Is it ok to ask my friends if they watch my videos? Or should it not matter since they’re my friends?
follow me here
www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from Clintus McGintus. Make your own badge here.
I Do It Digital
Vlog On Bitches!
follow me here
i watch it if theres a meetup or a cute female friend u vid or if i see something of interest in the topic
in other news do u know about jott?
http://www.jott.com
i dont think i am a “friend” per se… but more nudity would get me to watch all your vids.
ha! [sorry... i'm a perv]
I think the trouble is not getting people to watch. I watch a lot of stuff. The trouble is getting those consumers to start participating. Tough sell here in the US of A. Even vloggers with 10s of thousands of daily views like gary vaynerchuk get frustrated (remember he threatened to quit over it).
I hope it is only a cultural problem that we will eventually overcome. In the mean time those of us that continue to produce and perform to seemingly empty rooms will see success because they are out there watching. Once they realize it is through participation that they can make a real difference in the content they see the tide will shift and we’ll be on top.
I think that folks are too busy, plain and simple. I watch the vids, but often in chunks catching up because I just don’t have time in my day to participate with anything outside my job. At that point, is it still relevant for me to leave a comment? And that’s not even getting into my neurosis about having to leave a relevant, insightful comment.
As far as asking your friends for input, why wouldn’t you do that? They’re your friends, and they should be happy to be a resource. Again, it might not be immediate feedback, but if you’re calling folks friends of yours and vice versa, then part of that is being there to help each other out. At least, that’s how I feel about it.
Matthew
I’m pretty bad at staying up on commenting at people’s sites even though I know full well how much I value comments/interaction on my stuff. I often kick myself for not commenting more as its the best way to sort of reach out and establish relationships with other vloggers (and so I feel that I’m cheating both the producer and myself by not commenting more often).
I also tend to go in phases/groups with my viewing and commenting. Although I have a very small list of vlogs that I watch constantly, I have a much larger list of vlogs that I often will go for several weeks or more before I go back and watch all the videos I’ve missed in that time. When I do go back and watch a few weeks worth of stuff, I probably wont comment on all of them (and sometimes don’t even comment on any … I really need and want to get better about that though.) I always feel bad about not commenting as often at these sites as they are vlogs I truly enjoy … life just seems to limit my real-time-vlog-attention-span pretty severely at times. Of course at the other extreme there are the vlogs that I only really see when they come up in twitter/etc. There are probably other ‘categories’ … but basically I often play catch up on vlogs (even ones I really enjoy) and thus fail to comment as much as I should.
I do think twitter and the like have changed the dynamic a bit, but comments are still the gold standard if you ask me.
I think you can email your friends and ask for feedback. I mean in the end - however narcissistic vlogging may seem - we all do this for our friends and the group of folks who watch us. I don’t see anything wrong with asking “what would help make you feel more engaged with my site”.
- Dave
(oh for the record, you’re not on the ‘I only go there thanks to twitter’ list.
I see now that you did post this to twitter, but I saw this video (and your others) because I’ve subscribed to you at Vimeo and MeFeedia)
I notice that people who vlog less often tend to get more comments. Also the content of the video may illicit a discussion, too e.g. are you asking questions, is the topic controversial, did something outrageous happen? I know it can be frustrating to not get comments — but it definitely doesn’t mean people aren’t watching! I watch but I rarely comment.
In response to whether you should email friends, I think if you want honest feedback you’ll need some sort of anonymous feedback form or survey. Otherwise friends will just be nice. Friends are good that way.
Personally speaking I don’t feel the need to comment often because I feel relatively connected to you in terms of Twitter, how often you post videos, and all the networks I see you on. So yes, I think the Twitter culture has had a huge impact on the videoblogging community. Less comments don’t necessarily equate to diminished connections. I remember the time when comments were all we had.
I guess I wouldnt really consider myself one of your friends however I do watch all your videos. Maybe you could say that I’m a fan of your stuff since I’m subscribed to your stuff
I dont comment on all of the ones I watch but do on the ones that move me to say something. Like this one. This one asks for and provokes a conversation. Sometimes a video doesnt need a response. Sometimes it’s just there for the pleasure of viewing. Sometimes, a video says all that’s needed to be said. I understand where you are coming from though. Comments are gold and help knowing what people think about what you created.
Twitter may have changed things but I dont see too many commenting on peoples videos on Twitter. I see more announcements that people have created a video there. Those announcements, be them from Twitterfeed or a manual announcement, are in a way of asking people to watch their videos. Do I see anything wrong with you asking your friends to watch your newest video? No. Not really. I would question if it was needed? I kinda go with the train of thought that my friends will watch either when I first post the video or will eventually watch it if they are subscribed to me. I hope that they watch my stuff but if they dont then there really aint much I can do about it.
I wouldnt sweat it. There are people that are watching. Those that arent are missing some really great stuff
I’ve watched all your videos.
I’m usually watching them in iTunes which doesn’t provide a way to comment easily. I also take a lot of podcasts with me and watch them on my iPod during my commute back and forth to work on the train. I rarely comment on videos now that I think about it. I know that on blogs, I have to enter my name, email, website and I wonder if my comment is important enough to take the time to do that. I’m more likely to comment on a site like Flickr which I’m ALWAYS logged into and ALWAYS checking out. I think it’s simply an “ease of use” issue.
Ya know what we need…
A universal system like Digg that people can “mark as watched” with a simple click of the mouse. I think I could handle that. I wouldn’t mind people knowing that I watch their videos, I would up for it.
Keep up the good work buddy!
Click to play this video.
Clintus,
First of all, sure ask a friend anything - they’re friends.
Second, it’s interesting that you posted this video. I started subscribing to your videos during vlog week; also, for the first time in a year or more, I caught up with videos in my feed, and, I always say, I’ll start commenting, so, well, this is sort of meta.
Third, I love comments, and I hardly ever ever get any on any of my videos any more and I feel sorry for myself, and, when I came to comment on this video, I thought, wow, he got 10 comments, maybe I should make a video about comments. But, then, I ask myself, how often to do I comment, and, well, I hardly ever ever comment anymore - partly because I watch via iTunes on TV and the system is not designed to support interaction - also, because, somewhere along the line I started figuring that I had enough people watching me that I could not post much, not interact much, etc., and everybody would keep commenting and watching … not realizing it was all about the interaction - the community, that’s what is fun, and that’s what it’s all about (I’ve come to realize for me, anyway).
I enjoy watching your videos because it reminds me of 2005 (100 video blog years ago), when people spent more time telling their own stories and watched other people’s stories and they interacted via comments, the video blogging list, and even the videos themselves were more connected - I see you participating a lot now in all these areas and it’s fun to watch. So, I’m totally watching and enjoying, and posting long rambling comments … Richard
100 videos!!! That’s impressive. Hmm… I dunno’, it’s a tough call on whether it’s fine to ask - I mean I guess it is, in the way you are asking it here. You are just curious as to what things people like… what they want to see more of. I feel bad cause I’m so addicted to my RSS reader (which is a desktop reader) that sometimes I don’t always follow back to the site to comment. And I hate that, I feel so lazy… and just… it’s bad internet etiquette…
I think a lot of people in this space feel busier and busier… and I think that’s a bad thing in a lot of ways.
Okay… I think, cause what you said I’ve seen it a lot on other places, I think asking the question is better if you put in the perspective of “why are we commenting less, watching less, interacting less…?”
I don’t know but I think you do great vlogs - you are one of the best vloggers out there Clintus… so… just keep doing what you’re doing. And that includes asking the question you’re asking here.
Sure ask your friends. There is not reason not to as long as you are willing to accept a new.
My big problem with comments is tracking them. I use co.mments.com which is nice. But I have to remember to track the comments and if I’m doing it from work I can’t use the service because it’s blocked. Wish I had a better way.