Being everywhere

If you publish audio, video or photos on the web you will have to choose which site or service to use. The alternative is to just post them everywhere. Websites like Tubemogul allow you to upload videos to multiple sites at one with just one click of the mouse. The advantage is that you - in theory - reach more people. Some people hang out on YouTube while others frequent Vimeo and yet others use Viddler.

This "being everywhere" approach is what I use so far for IceScapes.tv. There are some drawbacks though. Sometimes you have to render your video in a different format because one of the sites doesn't accept the format you perfer. You might have to limit the length of the description of your video to the lowest common denominator. Some services accept more tags and keywords than others. The result is that you sometimes end up doing a quite a bit of extra work for each video.

So is it worth it? It depends... IceScapes.tv seems to get the most exposure and the most viewer comments on Vimeo so far. Some episodes occasionally get a few thousand views on one of the other sites, but then the next episode might get 2 views on that same site. I guess the conclusion is that you have to find the community that fits your content, and if you have some extra time on your hands, you can try to generate some extra exposure via other channels. On the other hand, I believe that social media and online sharing is going to shift from a numbers game (who has the most followers, the most views) to focusing on meaningful interactions. In that respect I'm tempted to ignore the viewer stats and just focus my energy on one or two platforms that generate some real interaction with the viewers.

What's your approach? Being everywhere or focus on a couple of sites that work for you? I'd love to hear your reaction the comments.