Going Platinum
It’s an odd thing to have a video with a million views, which I now do. It’s a platinum video. It was posted on a page I run called Gatewood Press, on Facebook. It was about flooding just down river from the town where I live. It showed a site before the flood and during the flood and there wasn’t a lot of time between the two. There was nothing then there was something, and a lot of it. Water
The entire thing runs 24 seconds. Here’s a link. The average watch time according to Facebook is 14 seconds. The hook rate, a span of three seconds, is 57%, which is good apparently because it means people stopped scrolling to watch, and the hold rate is 25% which is percent continued watching. The algorithm liked it and people liked it. Gatewood Press gained 1,400 followers. I hope they don’t expect more flooding videos, however, because they might have to wait a while.
I like making videos. It’s another form of storytelling. The trick, obviously, is how to make them compelling. A follow-up video about a recovery from the flood only got about 8,000 views. Disaster, obviously, sells. It’s the same with this blog. Posts on illness, death, and mourning get big returns, while material with less pathos brings in smaller numbers. In the end, I just need to be true to myself as to my subject matter, and considerate of the viewer as to the packaging. Then, try to remember that the goal is to create something worth seeing or reading even thought it might go unseen or unread.