Hot on the heels of our very first truly viral video, I put out another fun, quick clip. While it didn’t blow up, it’s definitely been popular — especially among people I’d love to court as clients.

But I squandered it. Learn from my mistake!

“Bubba” (his real name) is a local legend. Everybody knows Bubba, and he knows everybody. In addition to being a noted local philanthropist, he ran a used car lot that had incredibly popular TV spots. They were cheesy, heartfelt, and produced on a shoestring budget — the local commercials that every local commercial aspires to be. I always wanted to film one, taking Bubba’s martial arts adventures (yes, really) into the 21st century visual effects age. By the time my business was winding up, however, his was winding down.

Bubba’s since moved on. He’s in real estate now, and is a fixture at Georgia Southern University’s football games. We’ve done some video work for Southern’s athletic department, so I’ve got a media pass that puts me on the sidelines to film every home game.

As per usual, Bubba was there this past week. But he was on the sidelines. With a huge, CO2-powered t-shirt cannon. This man in his early-to-mid-40s looked like a six year old on Christmas with his first Red Ryder* as he fired promotional t-shirts to students, parents, alumni and opposing fans alike with gleeful abandon. His smile stretched ear to ear. That cannon looked to be straight out of an 80s science fiction movie, and he even had a gun crew with him to ram his textile projectiles down into its barrel.

So I filmed it.

Going through my game footage, I watched the clip and knew that even though it wouldn’t work for a ticket commercial, the world needed to see it. So I quickly rendered out about 15 seconds of it, posted it to Facebook, and tagged Bubba.

…And that’s where I screwed up. Remember how I wrote that Bubba knows everybody? He’s friends with them on Facebook, too. The man strides through halls of money and power, businesses that need video. Want video. Are willing to pay appropriate rates for video.

Those friends saw the video. Commented on the video. Shared the video.

And as it edged over 1,000 views in less than a day, I realized that the short in no way connected with my video production business.

What did I do wrong?

1. Obviously, I should have had a watermark at the very least. Looking back, I likely should have included the business name, website URL and a phone number, in unobtrusive text along the bottom.
2. I posted it on my personal Facebook page, and not on the business’ page.
3. Rather than just rendering out the raw clip, I should have taken a half-hour and added some polish. I could have made the colors pop a little bit better, maybe added some music and sound effects. Heck, I could have even given Bubba a nice lower third.

Summing up all of the above, I just got too excited about the footage. Bubba’s a charismatic guy. When he’s having a good time, you can’t help but bask in the glow and join in yourself. That feeling carried over to the video, and I rushed to get it out to the public without pausing for a minute to think about how to benefit my business while still entertaining the masses.

Always pause for a minute to think before you entertain the masses.

*Parents, BB guns aren’t appropriate for gifts six year olds, but imagine how happy they’d be wielding one.