collaborators themselves.

4. Don’t Apologize Inexperienced networkers often apologize when asking for someone’s help because they see networking as an imposition, not as an exercise in relationship building. They feel like they're asking someone to do them a favor. They don't think they're worth someone else's time, so they apologize for it.

Apologizing demonstrates your lack of professionalism and confidence. You don't have to apologize for asking for help. One day you will be the person who will be able to help someone else. 5. Forget your personal agenda While you may be tempted to network just to secure a director, and actor, or talk to people you normally wouldn’t have access to, that’s a mistake. Instead, make it your goal to be open, friendly and honest, and to forge connections between people who may be able to help each other. Generosity is an attractive quality, and it’s something special that people will remember about you. 6. Never dismiss anyone as unimportant Make it your mission to discover the value in each person you talk to. Ask questions and listen with interest. Don’t make the mistake of discounting people due to their titles. Someone you meet may “just” be a PA, but they likely have valuable connections or knowledge you’d never learn about if you’d dismissed them. 7. Connect the dots Once you begin to listen to people and learn what they can bring to the table, you’ll start realizing how one person may be able to help another. Make it a point to connect people you feel have something of genuine value to each other. When you go out of your way to make those potentially promising connections, you’re doing your part to make the networking event a success. 8. Know that you'll have good and bad days Some people won't respond to your messages. A few experiences like this, and you may begin to resist reaching out to key contacts for fear of being rejected. Maintaining your objectivity when you're on the networking roller coaster is easier said than done, especially if you are trying to do it alone. But don't give up! Persistence and a sense of humor are both key to successful networking. 9. Figure out how you can be useful Before any meeting comes to a close, be sure to ask, “How can I help you?” Because it’s done so rarely, you may encounter a surprised look, but it will most likely be accompanied by an appreciative smile. While the person may not have an answer for you that night, they may have an idea later. Always close by saying something like, “If you need anything, please reach out” and make sure to share your contact info, including your DoneBy url, so they can keep track of your work and connections.

10. Follow up and follow through If you told someone you’d get in touch with them, do it and reaffirm your intent to assist in any way you can. If you promised to introduce someone to a person you know, take the time to do it. Everyone is busy these days with jobs, families, events, commitments – even so, it takes no more than a minute to shoot off an email to introduce two people you want to connect. They can take it from there and do the work — just enjoy being the bridge. Little things like that mean a lot to people and just one introduction can end up changing someone’s life for the better.

11. Believe in the power of networking When you believe that the true value of networking lies in helping others and you do your part, you’ll soon discover magic happening all around you. The beauty of this approach is that you never know when that magic may cast its spell on you. 12. When you meet in person, smile and don’t hijack the conversation. By smiling, you'll put your nervous self at ease, and you'll also come across as warm and inviting to others. Remember to smile before you enter the room, or before you start your next conversation. Some people may also overcompensate by commandeering the discussion. Don't forget, the most successful networkers are good at making other people feel special. Look people in the eye, repeat their name, and listen to what they have to say. Be a conversationalist, not a talker.

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Most content creators have a definitive answer to the question: Team Vine or Team Instagram? The good news is that, as of today, no one has to choose as DoneBy supports both.

This means you can now import and credit content you have on both platforms, add your credits, and tag credits to your collaborators. For example, if you're a caterer, you can import Instagram pictures of events you've covered, or if you're a still photographer, you can credit your best shots. For you Vine actors, you can add your best clips to show off your 6-second prowess, brand deals, and collaborations from other Vine channels.

To add your work, simply go to your DoneBy profile, click FIND / ADD MY WORK, select Instagram or Vine, and follow the on-screen instructions.

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Yes, they are both social and mobile, and they both leverage video, but that is where the similarities end. The two platforms vary greatly when you take a closer look at the creation, consumption, and audiences of the two platforms.

Before you can choose the best social video tool for yourself, you need to understand the differences. Let's review the basics:

Instagram

-15-second video

-Multiple filters and image-stabilization tool

-Allows for video editing, reshooting, and editing frames

-Facebook owns and cross-promotes into News Feeds

-Not directly shared on Twitter

Vine

-6-second video

-Does allow video editing

-Videos loop

-Users have the ability to revine (think retweet)

-Twitter owns and cross-promotes seamlessly to Twitter and Facebook

Use Instagram if:

1.Your fan base exists primarily on Facebook. Facebook owns Instagram and easy integration allows for cross-promoting these different platforms. If your Facebook following is already actively engaged, or if you would like them to be, using Instagram video is a great way to build your community.

2. You’re artistic to the max. With the company mission “to capture and share the world’s moments,” Instagram provides users with filters, has Cinema (an image-stabilization tool that smooths out shaky videos), and comes with other features that allow the user to create videos that have a more professional style than Vine. This gives creators the ability to easily create emotional experiences within the instant-video medium.

Some of our favorite Instagramers: Ian Goodwin, Matt Crump, Waddy72, and Donn Delson

Focus on Vine if:

1. Your Twitter fandom is strong. Twitter owns Vine, so you will be able to integrate hashtags and cross-promote between the two sites. Brands with strong Twitter communities should look into creating content for Vine as it will present opportunities to further engage your established following

2. You are a master of stop motion. Vine’s short timeframe and shooting process allows users to create unique stop-motion videos. Smart creators are using this capability to deliver their messages in creative ways. Creators using stop motion well, are able to share large amounts of brand information within Vine’s 6-second timeframe.

3. You like to loop. By taking advantage of Vine’s loop, creators are able to produce videos that are essentially 6-second GIFs with sound. Who doesn’t love a good GIF? Loops can be used in creative ways and are often perfect for funny visuals or product demonstrations.

Some of our favorite Viners: Manon Mathews, Matt Cutshall, DeStorm Power, and everyone involved with the Collab crew!

The Final Decision (unless you’re on both)

Are you more on Twitter or Facebook?

Where is your audience currently the most active? Go where your fans are. Their choice of platform should shape how you go about marketing. Remember: Twitter owns Vine, and Facebook owns Instagram. Take advantage of integration with whichever platform your audience uses regularly.

Are you Wacky or Cinematic?

Vine’s 6-second time limit opens the door for some pretty quirky content. But you have to plan strategically to execute these well. Not everyone can make interesting videos on Vine — simply because of the time limit. Instagram’s filters and editing tools allow for more artistic videos aimed at telling a story or conveying an emotion.

What will help you win on both Instagram and Vine?

Creativity and simplicity. With only seconds to convey your message, you’ve got to make each count.

How your follower’s can help you Your collaborators and colleagues, the people you’ve WORKED WITH, can be enormously valuable when you're actively looking for a job or just networking. They're easy to find. You know them and are likely already friends with them on Facebook, Twitter or over email. In many cases they've already automatically been credited on your work listed on DoneBy.

But are you also leveraging the enormous power of your networks reach? These days, SOCIAL REACH is driving the decisions of collaborators, hiring managers, brands, and financiers. If you are creating content, you want a large following because that results in advertising dollars and other monetization opportunities. But that following is amplified multiple times when the followers of your followers take action. Click below to read more about how to take advantage of your 2nd-degree connections.

Using REACH: How your follower’s can help you

Your collaborators and colleagues, the people you’ve WORKED WITH, can be enormously valuable when you're actively looking for a job or just networking. They're easy to find. You know them and are likely already friends with them on Facebook, Twitter or over email. In many cases they've already automatically been credited on your work listed on DoneBy. But are you also leveraging the enormous power of your networks reach? Your personal network, on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc., is one of your most powerful career assets – it’s who you know. It’s how the world works. It’s powerful because it’s built on trust. But your personal network has value that goes well beyond personal introductions.

These days, SOCIAL REACH is driving the decisions of collaborators, hirers, brands, and financiers. If you are creating content, you want a large following because that results in advertising dollars and other monetization opportunities. What is commonly overlooked is that that following is amplified multiple times when the followers of your followers take action. In a couple of weeks, we’ll be launching REACH to go alongside VIEWS/PLAYS. REACH is a stat that is probably the most important factor people use in determining the power you have to affect change. REACH is your own ability to distribute. REACH means you can sell. REACH means your personal brand has value. Your network has value. It’s implied that those who follow you on social media care about what you say, think about, and create. But doing anything that generates viral growth doesn’t start there. ‘Virality’ starts when the people you know and tell, tell other people they know. Your network is the catalyst for that power. So, before we launch SOCIAL REACH, we’ve built a tool to tell your WORKED WITH network about their credits on DoneBy. With a simple mouse click, you can reach out via Facebook, Twitter or by email.

If there is nobody listed in your WORKED WITH section, tag those that helped create your content, or find work you've collaborated on and credit your colleagues.

Once they claim their account on DoneBy, your REACH score will go up. This gives hiring managers, brands, financiers, and collaborators the ability to see how powerful you really are. This doesn’t only benefit you though. It helps them raise their profile in our rapidly growing network of makers. From there, networking becomes simpler. How you keep in touch and serve you network matters. Next week, we will post for tips on how to network. But you are building your brand every week. How can you positively enhance your brand THIS week? Get to it.

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NEW FEATURE: Your Reach Statistics As we’ve mentioned in a previous post, your personal network on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc., is one of your most powerful career assets – it’s who you know. It’s how the world works. It’s powerful because it’s built on trust.

As such, we’ve just launched REACH to go alongside VIEWS/PLAYS. Your SOCIAL REACH demonstrates your own ability to distribute, which is important when considering how to make money from your audience. A larger REACH means that people care about what you have to say, and your personal brand has value to collaborators, hiring managers, brands, and financiers. Your REACH STATS are broken into 1st-degree reach and 2nd degree reach. 1st degree REACH Your 1st degree REACH stats are made up of the number of followers that you are connected with directly. These are on social networks for accounts you control. For example, if you have 10,000 Instagram followers, 5,000 Twitter followers, and 5,000 followers on Facebook, your 1st-degree reach is 20,000. Simple. To add those numbers, simply click CONTROL YOUR STATS on your profile page and enter your social network URLs in the fields and click SAVE. The technology does the rest. 2nd degree REACH Some of you may not have a large network personally attached to your social accounts…but you have powerful and influential collaborators (i.e. the people you’ve WORKED WITH on other projects). This network represents your 2nd degree REACH. To truly represent that reach, we take the combined totals of all the followers of the people listed as WORKED WITH on your profile. Boost your 2nd degree REACH stats by letting the people you've collaborated with know that they have credits for their work and that they should add their social networks to their profiles. Each time one of them does, both of your totals go up - i.e. the combined total 1st-degree reach of your collaborators listed on your WORKED WITH tab = your 2nd-degree reach. To do this, click WORKED WITH on your profile page and click YES next to the people you know. Message them on Facebook, Twitter, or send them an auto-generated email to tell them about their profile. Nobody listed under WORKED WITH? Start by crediting your colleagues on work you’ve done. Simply go one of your works listed on your profile and click the CREDIT YOUR COLLABORATORS button. The more people that you’re connected to, the higher your second-degree reach.

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Announcing our new interface

Project by project, your DoneBy profile shows the world the work you’ve done. Starting today, it will be even easier (and, we think, more fun) to display your creative projects and prowess through a new and improved web profile.

Today, we’re introducing a new look that reflects our members’ need to credit content from our variety of supported platforms.

We’ve cleaned up the page to incorporate a better relationship with stats and content from the newly integrated platforms, Instagram and Vine. The new web profile lets you use a larger, yet rounded profile photo, customize your header, show off your demo and more. Here are main new changes and features:

Stats: Prominent stats, promoting your aggregate views/plays and reach in great detail -Quick-add: Add a piece of work quickly to your profile -List view: Edit your profile a little easier using LIST VIEW -Edit credits: Add and edit your credits directly on your profile page -Your demo/reel: Adding your demo reel will place it on the top left of your work grid

New look profile and work pages:

Work pages will display the content full size across the screen and centralized with credits right below it. This is to help bring more information up about each individual, displaying their macro stats at a glance and allowing sorting by each stat.

On profile images, STATS are taking a more prevalent view to easily demonstrate the breakdowns so you can easily understand your online influence and the influence of others. Messaging, Following, and Sharing is done from the top of the profile. And the grid style images on the right is replaced with a 5-up grid below the main image to provide a simpler view. Your summary, and other links are available under a slide down menu marked with 

All-in-all, the profiles pages are designed for simplicity and maximize the information and work that can be displayed, opening the doors for future features we have planned including better SEARCH and mobile and tablet compatibility - especially to welcome our growing list of Viners and Instagramers, crediting their work to display their images alongside their videos.

For a selection of some of our favorite profiles, check out the below: http://doneby.com/brendanabradley http://doneby.com/chanmanprod http://doneby.com/ruthlevi http://doneby.com/user-55051bc22a074050350082df/shanna-malcolm http://doneby.com/martinvandevrugt

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Emmy-Winning Proof: TV is Going Digital

Rounding out our Emmy-focused features this week, we dug up this Funny or Die produced short film, featuring Better Call Saul’s Bob Odenkirk. I love FoD and getting to see digitally-focused creators working with top tier actors on their films and sketches.

If you’ve been paying close attention to the Emmy’s over the last few years, you’ve probably noticed something interesting happening amongst the nominations. Traditionally, the Emmy’s are basically the Oscars for the small screen, honoring the best TV that year has had to offer. However, as the mediums through which we consume our programming shift, so must our definition of what constitutes “the small screen.” Digital media giants Netflix and Amazon have officially taken their places at the programming top amongst long-time heavy-hitters Showtime and HBO, and this is good news for digital-first creators everywhere.

Read any think-piece on TV, and you’ll see the same theme: TV is dying; everyone’s going digital. More than 40% of American households use a streaming service like Netflix or Amazon, and a growing percentage are moving to “Broadband only” subscriptions, eliminating cable from their bills entirely.

So, why is this good news for the digital-first content industry? With so many options for viewing and streaming, both cable and digital networks alike are on the hunt for new shows. HBO has started putting out a new line-up every season, and Netflix has over two-dozen original series currently airing. Many consumers will binge-watch their favorite programs, and then start scouring their service for something else.

Online Content: The Next (Now) Wave

Meanwhile, the online content space -- where most DoneBy members work and create -- continues to grow at explosive rates. The Streamy’s, the multiplatform awards show, which honor excellence in online video and those who create it, took place on Sept. 17 and aired on TV for the first time. Last year’s show racked up more than 7 million views on YouTube, 2.8 million Vine loops in 24 hours and three worldwide trending topics on Twitter. This year’s numbers are yet to be released. Regardless, when there’s demand like this, it’s a good time to be a supplier.

One of my favorite success stories of recent memory is that of the Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld’s Vimeo web-series “High Maintenance” which was picked up by HBO and will be released later this year. When the husband and wife team started the project, they were filming each episode for under $1,000.

And if you think it can’t happen to you, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson probably would have said the same thing 10 years ago. But these two creators turned their shoestring budget project, Broad City, from a web series on YouTube into to a critically-acclaimed Comedy Central show. IndieWire’s “How Does a Web Series Jump to TV?” has some insight on this and other digital-first success stories.

Now, more than ever, creators are taking advantage of the changing media landscape, but great ideas will only take a work so far. A little sweat and a solid network are also essential to any creator’s success. As you prepare to get people involved in your new project or to be involved in someone else’s, show why you're the right person to make it a success:

-Import your best work onto your DoneBy profile to highlight your experience

-Tag credits for everyone who worked on your projects to show your network

-Add your content channels and social links, so your stats are always up to date

This Week’s Features:

In this week’s features, we gave a few shout-outs to some of our favorite Emmy nominees! I should have joined an Emmy pool, because I totally called it for Jeffrey Tambor and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, both winners in their categories this past Sunday. Watch these two funny people in conversation on Variety’s digital show Actors on Actors.

And we couldn’t resist giving a nod to nominated actresses Lisa Kudrow and Lily Tomlin. Watch the two of them together in this classic episode of Kudrow’s digital to network web series, Web Therapy.

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The Lil Dicky Effect: Low Budget Music Videos and the DIY Revolution

By Tate Tucker

If you haven’t seen Lil Dicky’s new video, $ave ‘Dat Money reportedly filmed with a zero dollar budget, you’re missing out. In the eight minute video, Dicky can be seen begging unsuspecting rich folk and upscale businesses, somewhat shamelessly, to use their mansions, boats, and cars for 15 minutes in order to produce a top-notch music video at no-cost, complete with a T-Pain cameo.  With four million views in its first three days, not only is it a highly entertaining production that accentuates the comedic rapper’s Napoleon Dynamite-like awkwardness, it also signifies a shift in video production. The DIY revolution is in full effect.

Now, this isn’t to say Lil Dicky — to whom we will now refer by his government name, David Burd — is the first to produce industry-grade quality with little-to-no budget. In fact, a quick google search can instantaneously connect us to thousands of artists who have produced little-to-no budget music videos. Take, for example, rock band The Black Keys’ “Lonely Boy.” Allegedly, the band filmed a full budget music video for the song but it was unanimously voted down and they were left to scrap something together. Sure enough, upon examining the film, the group found the gem they needed — a few minutes of actor Derrick T. Tuggle dancing and singing along to the song. As is often the case in artistic endeavors, the result was a beautiful accident. Today, the “Lonely Boy” music video has accrued nearly 48 million views on youtube.

“So,” you ask, “why the focus on Lil Dicky?” Simple. His backstory lends itself perfectly to the idea of a DIY revolution. Before life as a professional rapper, David Burd worked at San Francisco advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners — whose impressive client list includes corporate heavyweights like Doritos and eBay. Although his initial job title landed him a more finance-based role, Burd would go on to deliver an uncanny quarterly report — in the form of a rap song — that prompted him to switch over to a more creative role writing copy for the firm’s goliath clientele. Soon after, however, Burd would leave this job to become a full-time entertainer, taking only his quirky humor, quick wit and unrelenting resourcefulness. His impending success as a musician and comedian, who prides himself on low budgets and demonstrable results, is one of many contemporary success stories that have — and will continue to — define this DIY revolution.

This week Apple released the iPhone 6s which boasts a 12-megapixel camera as well as 4k video capabilities. Technology that was once inaccessible and indecipherable to most people is now offered in the convenient compactness of a mobile phone. Not only will the sleekness of professional grade phone cameras allow creators to capture more candid, spur-of-the-moment ideas — as the Black Keys did in “Lonely Boy” — the sheer capabilities of  such an accessible device will catalyze a video revolution. As more artists begin to couple Lil Dicky-esque industriousness with the increasing accessibility of video equipment (i.e. your smart phone), it is safe to say that making a professional video on an amateur budget will only get easier, and more common in years to come.

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NEW FEATURE: Facebook Video Integration

We know DoneBy members have a lot of video work on Facebook and want to show this on their DoneBy profiles alongside their other projects from across the web. As of today, you can.

To add your work, simply go to your DoneBy profile, click FIND / ADD MY WORK, select Facebook, and follow the on-screen instructions.

While familiar as a social network, Facebook video is relatively new to creators in comparison to its online video predecessors such as YouTube and Vimeo. Beyond the advantages of its massive reach, Facebook video has a couple key, integrated advantages that are good to understand.

First, Facebook’s algorithms determine which content is presented to its users. They favor native Facebook videos when deciding what makes it into user’s news feeds, factoring in the amount of time people spend watching videos and how many views they have into their algorithm.

Second, once content is shown to users, Facebook gives it further preferential treatment by autoplaying their videos. This is not done for YouTube, Vimeo, etc. videos that are posted to Facebook. Sure you’ve seen this in your own feed.

As you begin adding Facebook videos to your DoneBy profile, here are some important points to know about:

To be added to and credited on your DoneBy profile, Facebook videos must be on public profiles.

Currently, Facebook does not make view counts available off site. As such, Facebook videos are not calculated in DoneBy VIEWS/PLAYS stats at the moment.

The DoneBy team remains committed to empowering creators to pull in content from across the web, crediting themselves and their collaborators, and showing what they’ve done and who they've worked with. We’re happy that integrating Facebook helps get closer to those goals. Keep the requests and comments coming to continue to make DoneBy your single URL to show what you’ve done!