The first thing we do when we wake up and the last thing we do before we go to sleep is check our phones. It's 2018 and we live in world where it seems like everyone wants their dance video to go viral. Why do we want videos to go viral? What are the benefits of a video going viral? What are the downsides of a video going viral?
Pros:
Exposure - Millions of viewers around the world will see your video. Viewers will be exposed to the dance genre, your name, the festival's name, etc.
Affordability - You can shoot a viral video with your cell phone and upload it within minutes
Entertainment - People are consuming videos more than ever. Watching your video is fun, interesting, and engaging.
Cons:
Conversion - If your video had 8 million views, how many people liked your page or bought your product/service? Are you monetizing the video? What's the goal?
Content - Sure, you can shoot the video with your cell phone but what's the quality and editing like? Does the video portray you as a dancer in the best way possible? Is this the image you want?
Ego - Does it seem like the person is only doing it for likes and shares? Do they live and breathe getting attention and having only low-quality viral videos?
It's pretty easy to create a viral video in today's world. Search #kizomba or #bachatasensual on Instagram and you'll find many videos that have gone "viral." Unfortunately, these videos don't represent the dance in the best way possible. Many people view or like the video because it's shot in a way that sexualizes the dance. It's obvious to spot the videos, Instagram accounts, and artists are just there for the likes and attention.
Before creating any video, we always ask ourselves - "what is the objective or goal of this video?" If the goal is to focus on your butt and get 9 million views, that's not conducive to dance community in any way. It's not something that we support or would ever film.
We focus on quality and creating a professional online presence. If the video goes viral, that's great! Most of our videos aren't optimized or shot to go viral. We've had two videos go viral since starting SBKZ Media. The first was a salsa demo that we filmed at the Montreal Salsa Convention, and the second was a recent video of a Brazilian Zouk Performance in Mexico at Zouk MX.
Most of our videos get thousands of views, likes, and shares. Every video we post has a goal and a purpose. If a video of ours has 157 views, something is wrong (this rarely happens). Most of our videos are shot with the goal of inspiring people to dance more, creating a great online presence for the artist and promoter, and pushing the dance genre in the right direction to promote healthy competition and a growing, vibrant dance scene.