Youtube Experiment Results

on February 9, 2008 in Promotion, Scouting

Well, the Youtube Scouting Video Day experiment did not accomplish the goal of getting a Scouting video or two to the top five “views” pages on Friday, February 8th. I do appreciate everyone who participated in the project. We gave it a good run, but we just did not have the numbers needed to do it. Here is a brief summary of the results.

The views received by each of the four suggested videos varied by the hundreds. The Cub Scout commercial featuring Steve Young only received 201 hits on Friday, as near as I can tell. The Boy Scout commercial about Jim Lovel did better, receiving 367 views.

The “What Parents Say About Scouting” did better then I expected when compared to the other videos. I thought it would come in with the lowest number of views since it was the longest of the videos. It received 271 hits, seventy more then the Cub Scout video.

The “Scout Zone” received the most hits, which was something I expected. It was watched 533 times, far more then the other videos. I would guess that was because it was the first video listed, and that it was a music video which was fun to watch.

The experiment failed to get any of these videos to the front pages, but I would not call it a complete failure. Dozens, or even hundreds, of people watched these videos for the first time and may have been introduced to other Scouting videos found on Youtube. I would call that successful, wouldn’t you?

Once again, I would like to thank everyone who participated in the project and spread the word to others. Maybe we can try it again next year, or maybe make this a yearly occurrence.

PS – After writing this article this morning, I took another look at the numbers around 10:00 am. Either Youtube is playing with me, or a lot of people watched the videos since 7:00 am. The numbers of views for each of the videos has gone up by the hundreds! Take a look at these numbers:
The Cub Scout Commercial (Young) – 223 more views.
The Boy Scout Commercial (Lovel) – 346 more views
What Parents Say About Scouting – 221 more views
The Scout Zone Video – 470 more views.
I think these videos have received more views in 36 hours then they normally receive in two months!

One Response to “Youtube Experiment Results”

  1. Anonymous says:

    Great idea, but….
    Things that go to the top have to be something that triggers the viral “you gotta see this” reaction. Unfortunately, a large percentage of society does not believe in the same sort of things that Scouts and Scouters do. Because of the disdain for the movement, no curiosity for the movement can be engendered.

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