How "House of Cards" is changing television

Recently, you may have heard some buzz about the new show House of Cards.  If you haven't, the one-line summary is it's "The Sopranos meets West Wing", it's produced by Netflix and is only viewable with a subscription.

The show has quickly gained a big social media presence, which is how I was first introduced to it.  I saw a friend post about it on Facebook, and then saw a Reddit thread a few days later.  I went from never having heard of it to thinking it was all around me and that I must watch it.

So imagine my surprise when I learned that the show has only been out since February 1st (5 weeks ago)!  From the buzz on the Internet, I had assumed it was out for a few months already, since usually that's how long it takes to build up that kind of momentum.  So how did they do it so quickly?

To answer that question, I did some "online research" (yes, that includes watching the show, but I also did some real research too).  I discovered that this show's success is anything but luck.  Netflix mined data from their own website metrics to create a formula for a successful show that would be geared towards their subscribers.  With a combination of actors and director, and the moderate success of the originl British version of the show, House of Cards seemed to fit the formula, and so Netflix set their sights on it.

The appealing criteria that motivated Netflix to outbid the other networks for House of Cards.
Image from the New York Times

They also made an unprecedented choice to release the entire first season all at once - all 13 episodes.  By giving people the ability to "binge view" the entire season (don't pretend you don't know what that is), they condensed 3 months of content down to a possible 13 hours.  This created what Techcrunch and Outbrain call a hyper-engaged audience, and led to stronger advocates speaking on behalf of the show and ultimately an explosion of social media engagement.  A pretty great viral marketing strategy, in my opinion.

While Netflix had enough information to make an informed decision, it was still a risky move.  They signed a 2-season contract for $100 million, and then released half of their content all at once, all without knowing how any of it would be received.  The jury is still out on how successful the show actually is, since Netflix doesn't have to release its numbers to the public.  But they have mentioned that it's the #1 watched show on Netflix, and their stock shows a promising spike in the last 2 months, presumably as a result:

Netflix NASDAQ (NFLX) stock chart shows gains over last 6 months.
Image from Google Finance

All in all, Netflix saw favorable odds and bet their hand on House of Cards.  And I'd say they won, not just by creating a successful show, but by rebelling against industry standards and introducing a fresh, new way to view content.  In doing this, I wouldn't be surprised if they've changed the scope of television as we know it.


Read more here:
What Netflix Can Teach Us About Online Marketing (Techcrunch)
Giving Viewers What They Want (New York Times)
Netflix's House of Cards Seeks to Redefine Television (Marketplace)
Sorting Through 'House of Cards', post-binge (Variety)
And just for fun, the parody trailer for 'House of Cardinals'

I was wrong about Facebook

When I started writing this blog last month, my strategy was simple.  I wanted to write clean, intelligent posts and share them on Twitter to get people listening.  My first few posts would be quiet, because I wanted to have a few in the bank before anyone visited my site.  Then, as I got more comfortable with my blog-writing voice, I was going to slowly start linking my site to different social media platforms, and gain a small but loyal following.  My goal was 1,000 views over the course of the project, and even that seemed lofty.

My strategy didn't really consider sharing content on Facebook.  I imagined that if I shared the link it would be widely ignored (which probably would have been true with any of my other posts).  With so many people writing their own blogs nowadays, I thought it would just seem like spam and dilute the readability of my other Facebook posts, without actually driving that many people to read it.

Last Sunday night, I found myself finishing up a post about the Oscars that I felt really proud of.  It was topical, relevant, and something that I thought might actually interest a few of my friends.  So for the first time since the inception of this blog, I posted a link to Facebook.

Imagine my shock when the post escalated quickly through my friends, and on to their friends, ultimately driving over a QUARTER OF A MILLION views to my site (sorry, that had to be shouted).  Once it picked up momentum there were other sites responsible, but I know I couldn't have done it without my Facebook network.  For proof, here's a chart of the top 10 sites that referred people to my blog:

All-time referral stats of Monday's Oscar post from Google Analytics
(Facebook logo isn't actually displayed on GA's chart, I added that for clarity)

It is HUGE that Facebook accounted for 67% of the total traffic to my blog.  My post was the opposite of ignored.  Theory, meet window.

Preparing your blog for increased traffic: Part 1

This past Monday was an unbelievable day for me, when I watched my newly written blog post reach 150,000 views in 24 hours.  If there's one thing I learned, it's that at any given time your blog is just one good post away from reaching the masses.

I didn't expect it to ever explode so quickly, so there were some setup options that I overlooked when creating my blog.  Looking back on it, I realize how lucky I was that I had at least the navigation and site structure figured out, because once it exploded it would have been too late to make any structural changes.

In analyzing this, I also realized there are several factors that led to the success of the post.  I thought I'd write a summary of them, in case anyone wants to benefit from my experience.  I'm not claiming to be an expert on the subject, but I can say what did work for me.  Best of luck!

The 8 reasons why my blog post succeeded

1. Simple page design – It was very important to me to create a layout design that was clean and easy to navigate.  In fact, Blogspot is the third site that I tried hosting the blog on.  Previously I tried Tumblr and then Wordpress, but neither one allowed me to customize it to the way I wanted.  I liked the aesthetic of Blogspot, so last week I happily moved all my content over.  If I hadn't switched over to this site, I don't think I would have been prepared for the traffic I was about to get.  If you want to see the failed designs, check out my inactive pages on Tumblr or Wordpress.
2. Non-personalized blog name – When I made the first version of my blog through Tumblr, I didn’t spend enough time thinking of a good account name.  It’s the first thing you do when creating a blog, but probably the last thing on your mind.  At that point I hadn’t decided what my blog was going to focus on, and gave it a name that ultimately didn’t work.  When I moved over to Blogspot I was able to rename it to “The Big Social Picture”, and I am so glad I did because I think it gave it legitimacy to have a succinct and non-personalized name.
3. Topic relevant to my social network – When I shared my blog post on Facebook, it got re-posted and shared more times than I ever could have imagined.  Several of my friends are in the VFX/film industry so my article appealed to them, and they ended up being the platform that drove the link out to the Internet.  If I had written this about a topic that wasn’t relevant to my network, I’m not sure it would have picked up the same momentum.  I didn’t aim for this kind of chain reaction when I shared my post, but I am incredibly grateful for it.
4. Standalone content –  I made the realization a few days ago that every blog post should be inclusive to new readers.  Between your author bio and your first paragraph of your blog, the reader should be up-to-speed enough for the post to make sense.  When I wrote the post, I toned down the references to my social media project, and kept it related to the topic I was writing about.  I think it helps the post come across as more genuine and direct.
5. Interesting title of post – I changed the title about 4 times before settling on “The Oscar protest that you didn’t know happened”.  I thought it was too long (I don’t like that it takes up two lines on the Blog Archive sidebar), but over the last day I’ve realized it actually is catchy and is something that could appeal to anyone, not just people in the VFX industry.  
6. Unbiased article – A few friends have mentioned to me that they appreciate the unbiased perspective in the article.  I think it helped in this case but doesn’t mean it’s necessary for a successful blog.  Usually the whole point of a blog is giving your own biased, subjective opinion.  In this case though, I wanted to look at all sides and consider that it could be a blameless situation.  The article is more about presenting the facts and documenting the social reaction to the issue.
7. Research and thoroughness – The post took me about 4 hours to research, write, and clean up images in Photoshop.  A few times I told myself to stop working on it and go to bed, but luckily I tend to ignore that voice.  Once the site started gaining viewers, I proofread it with a fresh perspective and edited anything that wasn’t smooth (since I didn’t want to show up on foraquarter.com).  
8. Access to previous posts – I am really glad that I already had 12 other posts written before this one.  If this had happened earlier in my blog's life, I would have missed out on engaging all those people to my other content.  Once the site started peaking, I saw more hits go to my other posts, which they never could have gotten to on their own.  It's cool to see how all of my posts benefited from the surge in viewers:
   
   

The 4 things I wish I had done ahead of time

1. Added Page counter – BP (before post), I didn’t have a page counter on the site, because it seemed like a way of flaunting my failure.  With less than 50 views, I thought it would detract people from reading my posts.  But when the post took off, I was at work and didn’t have time to study the page for what could be improved.  I added the counter about halfway through the day, but I wish I had it sooner because it gives a certain validity to the post.  Plus, I think my friends enjoyed being able to refresh it and watch the counter update.
2. Set up Google Analytics (GA) to track statistics – Blogspot comes with pretty handy built-in stat tracking, but as the viewership grew my sister and I realized we wanted to see the realtime data, the comprehensive list of referring websites, and the customizable charts/graphs that GA provides.  By the time we got it set up, the blog was already a few hours into its climb.  Since GA can’t gather data retroactively, we missed out on the chance to track statistics on the first 3 hours when the post took off.  It still caught the major spikes, but the rest would have been interesting to see too.
   Note: Want to set up GA on your blog but don't know how?  Leave a message in the comments and we can discuss!
3. Added "Follow me" button  - Again, I should have known to do this ahead of time, but it just seemed unnecessary when my post was being so quiet.  I finally set this up midway through the day on Monday, but again I probably lost a good amount of potential followers in the first hours.
4. Considered monetizing blog with ads - Google offers a program called AdSense, which puts relevant ads into your blog and pays profits for each click you bring them.  You have to apply for approval with them, which took about 4 hours for me.  In those hours, I imagined I was losing out on the rare opportunity to actually make money from a blog (although I was adding it with the intention of donating the proceeds towards the VFX cause).  I ended up being declined anyway (not sure why), but it would have been nice to have that established ahead of time.

That's everything, please let me know if you agree/disagree with anything.  I'd love to hear other experiences or feedback!

UPDATE: Check out the follow-up post called Preparing your blog for increased traffic (Part 2) 

I reached 150,000 people in one day

Wow.  I never thought I'd get to write a blog post with that title!  I started this blog so I could learn how to have a voice on the Internet, but I never imagined I'd be learning how to do it through my own success story.  24 hours ago, I had less than 50 total views on this site, which is fair because I only created it last month.  And now less than a day later, I have a blog post that's been viewed over 148,000 times (and still counting).

My site's metrics from today on Google Analytics
(I didn't start tracking until 1 pm, which explains the spike)

One great upside about this visibility is, this means I get to write a blog post about my blog post...how it started spreading, how I charted the progress on Google Analytics, and how fun little tidbits came up as the day unfolded (I even was asked to be interviewed for an article!).  That post will come tomorrow, and is more related to my original project of learning how social media works.

For now, I just want to make it clear that I did not write the article to capitalize on the misfortune of the VFX industry.  I was heartbroken by the bankruptcy news, and wished I could be in LA to help rally during the protest.  After the Oscars, I was trying to find more information about what happened, and was shocked at how little coverage there was online.  As I accumulated more articles and started putting the pieces together, I decided to put it together into a post on my blog.  I wanted to raise awareness, but I never thought it was going to take off the way it did.

In any case, here are some reasons why today's visibility was amazing:

1. VFX Solidarity's Facebook page has gone up to 29,000 likes (from 7,000).  And all of the fans look like this:

 



2. Dialogues were started on several forums about the issue:

• Variety: "Visual effects artists protest near Oscars"
• SFGate: "Biggest Oscars snub: A shark attack on the VFX industry"
• This news highlight from NBC4
• This radio segment from NPR (skip ahead to 10:17.  Also can I call this an NPRticle?)
• This thread on Reddit (A threadit?)
• This blog of famous movies without effects (thanks Hoenheim)
• My own blog's 37 comments!

3. This reason is more selfish.  I got to text my family this morning to let them know about the post's popularity.  To which one sister started tracking my website metrics, another sister started proofreading my older posts for typos, and my brother sent this witty response:

All in all, it's been a pretty incredible day, definitely one I'll never forget.  Thank you Internet for letting me participate in your world.  I hope to see you again soon. :)

The Oscar protest that you didn't know happened

If you watched the Academy Awards tonight, you may have noticed an awkward music cut-off during the Life of Pi Visual Effects acceptance speech.  It may have looked like they were just stopping a long running speech, but in truth the speaker was about to mention a hot button topic of the evening, and many people think it was cut short intentionally to hide the truth.

Most viewers were unaware of this incident and most media outlets failed to report on it, but outside the Dolby Theater, there were over 400 picketers protesting the poor state of the visual effects industry.  Although it was being ignored on the televised broadcast, it started gaining momentum online during the ceremony, and is finally getting the media attention it was lacking.

So what is the protest about?
The film Life of Pi was nominated for Visual Effects (and won!), but sadly the studio that did the effects for the movie (Rhythm & Hues) had to file for bankruptcy a few weeks ago, and laid off close to 250 employees.  The protest was named "A Piece of the Pi" to show that the VFX studio behind the film wasn't getting their share of its success.

Photo credit: @tvaziri (pic.twitter.com/JjGOJ8zsQg)

This tragic story is just one example of the poor state of the VFX industry.  With overseas competition, domestic VFX houses have been surviving on less than 5% profit margins, and other studios have gone bankrupt as well (see: Digital Domain).  Supporters decided it was time to raise awareness to figure out how to stop this from continuing, so they set up a protest outside the Oscars.

Photo credit:
Left - http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/feb/25/oscars-protest-life-of-pi
Right - http://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/visualeffectsprotestatoscars (thank you Mike)

Sadly, the media did not report on the protest at all, and there was no mention of it on the televised broadcast.  But the Internet can always be counted on in cases like these, to get the truth out there.

When Life of Pi won for Visual Effects, everyone was listening intently to hear any mention of the protest happening outside.  But when Bill Westenhofer was done giving his thank yous and tried turning the subject to Rhythm & Hues, the orchestra music obnoxiously drowned him out until his mic was turned off  (watch the video here).

When this happened, the #VFXProtest hashtag on Twitter went nuts calling foul play:

The next opportunity for visibility came when Ang Lee gave his speech for winning Best Director for Life of Pi.  While he did thank "all 3,000 people" who worked on the movie, he didn't mention Rhythm & Hues by name (possibly just an oversight), and that enraged the protestors and fueled the fire even further:

So let's view the reality of the situation.  Even if these 2 incidents were unrelated to the protest, it still seems like the Academy handled this situation poorly.  The speech being cut off could have been purely about Westenhofer going over his time limit.  And Ang Lee may have honestly just forgotten to mention them in all his excitement.  But the damage has been done.  People are angry, and the events from tonight are only fueling that anger further.

In the hours since the Oscars ended, throngs of people are changing their profile picture to a solid green square.  This represents a green screen, which temporarily substitutes for effects during a film shoot so they can be added later.  It looks like it started from the Facebook group VFX Solidarity, which has been "liked" more than 7,000 times since last night.

This movement seems to be just getting started.  It will be interesting to see how big it gets, despite being ignored by the Oscars.  To me, it represents the Internet's ability to reach beyond corporations and businesses, and get the truth out there.

My hope is that it really does raise awareness to these issues, and make it possible for real discussions to be had.  They will need to start thinking about tangible solutions, but as we've seen before, the first step to solving any problem is to raise awareness.  The success of the film industry depends on it.



Read more here:
Watch the Visual Effects speech cutoff 
Hear the backstage post-interview after the speech cutoff
An open letter to Ang Lee from a VFX artist 
Variety article about plans to protest the Oscars
An explanation of VFX subsidies and what needs to be fixed
Rhythm & Hues website (which ironically isn't loading for me)
Reddit thread about the incident
An Anonymous offering to crash the Oscars site.  I don't approve but still say, go Internet!

How to reach Internet Nirvana

Yesterday I submitted my second-ever Reddit post (in full disclosure, my first post was a complete failure).  As I was posting, I took notice of the Funny subreddit rules:

That explains what I did wrong the first time!  My second post actually following the rules, and was rewarded Reddit style:

http://redd.it/18y2y4

 







I got 43 up votes!  And 79% of the world thinks I'm funny.  At least, that's what I've decided that's telling me.

Reddit gave me some karma points (21) for getting upvotes.  I don't think karma points get me anything, the points are just a medal to wear for bragging rights.  Kinda like the Purple Heart.  But in our video game world, we love measurements of our accomplishments, so of course I'm giddy to be on the map.

The bottom line is, I posted something to the internet and 54 strangers received it.  And they didn't hate it, which is already a leg up from my first post!  In doing this, I saw the spark of the Internet ignite briefly.  If my post was more witty/unique/honest/insightful, there were 54 people that it could have reached.  And if even one of them like it enough to share it, that's the next step to reaching Internirvana Netvana Internet Nirvana (#portmanteauFail).

If I had to chart out the path to Internet Nirvana, here are the steps I'd imagine:

 

I believe that my 2nd Reddit post made it to step 2 before sputtering and dying.  But that means it was on its way.  The good posts stand on the backs of the bad posts to rise to greatness.  A tad dramatic?  Sorry.

On this silly educational journey that I'm taking, it seems like my goal should be to at least reach the 3rd step on the Nirvana pyramid.  Obviously, to study the full effects of social media and modern day communication, I should aspire to Internet Nirvana, but I think we all know you can't just "decide" what goes viral.  Most of the videos that succeeded would have been shamed into submission if anyone suggested such absurdity.  My goal is to know the process, and anything that gets me closer will be a win in my book.  

On that note, maybe I should post my Nirvana chart on Reddit for someone to appreciate.  And...if they reward me with more karma points, I could move closer to Internet Nirvana.  Geez Reddit, it's like they planned it this way.

My first Reddit post was a fail.

I tried my first Reddit post just now.  It's a simple meme that I thought was pretty funny, but it looks like no one else agrees.

Here's the meme I posted.  But first, if you don't know about "Good Guy Greg" memes, just know that this photo is often used to say what makes this guy such a good human being.

Please hold your disparaging comments.  With 5 upvotes and 8 downvotes, Reddit has already humbled me into realizing it wasn't that great.  Sigh.  I get it, memes don't just write themselves.

The crazy thing is, I should be embarrassed and thinking about taking it down right now.  But instead, I keep refreshing the page and watching the vote numbers change anyway because it's still fun.  Even though there are so many bad votes.  Great, another reason why I like Reddit.  Dammit. 

On Twitter, I've posted over 100 homemade jokes, but I rarely hear a response to them.  Occasionally I'll get a retweet, or a new follower, but mostly I just feel like I'm hurling words into a dark chasm and never hearing from them again.  Which begs the question, if a tweet posts on an unfollowed Twitter account, does it ever make a sound?

On Facebook, I'll post things that I think are cool, and either be rewarded with lots of likes/comments from within my social network, or I'll hear nothing and assume nobody read that post.  I don't know how I'd feel if people were able to "dislike" my comments, but from my surprising response to the negative Reddit votes, I think I might appreciate it.  It's the same principle as asking if you would want to be told if your significant other had cheated on you.  My answer is always yes I would want to know, because I don't want to be sheltered from knowledge that can help me make better decisions tomorrow.  If people out there dislike my post, they'll dislike it whether I know it or not.  So why not let me grow from it, and realize that the internet isn't a one-way street, and that my words are influencing other people whether in a good way or a bad way.  I think we could also use a little humility when it comes to our websonality.  My internet self is getting something of an ego, and could use a healthy dose of criticism.

My Reddit post has already humbled me to want to be better.  I don't want to keep churning out every bad joke I've ever thought of.  I want something that will please these 8 nay-sayers that don't think I'm good enough for them.  Those 8 people were willing to hear me out, they clicked on my meme and cared enough to vote it down.  But if my content was better, maybe they would have liked it.  And with a readership of 8 people, I already feel like those are better odds than my Twitter account.  And it's way better than asking my mom what she thinks of my meme.  So thanks Reddit, for your unwavering honesty.  I'll try to be better next time.