Web Series Case Study for Season 1 of Naturally Ours

Canada's Parks

 

Creating, filming and marketing Naturally Ours has been an exciting process filled with many positive and heart warming encounters! We were able to thrive on our storytelling roots reviving the quirky science loving gal that is such a part of Erica Hargreave. Through exploring Canada’s parks, we captured imagery and interviews that remind us of what it means to be Canadian. As it’s never long before Erica makes friends, she was joined by the scientists, naturalists, historians & artists whose work is inspired by Canada’s magnificent spaces. We have outlined a web series case study for our first season, which was filmed entirely on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia.

 

Salt Spring Island

Just one of many stunning views seen while on Salt Spring Island

 

In filming Season 1 of Naturally Ours, we were debating whether to distribute it as a broadcast half-hour series or a web series, as the pilot content shot on Salt Spring Island could be cut beautifully into either, and with the release of the series trailer, we were asked for both from the audience and broadcasters. Our digital audience wanted to see a web series, and without pitching the broadcasters, we were asked for a broadcast half hour series from a 4K Network in the US and paid subscription network in Canada.

We also had interest in the series from an interactive and immersive storytelling fellowship in Norway, that shortlisted the Series Creator and Host, Erica Hargreave, for the fellowship. Finally in the Autumn of 2017, we decided to follow our instincts and release the pilot content for Naturally Ours as Season 1 of the web series, Naturally Salt Spring. By sharing Naturally Salt Spring as a web series, we create greater flexibility in use and sharing with our various partners in the Series.

What the Audience is Saying…

 

web series feedback

 

Series Timeline to Date

Winter 2017

  • Released the trailer for Naturally Ours.
  • Approached by a 4K network in the USA for the first season of the Series.

Spring 2017

  • Shortlisted as a part of an Interactive and Immersive Storytelling Fellowship in Norway.

Autumn 2017 

Briony Penn

Beautiful Artwork by Briony Penn

  • First run of Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, featured on Vidme.
  • Premiered Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, in 4K on YouTube.
  • #NaturallySaltSpring / #NaturallyOurs social media campaign around #SaltSpringIsland.
  • Niche Community Building Campaign around the launch of Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring.
  • Invited to submit to the Vancouver Web Fest and Fearless.
  • Full Naturally Salt Spring documentary featured as a part of the launch of Fearless
  • Full Naturally Salt Spring documentary was the Most Watched Title on Fearless in December and Erica Hargreave named as the Most Valuable Creator.

Winter 2018

  • Began the e-newsletter and blogging campaign around Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, and full Naturally Salt Spring documentary.
  • Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, an Official Selection of the Vancouver Web Fest, and nominee for Best Documentary Series and Best of BC.
  • Full Naturally Salt Spring documentary an Official Selection of the Vancouver Web Fest, and nominee for Best Pilot (under 30-minutes) and Best Cinematography.
  • Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, an Official Selection of die Seriale Festival in Germany.
  • Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, launched on Stareable, and on the same day submitted, Stareable sent word they’d be featuring the Series that week.

 

Tiered Release

To maximize exposure and reach around Season 1 of Naturally Ours, the full Salt Spring Island documentary, to our partners and to Salt Spring Island itself, and to be cognoscente of our own resources, we have approached the release of the content from this series in a tiered approach, as outlined below.

October – December, 2017

  • Release of Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, on Vidme and YouTube.
  • #NaturallySaltSpring / #NaturallyOurs social media campaign around #SaltSpringIsland.
  • Niche Community Building Campaign around the launch of Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring.
Ruckle Heritage Farm

Some of the Characters at Ruckle Farm

December 2017

  • Release of the full Salt Spring Island Documentary on Fearless.

January – April, 2018

  • E-newsletter and blogging campaign around Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, and the full Naturally Salt Spring documentary.

March 2018

  • Release of Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, on Stareable.

April 2018

  • First film festival screenings of both Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, and the full Naturally Salt Spring documentary at the Vancouver Web Fest.

June 2018

  • First European film festival screening of Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, at die Seriale in Germany.

 

Aki Otsu

Wool Art Snowy Owls by Aki Otsu, a featured artist on Naturally Ours.

Hashtag Campaign Around Salt Spring Island

During the October – December launch of Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, on Vidme and YouTube, we simultaneously ran a social media #hashtag campaign around Salt Spring Island, using the hashtags #NaturallySaltSpring, #NaturallyOurs and #SaltSpringIsland. While we utilized these hashtags on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr and Pinterest, the platforms that we tracked the data on were Instagram and Twitter. A few key data points include:

  • #NaturallyOurs / #NaturallySaltSpring Launch Campaign Impressions on Twitter – 12,629,662
  • #NaturallyOurs / #NaturallySaltSpring Launch Campaign Impressions on Instagram – 528,519
  • The Impressions to the #SaltSpringIsland hashtag doubled on Twitter.
  • This sparked the now on-going use of the #SaltSpringIsland hashtag on Instagram.

Niche Audience Building

Over the years our company, Ahimsa Media, has been met with a great deal of success in building storyworlds and engaged audiences around Films, TV Series, and Digital Storytelling Projects by identifying which niche communities the project will resonate with, and finding and engaging them online, both around our project and their own content.

This is exactly what Erica Hargreave and Lori Yearwood did around the release of Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, in the Autumn of 2017, and continue to do. While the stats around niche community engagement are cumbersome to gather, we can tell you that to date we have been engaging in:

Salt Spring Island

“We are all indigenous to somewhere” Fred Roland

  • 30 Facebook Groups
  • 34 Subreddits
  • 13 LinkedIn Groups
  • 23 Google+ Communities
  • 4 Forums

We have also compiled a list of a number of other niche communities to engage in, when time permits. These niche communities are targeting individuals interested in nature, parks, the arts, farming, homesteading, outdoor living, hiking, travel in British Columbia and Canada, the Gulf Islands, documentaries, First Nations, and travel in general. In a number of these communities, we became the ‘go to’ people to talk about Salt Spring Island, including in one of the Salt Spring subreddits, which we have to admit, gave us a chuckle.

 

Featured and Festivals

 

Stareable web series

 

We have been fortunate to have had much to celebrate with Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring. Below is a timeline to date of a few of our celebrations:

October – December, 2017

  • Entire Season 1 release of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, was featured on Vidme.

December 2017

  • Fearless featured the full Naturally Salt Spring documentary as a part of their launch.
  • The full Naturally Salt Spring documentary was the Most Watched Title in December on Fearless.
  • Erica Hargreave named the Most Valuable Creator in December on Fearless.

January 2018

  • Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, and the full Naturally Salt Spring documentary were named as Official Selections of the Vancouver Web Fest.
  • Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, was named a Vancouver Web Fest nominee for Best Documentary Series and Best of BC.
  • The full Naturally Salt Spring documentary was named a Vancouver Web Fest nominee for Best Pilot (under 30-minutes) and Best Cinematography.

March 2018

  • Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, was named as an Official Selection of die Seriale in Germany.
  • Stareable featured Season 1 of Naturally Ours, Naturally Salt Spring, as a Staff Pick in it’s first week on Stareable.

 

Some of Our Numbers to Date (March 6th, 2018)

 

Naturally Ours

  • 93,873 video views on YouTube & Vidme
  • 827 video and blog comments
  • #NaturallyOurs / #NaturallySaltSpring Launch Campaign Impressions on Twitter – 12,629,662
  • #NaturallyOurs / #NaturallySaltSpring Launch Campaign Impressions on Instagram – 528,519
  • Doubled the Impressions to the #SaltSpringIsland hashtag on Twitter.
  • Sparked the use of the #SaltSpringIsland hashtag on Instagram.

Thanks for Tuning In!

To inquire further about Naturally Ours or to become a partner in future seasons, contact Erica at: erica@ahimsamedia.com / 604-785-3602

 

Animated Storytelling Online Summer Camp!

Start them young and ignite their passion!

Lori Yearwood

In our animated storytelling online summer camp, run through BCIT, we aim to hone in on the endless imagination and creativity of youth as we teach them animated storytelling. Together we will enter the exciting world of interactive digital storytelling by creating animated books and stop motion videos.

Having fun with Animated Storytelling
Setting Up for a Stop Motion Animation Shot

Students will learn to storyboard, create voiceovers, experiment with soundscaping, play with coding, and discover how to transform their creations in the editing suite.

Storyboarding your stop motion stories.
Storyboarding Skills in Action

In addition to stop motion storytelling, the coding students learn will be applied to creating a digital storybook, complete with moving characters and interactive features.

Here’s an example of an interactive digital story that can be made with the skills learned in our camp:

A peak at a little of the coding that was involved in creating the story above:

Coding animated stories.

In this online camp, campers will connect with each other and their instructors through interactive video sessions and a secure online camproom with discussion boards. Each day will include a morning and afternoon interactive video session, time to work on the day’s challenge with instructor guidance, and an exercise / relaxation session.

Required Materials

  • A computer
  • A smartphone or tablet that has a camera to take videos and photos OR a digital camera where files can be uploaded to the computer
  • Access to a high speed internet connection
  • Building blocks (such as, Lego)
  • Paper and pens

Course Dates and Registration

8-13 YrJul 27–31, 20209:00am to 2:00pmCamp H
13-17 YrAug 10–14, 202010:00am to 3:00pmCamp I

Register for some creative, summer fun below.

Please let us know if you have any questions. We are looking forward to having a lot of fun!

Finding Calm, Beauty and Peace in Oprah’s Podcast Series

I am a newbie to the world of podcasts, but my cup already runeth over with listening in. Before needing an even bigger boost of positivity and inspiration during these COVID-19 times, I had been listening to Oprah’s podcast series while driving as a means of inspiration for talking points during the yoga classes I teach. Now, I have the series playing as I cook, clean and hangout within my home. Entitled, Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations, each podcast features only one celebrity and conversations are raw as they talk about their own journeys of health and wellness with life lessons they have learned. I feel at this time, it is of utmost importance to flood our ears with information that can inspire positive change. The more we hear it, the more we will gravitate that way, instead of towards worry or fear.

I am still making my way through all of Oprah’s episodes and she continues to add new ones. There are some poignant take aways that will stick with me from what I have listened to so far.

In her podcast with Bishop T.D. Jakes, he teaches us that we think we are mostly only capable of what has been modeled for us. We are what we see, what we read, and what we hear.

mother dog with puppies

He tells a story of a beautiful mama dog who was injured in a car accident while pregnant. Her back legs became paralyzed, but absolutely no harm at all came to her puppies. The accident caused her to drag her legs behind her as she moved around. As the puppies grew and began to walk, they all dragged their legs behind them and only walked using their two front legs! They didn’t even know what they were capable of. What are you capable of that you haven’t even discovered yet?

Photo on left courtesy of Karel Van der Auwera via Unsplash.

standing under light

In Oprah’s Supersoul Conversation with Luptia Nyong’o, Lupita speaks on making space for abundance. We do such a good job at being sad, feeling negative, expecting rejection, preparing for “No’s” we will hear in our life, but we need to make space for light in our lives. Prepare for the “Yes’s” we will hear, for the positivity, and success.

A much needed listen at this time is the podcast with Eckhart Tolle, appropriately titled, Acceptance of Troubled Times. He explains that stress is something that arises when we want whatever is happening in that moment to not be happening. Stress arises in the gap between ‘what is’, and what our mind says ‘should be’. He feels we spend a great deal of time arguing with life and protesting our situation and this distracts the situation from changing. We must find acceptance in order to start achieving change.

Accept this moment as if you had chosen it.

Eckart Tolle

Eckhart encourages us to become friendly with the present moment. He feels that we add excess baggage to a situation by involving our own narrative. If we remove the dialogue we are telling ourselves of things like, “This is awful”, “This is ridiculous”, we can see a situation in its neutral state, in its true form.

Photo curtesy of Tim Goedhart via Unsplash

I will leave you with this quote from Joy Harjo, America’s Poet Laureate, whose podcast with Oprah reached me deeply, especially in these times where we rarely sit still with our thoughts and feeling, but rather distract with social media, the internet in general, and television.

You must be friends with silence to hear.

The songs of the guardians of silence are the most powerful –

They are the most rare.

Joy Harjo

Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations Podcast Series can be listened to through Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Helping Organizations to Find Solutions for Digital Learning

Recently we have heard a number of disheartening stories of schools of all sorts – from academic to trades to athletic to creative – that are considering closing as a result over uncertainty over how long the doors to their physical locations will be closed as we work to flatten the curve of the spread of COVID-19.

We can help your organization to transition into an online learning environment for both the short term and long term (if that is so desired).

What this could involve is:

  • finding and setting up the right digital learning solutions for your organization,
  • training your instructors in building and teaching their courses online,
  • helping your instructor’s get their courses online, and
  • fine tuning instructor’s online courses and the organization’s online classroom environment in the long term.

Click through the slide deck below to learn more about our experience and how we can work with you to create digital learning solutions for your organization.

Please reach out, if we can be of help to you.

Transitioning Classrooms and Offices Online

Wow, what a change a week can bring!

As much of the world is transitioning to online classrooms and working from home while we work to #FlattenTheCurve of the spread of COVID-19, we thought we’d reach out to see if any of you need any help with that transition.  If you do, please send us an email.

Our Virtual Office

Our team has now been working remotely for over a decade, and we are happy to share what works for us and to answer questions as to solutions we’ve found to various aspects to working together from a far. 

Mango and Lori hard at work in one of our virtual offices.
Mango and Lori, hard at work together from one of our virtual offices.

We also began to develop, design, and teach Online Courses for Colleges eight years ago, and have similarly been developing Online Learning Solutions for our own business and community building efforts.  This is part of the reason why I have been working on my Master of Educational Technology, to continue to build upon digital and virtual learning solutions for our community and our storytelling.

Ella, Chief Feline Officer at Ahimsa Media
Ella finally taking her role as CFO (Chief Feline Officer) seriously.

If you need help in building your courses and / or learning materials online, don’t hesitate to reach out.  We are happy to help.

The Gift of Learning : Storytelling and Digital Media Courses

With it being that time of year where many people are purchasing gifts, I’ve been pondering spending and what is important to me. It had me thinking of that old proverb …

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

Photographer: Cristian Palmer
Photographed by Cristian Palmer, care of Unsplash.

There is no greater gift than learning a skill that helps you to pursue your passions. This is the reason why teaching is an important part of our work, that our team values.

The Importance of Teaching to Our Team

When I started speaking in 2008 about bridging the worlds of media, interactive and cross-platform storytelling, and digital media, it occurred to me that while inspiring people through my talks was great and all, to truly help people to take action, they needed a course giving them guidance and support while they build and craft their storyworlds.

Interactive Storytelling
Erica Hargreave and Caitlin Burns on a Panel on Convergent Storytelling.
Photographer: Liz Kearsley

A year later, after pitching the local post secondary schools, my first post-secondary school courses launched at BCIT and Capilano University. Since then my team and I have also built courses and workshops and taught community, undergraduate and graduate courses at Ryerson University, Humber College, and NVIT. In addition, we’ve helped build new programs and revise old programs. It has both been an honour to teach and share with others, and fulfills a passion of ours. We love teaching.

Creating Our Course Online

In 2011, after speaking in Egypt, we recognized that to truly make a difference to people that could most benefit from our courses, we needed them to be available online.

Erica Hargreave speaking on ‘Real Time’ Storytelling at the UNWTO Conference on Working with Media in Challenging Times in Marsa Alam, Egypt.

Thanks to BCIT and our colleague Kevin Ribble, they were by 2013. This has also allowed Lori Yearwood to help build and teach those courses with me.

2020 Courses at BCIT

I am happy to share that as we move into 2020, we now have 2 online post-secondary credited courses and 2 intensive community courses offered through BCIT’s Broadcast Media and Communications Part Time Studies. All of our courses are project based, in which our students come out of them having built or built upon projects of their own that they are crafting for their future endeavours.

For those of you who are looking to give yourself and someone in your life the gift of learning this year, these are a few of the courses that we will be teaching in 2020:

Photographed by Ian Schneider, care of Unsplash.

More Coming on StoryToGo

Also keep your eyes peeled on StoryToGo, our contemporary media community as we’ve long been talking about offering mini online courses and tailored online and blended courses for organizations there. This is something that you will see launch in 2020 with more course offerings from us and our rich group of storytelling friends and colleagues.

If you have a course that you would love to see offered through StoryToGo, please let us know in the comments, and if you wish us to tailor create a course for your organization, please send us an email.

Photographed by by Danielle Macinnes, care of Unsplash.

Raising a glass of whatever your preferred beverage to a happy and rewarding new year and new decade, rich in learning!


Contemplating a Course? Pin this to Save for Later

Storytelling and Digital Media Courses from BCIT

Naturally Ours Season 1 Film Festival Selections and Awards

Salt Spring Island

Erica mid interview with Cowichan Knowledge Keeper Hwiemtun on the set of Naturally Ours.

We have recently embarked on a new exciting adventure into the realm of digital film production. Many of you have followed along with us as we created and shared our first completed web series, Naturally Ours! For our first season of Naturally Ours, we chose Salt Spring Island, British Columbia to highlight the  Canadian Parks and the people they inspired. We worked together with Kelly Conlin of Nice Lady Productions to bring you gorgeous 4K footage with the goal of spreading beauty, love, peace, inspiration and hope around the world. You can watch the season in its entirety here on Stareable or the broadcast half-hour documentary version of Naturally Ours: Salt Spring Island on Fearless.

 

 

After the online success of our Season 1 release of Naturally Ours, we decided to test the waters at numerous digital film festivals. Our goal with this series is to continue on, featuring the beautiful parks and natural spaces we have all around the world and the people (and yes, other non-human creatures too) that live and work amongst them. Expanding our reach to film festivals has shown that storytelling which showcases the good and beauty that exists in our world is very well received! Here are the film festival selections and awards for Season 1 of Naturally Ours to date.

Woodengate International Film Festival

Woodengate film festival

Maramures County Romania (Photo courtesy of: Camilia TWU)

The Woodengate International Film Festival is based in Maramures County, Romania. Century old traditions are still a part of daily life here. In celebration of emerging talent in online storytelling in film, they feature live screenings of official selections chosen from submissions they receive from around the world. We are beyond excited to say that we were selected for their Documentary category and won the Best Documentary award!

Vancouver Web Fest

Vancouver Web Fest

Downtown Vancouver (photo courtesy of: Spencer Watson)

The Vancouver Web Fest is local to us. We were excited to bring the beauty of a park so close to all the residents here to the big screen! This festival is part conference, part festival and part showcase. Attendees enjoy workshops, keynote speakers, screenings and more. Being a web fest, they honour creators in digital storytelling. We are pleased to share that we were officially selected as nominees for Best Documentary Web Series, Best Pilot, Best Cinematography, and Best of BC! Best of all though was the reaction of fellow Vancouver Web Fest nominee, Lungelo Mdlalose. After seeing the screening of Episode 1 of Season 1 of Naturally Ours at the festival, Lungelo decided to spend his one free day in British Columbia, making the trip through the Salish Sea to experience the parks and people of Salt Spring Island first hand.  That Lungelo was inspired to take this action is high praise indeed from the gentleman that won Best International Series at Vancouver Web Fest for his series, Thesha. Congratulations Lungelo!

die Seriale Germany

die Seriale Germany

A View of Giessen (photo courtesy of: atxcowboy)

die Seriale takes place in Giessen Germany, and is the oldest festival in all of Germany to celebrate both emerging and accomplished independent artists of digital and web series production. Lectures, workshops and panel discussions are included. It only became an international festival in 2017, so we are quite honoured to have been selected by them as official nominees for Best Series and Best Documentary. This festival takes place soon, from June 8th through the 10th. Episode 4 of Season 1 of Naturally Ours will have it’s World Premiere on the big screen at the festival!

Sicily Web Fest

Sicily Web Fest

Gibellina, Sicily (Photo courtesy of: Luca Savetierre)

The Sicily Web Fest is part of the prestigious Scirocco Wine Fest in Gibellina, Sicily. The web fest prides itself on being a real cultural event with the goal of promoting cinematographic art through the web. It is a major international event. The aim of the wine fest is also to build bridges between cultures, making this a perfect environment to bring Naturally Ours into. It will be screening there between June 29th-30th as official selections in both the Web Series and Pilot categories!

 

Canadian Diversity Film Festival

Canadian Diversity Film Festival

Downtown Toronto (Photo courtesy of LinedPhoto )

It means a tremendous amount to us to be recognized for the Canadian Diversity Film Festival, as its platform is based on diversity being Canada’s lifeblood. It is for global filmmakers living in Canada with the goal of bringing diverse communities together through story and shared experiences. For us, that means being able to highlight Canada’s first nations, and the islanders of Salt Spring Island who fought to save the land and artistic healing lifestyle. The festival will be taking place at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto, Ont. June 29th-30th. The full version of Naturally Ours is an official selection in the Documentary category!

 

Stareable Fest

Stareable Film Fest

Lady Liberty and New York City (photo courtesy of Bicad Media)

Naturally ours will be making its American film festival debut this summer at Stareable Fest in Tribeca, New York City! Stareable itself is an innovative site for web creators to showcase their passion projects. In keeping with their spirit of supporting independent filmmakers, they are hosting a two day celebration that is a mix of judging nominated films, industry marketplace and creator convention.  We are pleased to say that Naturally Ours is an official selection for Best Documentary! The festival will be taking place July 20th-22nd.

 

Rolda Web Fest

Rolda Web Fest

Roldanillo, Columbia (Photo by: Claudio Vosti )

The Rolda Web Fest takes place in Roldanillo, Columbia and is one of only three in all of South America. This will be its second annual edition. This year they received over 1000 submissions from over 87 countries and have a celebrity jury. We are beyond excited to be finalists for best Documentary Web Series or Short Film! Rolda Web Fest takes place July 28-29th.

Copenhagen Web Fest

Copenhagen Web Fest

The Nyhavn (New Harbor in Copenhagen) Photo by: Nick Karvounis

The Copenhagen Web Fest will be full of activity! There will be live screenings, workshops, innovative projects, master classes and a pitch fest with international film makers. Taking place September 21st-23rd, it is Scandinavia’s first web film festival. Naturally Ours is an official nominee for Best Documentary! We love seeing that they have a Young Visionary category for talented youth.

 

Travel Film Fest

Travel Web Fest

Limassol, Cyprus (Photo by: Andreas Komodromos)

The Travel Film Fest is purely for films pertaining to travel, both modern and historical, scripted and documentary. They welcome enthusiasts and professionals alike. They value various modes of travel and also love films that highlight culture, lifestyle and the world around us. They are firm believers that the story within a film is far more important than the budget or acclaim of the creators. Naturally ours has been chosen as an official selection in the Travel Web Series category. The festival takes place in Limassol, Cyprus October 19th-21st.

 

Bilbao Seriesland Festival

Bilboa Seriesland

The Guggenheim Museum (photo by: Joe Lin)

The Bilboa Seriesland Festival is the first Basque Digital Series Festival! The festival serves as a point of union for the best independent content creators from around the world to come together. In addition to screenings they will also be running a Marketplace, which will be for one to one meetings, producers round tables, matchmaking, keynote speakers, case studies and workshops. Scrrenings will be shown at historical theatres around town and the awards will be given out during the the Los Otsoa Awards Gala in the Guggenheim Museum! All of this will be taking place October 24th-27th. We are thrilled to say that Naturally Ours has been nominated for Best Short Show Content!

 

We are greatly looking forward to continuing on our journey to see where we end up next!

Vidme – How to Get Started and Verified

As storytellers and storyworld strategists, we keep our eyes and ears open for newer storytelling tools, platforms, and social networks on the rise. A recent one that has got us quite excited is Vidme.

Basically Vidme is a social networking platform for hosting your video content, as well as watching and engaging with the content of others – much like YouTube and Vimeo. It’s defining characteristics are that it also includes elements of Reddit and Twitch in it’s design. By sharing user engagement history, as well upvotes on both user videos and comments, it encourages users to engage with one another.  Unlike Reddit, however, there is no down voting of content, and as such it is fostering a positive and supportive community of content creators.

Currently, Vidme is getting the attention of many newer video content creators, as a great platform to grow on and share their video content.  After spending the last couple of weeks experimenting on the platform and getting to know the community, we’d have to agree.  This is a social networking and video hosting platform with a lot of potential. Also as a newer video content creator on Vidme there is a lot of opportunity to get noticed. Case in point, if you look at the photo below, that is one of our videos trending on Vidme in just our second week on the platform.


Guide to Getting Started and Verified on Vidme

For those of you interested in learning more about Vidme and how to be successful with your Vidme channel, here is our Guide to Getting Started and Verified on Vidme:

To review my 3 main tips were to:

 

  • Engage, Engage, Engage!!!

Engagement is what we should be doing on all our social media platforms as that is after all what ‘social’ media was designed for, but all too often we neglect to do this and just use our social media feeds to broadcast.  Vidme has been designed to remind people of the importance of engagement and as such many users (ourselves included) are discovering the magic that happens on social media when you become a part of an engaged, supportive community.

  • Wait to Apply for Verification Until You Check-Off Everything on the Verification Checklist.

Golden Goose, care of DonkeyHotey.

Image care of DonkeyHotey.

On Vidme the golden goose for many Vidme content creators is getting their channel verified. Why? As it gives their channel additional privileges, including the possibility of showing up under the trending videos, being able to monetize their channel, and adding their channel to different categories.

To get verified you need to: gain 50 followers, add an avatar and cover image to your channel, upload one video of your own, and adhere to the community rules. The process to doing this, helps to get you exploring, engaging and building a community on Vidme, which is a very good thing.

However, as is too often the case, we carry ego with us, thinking that rules don’t apply to us, so many people try to apply for verification early, before they have met the rules.  This usually results in two things: 1) you are turned down and feel resentful, or 2) you get verified (usually as you have really great quality video content or have a big audience on YouTube) and the community resents you for jumping the cue. In other words: wait to apply for verification, until you have checked off everything on the verification checklist.  If you do what I have suggested in the video above, it won’t take you that long and you will be better off for it.

To help you get started, review the Verification Page and visit the Vidme FAQs.

  • Participate in the Vidme Subreddits – both official and unofficial.

Whether you have had good or bad experiences with Reddit in the past, the Vidme official and unofficial subreddits are positive spaces to engage with other Vidme content creators and share content on Vidme.  A few subreddits I recommend checking out are the official Vidme subreddit, Vidmeos for sharing your Vidme videos, and Vidmelove for connecting with positive Vidme creators and content.

Just remember: read and follow the rules of the respective subreddits, and follow the Reddit 10% Rule. For those unaware, the Reddit 10% Rule is that for every 1 thing of your own that you share, you comment and engage with 10 other people’s posts on Reddit.

Advice from other Vidme content creators:

Having discovered the #vidmelove community, thanks to taking the time to explore Vidme and  to engaging with other Vidme content creators on both Vidme and Reddit, I asked the #Vidmelove community for their advice on getting started on Vidme.

Here is some excellent advice from @MutantPixel, @SpeedyGaming and @LinktheInformer in the #vidmelove community:

  • Use #Hashtags.

Hashtags work and are used on Vidme as a way of cataloging and searching for content on Vidme. To catalogue your content with hashtags on Vidme, simply add the appropriate hashtags to the description below your video.

  • Steer Clear of the Drama.

Vidme is a newer platform that is gaining a fair bit of attention at the moment.  As such, Vidme is working on defining itself and the direction it wishes to take, as is the community using Vidme. This attracts a certain amount of unnecessary drama.  My advice?  Avoid this and don’t fuel it.  Life has enough real problems, without creating manufactured drama.

  • Share Your Vidmeos (aka Vidme Videos) on Other Social Networking Platforms.

While engaging on other social media platforms, like Twitter, Facebook, Stumbleupon, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google+ … etc share links to your vidmeos in a engaging and meaningful manner, so that you aren’t simply broadcasting and spamming your audience.  If unsure if you are sharing in a meaningful and engaging manner, look at your social media feed and answer these questions:

  1. Do you provide an interesting / engaging teaser to the vidmeo, before sharing the vidmeo link?  Your answer should be ‘yes’ here.  If it’s not, then it is time you start doing this.
  2. Are all your posts on your feed sharing vidmeos and other posts that lead people to content you have created?  Hopefully your answer is ‘no’ here. If it is ‘yes’, then you are likely spamming your audience and might be looking a little self involved.

Be sure to checkout Trinding.com, as a new social networking site, designed specifically to share links to your online video content.

Another great tip, shared with me by @Hoshi-Hana is to create content that you are passionate about. Don’t create something just because others are doing it or you think it might be popular.  To have staying power and be invested in creating new video content long term, you need to like what you are doing.


Pen and Paper, care of Dinuraj K.

Photo care of Dinuraj K.

Other Vidme Tips?

If you have other tips to being successful on Vidme, we’d love to hear them in the comments below.

Are You On Vidme?

If you are on Vidme, we’d love to come check out your channel. Please add a link to it in the comments below.


More Tutorials

For more in-depth tutorials and coaching from our team, sign-up for one of our courses at BCIT, or book us for a custom designed course or workshop of your own. You can find the details at the links below:

Houseparty App ~ Video Chat With up to 8 People!

I have been disappointed over the recent years with how little my teens communicate with their friends in a manner that does not involve texting. Nobody actually calls each other any more. Just as our mothers and grandmothers before us, I began to accept the changing times. The tide has turned though with the entrance of a video chat App. Its name is Houseparty, and it’s more than welcome on our devices!

Houseparty App

The appeal of Houseparty is that you can video chat with up to 8 people at a time. Now my teens are having ‘face to face’ conversations. Sometimes they have a bunch of friends on there just doing homework together, other times they are all chatting to make a decision on a weekend outing, and quite frankly most of the time they are just checking in on each other with short quick hangouts. Of course, they added the App to my phone and created my own account, because they are always trying to keep their mama hip. The problem that arose for me though, is that when adding friends for me to ‘party’ with, absolutely no one in my contacts has this App. That, my friends, is why I am sharing this with you. We once again have an App taking the teenage world by storm that adults don’t know about!

Apps for Video Chatting

I love the subtle red solo cup.

I see this App being incredibly fun and useful for my various groups of friends from near and far, as well as for family visits with international relatives. With its ability to include up to 8 people at a time though, Houseparty is actually a strong business tool as well.

fun facts

Lori in the House!

As soon as you open the App you will be shown your previous activity and you are then greeted with an added bonus…a fun fact! Also, upon entering the App your friends will get a pop-up notification on their phone letting them know that you are there. “Lori’s in the house!” They can then choose to go join you.

Houseparty App

A Party of Three (blurry action screen shot!)

As friends or co-workers join you in the house, the screen will continue to split. This gives me a chuckle every time as it reminds me of the Brady Bunch opening! If you notice the red banner at the bottom, it says that the room has been locked. This function closes the chat and no one else will be notified or allowed to enter. You activate the locking feature by clicking on the 3 dots you see in the bottom left corner of the photo above. This is needed, as everyone in your Houseparty contacts will get notified every time you enter the App. I would suggest you create a separate account for business and personal contacts. It is possible to turn off notifications though in your settings.

Houseparty Feedback

If you ever have any trouble or would like to give feedback simply shake your phone and select a prompt.

That’s the main tour of the house! It’s very user friendly and simple to navigate. I hope it brings you some great ‘face to face’ interactions.

Prisma: Turning Photos Into Works of Art

Transforming a Photo with Prisma

Prisma-ing a photo of Alouette Lake.

If you have found yourself looking at all the artistic images that your friends have been sharing on social media the past few months and find yourself wishing you had such artistic talents too, I will let you in on a little secret … most of the beautiful artistic images circulating social media have been created with the aid of a mobile app, Prisma. Translation: you too can create some of these incredible works of art without attending art school.

Basically Prisma is a mobile app that provides filters to transform your photographs into works of art using the styles of famous artists such as Van Gogh, Picasso, Levitan, as well as world famous ornaments and patterns.

To use Prisma on your photos, once you’ve downloaded the app to your smartphone, simply open the app and select a photo from your camera roll or take a new photo, and then tap the different filters and watch each one transform your photo into a different work of art.

Take for example the preceding image that Lori took at Alouette Lake, by playing with it in Prisma, I transformed it into the following works of art …

Dream Filter

Prisma Dream Filter of Alouette Lake

Waves Filter

Prisma Waves Filter of Alouette Lake

Paper Art Filter

Prisma Paper Art Filter of Alouette Lake

Coloured Sky Filter

Prisma Coloured Sky Filter of Alouette Lake

Prisma Tips and Tricks

Prisma also allows you to manipulate the intensity of the filters by running your finger left (to increase the filter’s intensity) or right (to decrease the filter’s intensity).

Altering Prisma filter intensity.

If you want to see your original photo next to your new Prisma artwork, swipe downward with your finger on the image. Swiping back upwards with your finger on the image will restore just the Prisma artwork.

Prisma Side by Side Images

By clicking on the cog icon in the top corner, you can enable or disable Prisma to ‘save your original photos’ (those you take while using the app), ‘save your Prisma artwork automatically’, and ‘turn on/off the Prisma watermarks’ on your Prisma artwork.

Prisma Settings

You can also save your Prisma artwork right after creating it, by clicking on the downward arrow icon underneath the artwork after you create it, and/or share it directly to Instagram and/or Facebook by clicking on the Instagram and/or Facebook icons underneath your Prisma artwork.

Saved!

Finally, if you wish to share the image elsewhere – to dropbox, via email, to Google+ or Twitter … etc – simply click on the upward arrow icon underneath your Prisma artwork.

Prisma Sharing

Have fun creating … err … Prisma-ing!

 

Ahimsa Media