March 11, 2009

Best Practices: Seeking User-Generated Dance Content

There are many approaches that you can take to seeking user-generated video content for your dance performances, online efforts and educational programs.

In my Monday post, "10 Ways to Engage Internet Audiences with Your Dance-Making," I included Martha Graham's Clytemnestra Project, Ballet Nouveau Colorado's Dancemakers 2.0, dance your scientific dissertation and competitions on DanceJam.

In this post, I would like to provide my recommended best practices for how to create and implement successful user-generated content (UGC) initiatives. I think that there are many excellent opportunities to engage audiences through this participatory, creative approach. But there are also many potential pitfalls that you will want to try to avoid.

Here are my recommendations:

1) Description and Focus: Define in clear terms the type of user-generated content you will be seeking. Will it be for a dance competition, mashup program, the incorporation of video submissions into a performance or other types. Are there examples of such UGC initiatives that you can learn from or are you embarking on a new type of program?

2) Audience: Who is your audience and how large is the potential audience? This is a critical question. If your potential audience is on the small side, it will be more difficult to encourage lots of people to participate in your UGC program. And you will have to spend more time and energy encouraging people to create their own videos. If only a few people participate, it may be difficult to generate momentum and excitement.

3) Closed UGCs: A safe approach to user-generated content programs is to limit them to a specific group of people who are likely to participate or are required to participate. Consider the dance your scientific dissertation. Once your captive audience has generated the desired content, then you can open your program to the public with momentum already on your side.

4) Delayed UGCs: Another way to hedge your bets is to launch a UGC program only after it has become a UGC program. For example, create an instructional dance video that teachers a series of moves or a dance phrase. Post it to YouTube. If a few YouTube users post their own versions of your dance moves in response to your video, you have the beginnings of a UGC initiative without having announced one. Once others have shared their versions of your dance, then you can formally launch your program.

5) YouTube: My recommendation is that in many cases you will want to use YouTube for your UGC programs. YouTube is the largest video site. So it's simply a safe bet. You can set-up a group on YouTube where users can submit their videos to your competition or other type of UGC program. See Ballet Nouveau Colorado's Dancemakers 2.0 Group

6) Video Introduction: I strongly recommend that you create an introductory video in which you invite your audience to participate in your program. Speak directly to the camera, describe your program and highlight the specific benefits of participating.

7) Show Remix Examples: If you are encouraging your audiences to remash video content, create and post your own examples of how you went about remixing your original videos. These examples will provide users with a clear idea of how they might get involved with your program.

8) Seed the Market: Increase the chances that your UGC program will be successful by inviting your friends to participate. You don't want to risk the possibility that you will have no submissions. So encourage people that you know to upload their own dance moves, remixes or other types of relevant video content.

9) Use High-Quality Videos: For your own videos, you will want to ensure that you create professional quality videos with high resolutions. I think that the age of low-quality YouTube videos is over and user's expectations are more demanding than they used to be.

10) Aggressively Promote Your Program: Market your UGC program through multiple online and offline channels to get people excited and motivated to participate. Start your promotional efforts a month or two before you launch so that you are not pressured to find video submissions at the last moment.

If you would like to share your recommended best practices and experiences, that would be great.

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