Wednesday 21 July 2010

In less than a month..

Get Featured UK has featured 9 Youtuber's of different talents and brilliance and showcased them to a new audience.
As of tonight it has over 2000 subscribers to it's name
Nearly 300 followers on Twitter
A Facebook page that we finally got the bloody URL for today http://www.facebook.com/GetFeaturedUK
and a growing support which hasn't slowed down.

Each Youtuber that's been featured has felt an impact on their own subscriber number and views no matter how big that impact has been, whether it being KickThePJ or OtterPad, if they've 50 subscribers or 34 thousand Get Featured UK have shown them off.

I was featured in the August of 2008 which meant I was on the front page of Youtube for 3 days and I remember that initial buzz, I felt so proud that a video I'd made was being recognised and showcased. It was a video that meant a lot to me as I'd gained the desire to make it when my Grandpa died a month earlier. It's something I'm still proud of now.
          Now when Get Featured UK was formed I didn't want it to be 'New Youtube' or 'The Saviours' I wanted people to feel that same buzz that I felt, I wanted to make a difference to people on Youtube and inspire others to either make videos again or to keep making great videos to be proud of. Although we've only been going for a month I think we're doing that already. I had a HUGE fear that we'd get 10 subscribers and it wouldn't impact anyone, but we've had such name's as TristopiaTV, JerryHCooke, BarryAldridge, BillTVMacon, Lomasca, Alex Day and Charlieiscoollike help us out with promotion whether via Twitter or Youtube and the ball has really rolled. We're hoping to gain support from a few other people as wel to push the project along further. We also have promising news that we hope to announce soon which me, Gary and Jack are very excited about.

We already feel like we've achieved a lot but we equally think we can achieve a lot more.
We can't thank everyone enough, the people that have applied for the panel, the people that uploaded our initial video, the tweeters, the people that made their own videos about it, the people that have sent us videos and to the all people that have followed the growing success of GetFeaturedUK, from the bottom of my internet heart....

Thank you so much for making this work.

Ben
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Monday 19 July 2010

Back to college

So I'm about to leave for college for the first time in about 5 weeks its been a long half term break for me. With being at hospital for a week and then needing to recover for longer than was initially thought.

I'm pretty nervous =/

Not because I'll be seeing people for the first time in ages, but because I'm not sure how my body going to cope with walking around etc. I'm sure if I just pace myself I'll be fine but yeah tricky business, I'm not totally sure that this week will be worth while and I'll get much out of it. It'll be quite strange though because within myself I've changed my approach to the way I behave because I've had to and I've no idea if that'll apply to college as well or whether I'll be how I always was. I think I'm expecting myself to be quite reserved so I don't exert my chest to much.

I think I'll be OK but I just think its going to be odd.

Ben

Monday 5 July 2010

Get Featured UK

WOW WOW WOW

OK so on the 25th of June I pitched a concept to Gary (CheekTV) to have a blog which could help expose Youtube talent. The idea developed and developed, the original idea never intended to have a Youtube channel but I ended up thinking it would be the perfect base.
I've been part of a few collab channels (TheLoveHateSociety and RantTank) and under the guidance of Tino they both went well. They both slowly feel down. I think the reason is because you have to hope 5/7 people post videos on the day they're suppose to and if they forget it can throw it all up in the air so its difficult to manage.

Since my hospital experience I had a long time to think about where I was going and how I could change things for me and others. GetFeaturedUK (A name Jack Howard came up with) is exactly that; it can change things, not so much for me but for others!. I made it perfectly clear to Jack and Gary that I don't want to gain hundreds of subs for this. It's not about that, its about the people of Youtube. The makers and the viewers. As has been stated by a few people I firmly believe that Youtube's UK community fell down when they removed the featured section. It was a shame because people had aimed for it, when the aim was removed the attitude of 'why am I doing this' came about for many. I've had my run ins with Youtube and Youtubers but I'm still around now, the reason I get so frustrated is because I've always known what Youtube could do and the people on it have so much potential. Myles Dyer does things like Stickaid and raises lots of money through the help of Youtubers. the RNLI targetted Youtube for good. Lots of things can be achieved look at the gatherings that take place in the UK hundreds of people gather for social reasons, people spend a lot of money to attend and share an experience.
People have questioned the project because they know it'll be a lot of work. A lot of work which I'm prepared to put in. The project has received 200 emails with suggestions and questions. I love that people care.

The people who have been featured this week are doing fantastic from it. Each of them are gaining subscribers everyday. Subscribers that would never have found them without GetFeaturedUK. I've spoken to more people in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last year.
I want people to be excited about a video idea. In 2008 I was featured for a video that meant a lot to me. I'd just got back from my first gathering, and having that rush of knowing someone appreciated what I did and cared enough to show others my work was the best feeling I've had from my Youtube experience.

99% of the feedback has been positive. There's been lots of questions that I intend to answer in video form as well things like. 'I'm from the US can I get featured' or 'I'm from the US can I be part of the panel' these questions are been asked everyday so I intend to answer them.

UK videos can be featured at the moment and only UK videos. Obviously in the future we would LOVE to make it a global project this depends upon success' of the project.

ANYONE can be on the panel young or old UK or US anyone. We want to get views from people that aren't just from the UK and aren't just in the tight nit UK Community.

I could say much more so I'll most likely blog again on this soon.

Thank you so much for the support its been so unexpected and so brilliant it surpassed all of my expectations.

Ben
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If you've read this and have no idea what I'm talking about check out GetFeaturedUK here - http://www.youtube.com/GetFeaturedUK